Beginning

^3 (1) God, in your grace, have mercy on me;
in your great compassion, blot out my crimes.
^4 (2) Wash me completely from my guilt,
and cleanse me from my sin.
^5 (3) For I know my crimes,
my sin confronts me all the time.

^6 (4) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil from your perspective;
so that you are right in accusing me
and justified in passing sentence.

^7 (5) True, I was born guilty,
was a sinner from the moment my mother conceived me.
^8 (6) Still, you want truth in the inner person;
so make me know wisdom in my inmost heart.

^9 (7) Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
^10 (8) Let me hear the sound of joy and gladness,
so that the bones you crushed can rejoice.
^11 (9) Turn away your face from my sins,
and blot out all my crimes.

^12 (10) Create in me a clean heart, God;
renew in me a resolute spirit.
^13 (11) Don’t thrust me away from your presence,
don’t take your Ruach Kodesh away from me.
^14 (12) Restore my joy in your salvation,
and let a willing spirit uphold me.
^15 (13) Then I will teach the wicked your ways,
and sinners will return to you.

^16 (14) Rescue me from the guilt of shedding blood,
God, God of my salvation!
Then my tongue will sing
about your righteousness —
^17 (15) Adonai, open my lips;
then my mouth will praise you.

^18 (16) For you don’t want sacrifices, or I would give them;
you don’t take pleasure in burnt offerings.
^19 (17) My sacrifice to God is a broken spirit;
God, you won’t spurn a broken, chastened heart.
^20 (18) In your good pleasure, make Tziyon prosper;
rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim.
^21 (19) Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then they will offer bulls on your altar.

52 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. A maskil of David, ² when Do’eg from Edom came and told Sha’ul, “David has arrived at the house of Achimelekh”:

^3 (1) Why do you boast of your evil, you tyrant,
when God’s mercy is present every day?
^4 (2) Your tongue, as sharp as a razor,
plots destruction and works deception.

^5 (3) You love evil more than good,
lies rather than speaking uprightly. (Selah)
^6 (4) You love all words that eat people up,
you deceitful tongue!

^7 (5) This is why God will strike you down,
seize you, pluck you from your tent
and uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

^8 (6) The righteous will see and be awestruck;
they will jeer at him, saying,
^9 (7) “This fellow would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in his own great wealth,
relying on his evil plots.”

^10 (8) But I am like a leafy olive tree
in the house of God;
I put my trust in the grace of God
forever and ever.

^11 (9) I will praise you forever for what you have done,
and I will put my hope in your name;
for this is what is good
in the presence of your faithful.

53 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. On machalat. A maskil of David:

^2 (1) A brutish fool tells himself,
“There isn’t any God.”
Such people are depraved, all their deeds are vile,
not one of them does what is good.
^3 (2) God looks out from heaven
upon the human race
to see if even one is wise,
if even one seeks God.
^4 (3) Every one of them is unclean,
altogether corrupt;
not one of them does what is good,
not a single one.

^5 (4) Won’t these evildoers ever learn?
They devour my people
as if they were eating bread,
and they never call on God!
^6 (5) They will be gripped with terror,
even though now they are not afraid;
for God will scatter the bones
of him who is besieging you.
You are putting them to shame,
because God has rejected them.

^7 (6) If only salvation for Isra’el
would come out of Tziyon!
When God restores his people’s fortunes,
what joy for Ya‘akov! what gladness for Isra’el!

54 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David, ² when the Zifim came and told Sha’ul, “David is hiding with us”:

^3 (1) God, deliver me by your name;
in your power, vindicate me.
^4 (2) God, hear my prayer;
listen to the words from my mouth.
^5 (3) For foreigners are rising against me,
violent men are seeking my life;
they give no thought to God. (Selah)

^6 (4) But God is helping me;
Adonai is my support.
^7 (5) May he repay the evil
to those who are lying in wait for me.
In your faithfulness, destroy them!
^8 (6) Then I will generously sacrifice to you;
I will praise your name, Adonai,
because it is good,
^9 (7) because he rescued me from all trouble,
and my eyes look with triumph at my enemies.
55 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David:

^2 (1) Listen, God, to my prayer!
Don’t hide yourself from my plea!
^3 (2) Pay attention to me, and answer me!

I am panic-stricken as I make my complaint,
I shudder ^4 (3) at how the enemy shouts,
at how the wicked oppress;
for they keep heaping trouble on me
and angrily tormenting me.
^5 (4) My heart within me is pounding in anguish,
the terrors of death press down on me,
^6 (5) fear and trembling overwhelm me,
horror covers me.

^7 (6) I said, “I wish I had wings like a dove!
Then I could fly away and be at rest.
^8 (7) Yes, I would flee to a place far off,
I would stay in the desert. (Selah)
^9 (8) I would quickly find me a shelter
from the raging wind and storm.”

^10 (9) Confuse, Adonai, confound their speech!
For I see violence and fighting in the city.
^11 (10) Day and night they go about its walls;
within are malice and mischief.
^12 (11) Ruin is rife within it,
oppression and fraud never leave its streets.

^13 (12) For it was not an enemy who insulted me;
if it had been, I could have borne it.
It was not my adversary who treated me with scorn;
if it had been, I could have hidden myself.
^14 (13) But it was you, a man of my own kind,
my companion, whom I knew well.

^15 (14) We used to share our hearts with each other;
in the house of God we walked with the crowd.

^16 (15) May he put death on them;
let them go down alive to Sh’ol;
for evil is in their homes
and also in their hearts.

^17 (16) But I will call on God,
and Adonai will save me.
^18 (17) Evening, morning and noon I complain
and moan; but he hears my voice.
^19 (18) He redeems me and gives me peace,
so that no one can come near me.
For there were many who fought me.
^20 (19) God will hear and will humble them,
yes, he who has sat on his throne from the start. (Selah)
For they never change,
and they don’t fear God.

^21 (20) [My companion] attacked those
who were at peace with him;
he broke his solemn word.
^22 (21) What he said sounded smoother than butter,
but his heart was at war.
His words seemed more soothing than oil,
but in fact they were sharp swords.

^23 (22) Unload your burden on Adonai,
and he will sustain you.
He will never permit
the righteous to be moved.

^24 (23) But you will bring them down, God,
into the deepest pit.
Those men, so bloodthirsty and treacherous,
will not live out half their days.

But for my part, [Adonai,]
I put my trust in you.

56 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. Set to “The Silent Dove in the Distance.” By David; a mikhtam, when the P’lishtim captured him in Gat:

^2 (1) Show me favor, God;
for people are trampling me down —
all day they fight and press on me.
^3 (2) Those who are lying in wait for me
would trample on me all day.
For those fighting against me are many.

Most High, ^4 (3) when I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
^5 (4) In God — I praise his word —
in God I trust; I have no fear;
what can human power do to me?
^6 (5) All day long they twist my words;
their only thought is to harm me.
^7 (6) They gather together and hide themselves,
spying on my movements, hoping to kill me.
^8 (7) Because of their crime, they cannot escape;
in anger, God, strike down the peoples.
^9 (8) You have kept count of my wanderings;
store my tears in your water-skin —
aren’t they already recorded in your book?
^10 (9) Then my enemies will turn back
on the day when I call;
this I know: that God is for me.

^11 (10) In God — I praise his word —
in Adonai — I praise his word —
^12 (11) in God I trust; I have no fear;
what can mere humans do to me?

^13 (12) God, I have made vows to you;
I will fulfill them with thank offerings to you.
^14 (13) For you rescued me from death,
you kept my feet from stumbling,
so that I can walk in God’s presence,
in the light of life.

57 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” By David, a mikhtam, when he fled from Sha’ul into the cave:

^2 (1) Show me favor, God, show me favor;
for in you I have taken refuge.
Yes, I will find refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the storms have passed.
^3 (2) I call to God, the Most High,
to God, who is accomplishing his purpose for me.

^4 (3) He will send from heaven and save me
when those who would trample me down mock me. (Selah)
God will send his grace and his truth.

^5 (4) I am surrounded by lions,
I am lying down among people breathing fire,
men whose teeth are spears and arrows
and their tongues sharp-edged swords.

^6 (5) Be exalted, God, above heaven!
May your glory be over all the earth!
^7 (6) They prepared a snare for my feet,
but I am bending over [to avoid it].
They dug a pit ahead of me,
but they fell into it themselves. (Selah)

^8 (7) My heart is steadfast, God, steadfast.
I will sing and make music.
^9 (8) Awake, my glory! Awake, lyre and lute!
I will awaken the dawn.

^10 (9) I will thank you, Adonai, among the peoples;
I will make music to you among the nations.
^11 (10) For your grace is great, all the way to heaven,
and your truth, all the way to the skies.

^12 (11) Be exalted, God, above heaven!
May your glory be over all the earth!