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Psalm 51

Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon

To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
   and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
   and blameless when you pass judgement.
⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty,
   a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being;^*
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right^* spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
   and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
   and sustain in me a willing^* spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
   O God of my salvation,
   and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you have no delight in sacrifice;
   if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased.
¹⁷ The sacrifice acceptable to God^* is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
   rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
¹⁹ then you will delight in right sacrifices,
   in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Psalm 52

Judgement on the Deceitful

To the leader. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.’
¹ Why do you boast, O mighty one,
   of mischief done against the godly?^*
   All day long ²you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
   you worker of treachery.
³ You love evil more than good,
   and lying more than speaking the truth.
          Selah
⁴ You love all words that devour,
   O deceitful tongue.

⁵ But God will break you down for ever;
   he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
   he will uproot you from the land of the living.
          Selah
⁶ The righteous will see, and fear,
   and will laugh at the evildoer,^* saying,
⁷ ‘See the one who would not take
   refuge in God,
but trusted in abundant riches,
   and sought refuge in wealth!’^*

⁸ But I am like a green olive tree
   in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
   for ever and ever.
⁹ I will thank you for ever,
   because of what you have done.
In the presence of the faithful
   I will proclaim^* your name, for it is good.

Psalm 53

Denunciation of Godlessness

To the leader: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
¹ Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’
   They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts;
   there is no one who does good.

² God looks down from heaven on humankind
   to see if there are any who are wise,
   who seek after God.

³ They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse;
   there is no one who does good,
   no, not one.

⁴ Have they no knowledge, those evildoers,
   who eat up my people as they eat bread,
   and do not call upon God?

⁵ There they shall be in great terror,
   in terror such as has not been.
For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly;^*
   they will be put to shame,^* for God has rejected them.

⁶ O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
   When God restores the fortunes of his people,
   Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.