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Psalm 51

1  Have mercy on me, O God, in your great goodness; ♦︎
   according to the abundance of your compassion
      blot out my offences.
2  Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness ♦︎
   and cleanse me from my sin.
3  For I acknowledge my faults ♦︎
   and my sin is ever before me.
4  Against you only have I sinned ♦︎
   and done what is evil in your sight,
5  So that you are justified in your sentence ♦︎
   and righteous in your judgement.
6  I have been wicked even from my birth, ♦︎
   a sinner when my mother conceived me.
7  Behold, you desire truth deep within me ♦︎
   and shall make me understand wisdom
      in the depths of my heart.
8  Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; ♦︎
   wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
9  Make me hear of joy and gladness, ♦︎
   that the bones you have broken may rejoice.
10  Turn your face from my sins ♦︎
   and blot out all my misdeeds.
11  Make me a clean heart, O God, ♦︎
   and renew a right spirit within me.
12  Cast me not away from your presence ♦︎
   and take not your holy spirit from me.

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
   in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
But you refused ¹⁶and said,
‘No! We will flee upon horses’—
   therefore you shall flee!
and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’—
   therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
¹⁷ A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
   at the threat of five you shall flee,
until you are left
   like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
   like a signal on a hill.

God’s Promise to Zion

¹⁸ Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
   therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
   blessed are all those who wait for him.

The Rest That God Promised

4Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{* 3}For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God^* has said,
‘As in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest” ’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. ⁴For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ ⁵And again in this place it says, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ⁶Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷again he sets a certain day—‘today’—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.’
⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God^* would not speak later about another day. ⁹So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; ¹⁰for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. ¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.