A Prayer for Forgiveness+l

51 Be merciful to me, O God,

because of your constant love.

Because of your great mercy

wipe away my sins!

2 Wash away all my evil

and make me clean from my sin!

3 I recognize my faults;

I am always conscious of my sins.

4* I have sinned against you—only against you—

and done what you consider evil.

So you are right in judging me;

you are justified in condemning me.

5 I have been evil from the day I was born;

from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

6 Sincerity and truth are what you require;

fill my mind with your wisdom.

7 Remove my sin, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness;

and though you have crushed me and broken me,

I will be happy once again.

9 Close your eyes to my sins

and wipe out all my evil.

10 Create a pure heart in me, O God, and put a new and loyal spirit in me.

11 Do not banish me from your presence;

do not take your holy spirit away from me.

12 Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation,

and make me willing to obey you.

13 Then I will teach sinners your commands,

and they will turn back to you.

14 Spare my life, O God, and save me,m

and I will gladly proclaim your righteousness.

15 Help me to speak, Lord,

and I will praise you.

16 You do not want sacrifices,

or I would offer them;

you are not pleased with burnt offerings.

17 My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;

you will not reject a humble and repentant heart.

18 O God, be kind to Zion and help her;

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifices

and with our burnt offerings;

and bulls will be sacrificed on your altar.

God’s Judgement and Grace+n

52 Why do you boast, great one, of your evil?

God’s faithfulness is eternal.

2 You make plans to ruin others;

your tongue is like a sharp razor.

You are always inventing lies.

3 You love evil more than good

and falsehood more than truth.

4 You love to hurt people with your words, you liar!

5 So God will ruin you for ever;

he will take hold of you and snatch you from your home;

he will remove you from the world of the living.

6 Righteous people will see this and be afraid;

then they will laugh at you and say,

7 “Look, here is someone who did not depend on God for safety,

but trusted instead in his great wealth

and looked for security in being wicked.”

8 But I am like an olive tree growing in the house of God;

I trust in his constant love for ever and ever.

9 I will always thank you, God, for what you have done;

in the presence of your people

I will proclaim that you are good.

The Wickedness of Men

(Ps 14)o

53 * Fools say to themselves,

“There is no God.”

They are all corrupt,

and they have done terrible things;

there is no one who does what is right.

2* God looks down from heaven at the human race

to see if there are any who are wise,

any who worship him.

3* But they have all turned away;

they are all equally bad. Not one of them does what is right,

not a single one.

4 “Don’t they know?” God asks.

“Are these evildoers ignorant?

They live by robbing my people,

and they never pray to me.”

5 But then they will be terrified,

as they have never been before,

for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people.

God has rejected them,

and so Israel will totally defeat them.

6 How I pray that victory

will come to Israel from Zion.

How happy the people of Israel will be

when God makes them prosperous again!

A Prayer for Protection from Enemies+p

54 Save me by your power, O God;

set me free by your might!

2 Hear my prayer, O God;

listen to my words!

3 Proud men are coming to attack me;

cruel men are trying to kill me—

men who do not care about God.

4 But God is my helper.

The Lord is my defender.

5 May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.

He will destroy them because he is faithful.

6 I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O Lord;

I will give you thanks

because you are good.

7 You have rescued me from all my troubles,

and I have seen my enemies defeated.

The Prayer of a Man Betrayed by a Friendq

55 Hear my prayer, O God;

don’t turn away from my plea!

2 Listen to me and answer me;

I am worn out by my worries.

3 I am terrified by the threats of my enemies,

crushed by the oppression of the wicked.

They bring trouble on me;

they are angry with me and hate me.

4 I am terrified,

and the terrors of death crush me.

5 I am gripped by fear and trembling;

I am overcome with horror.

6 I wish I had wings, like a dove.

I would fly away and find rest.

7 I would fly far away

and make my home in the desert.

8 I would quickly find myself a shelter

from the raging wind and the storm.

9 Confuse the speech of my enemies, O Lord!

I see violence and riots in the city,

10 surrounding it day and night, filling it with crime and trouble.

11 There is destruction everywhere;

the streets are full of oppression and fraud.

12 If it were an enemy that mocked me,

I could endure it;

if it were an opponent boasting over me,

I could hide myself from him.

13 But it is you, my companion,

my colleague and close friend.

14 We had intimate talks with each other

and worshipped together in the Temple.

15 May my enemies die before their time;

may they go down alive into the world of the dead!

Evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

16 But I call to the Lord God for help,

and he will save me.

17 Morning, noon, and night

my complaints and groans go up to him,

and he will hear my voice.

18 He will bring me safely back

from the battles that I fight

against so many enemies.

19 God, who has ruled from eternity,

will hear me and defeat them;

for they refuse to change,

and they do not fear him.

20 My former companion attacked his friends;

he broke his promises.

21 His words were smoother than cream,

but there was hatred in his heart;

his words were as soothing as oil,

but they cut like sharp swords.

22 Leave your troubles with the Lord,

and he will defend you;

he never lets honest people be defeated.

23 But you, O God, will bring those murderers and liars to their graves

before half their life is over.

As for me, I will trust in you.