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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.

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy,
    blot out my transgressions.(A)

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17 The sacrifice acceptable to God[a] is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 51.17 Or My sacrifice, O God,

A Call to Repentance

“Come, let us return to the Lord,
    for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
    he has struck down, and he will bind us up.(A)
After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.

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And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it.(A)

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The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’(A) 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’(B) 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”(C)

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Book IV

(Psalms 90–106)

Psalm 90

God’s Eternity and Human Frailty

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place[a]
    in all generations.(A)
Before the mountains were brought forth
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 90.1 Or our refuge