Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 51
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
according to the abundance of Your compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Your sight,
so that You are justified when You speak,
and You are blameless when You judge.
5 I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part You make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones that You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a 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 uphold me with Your willing spirit.
15 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.
Yet you were not willing,
16 and you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”;
therefore you shall flee.
“And we will ride on swift horses”;
therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee
at the threat of one man;
at the threat of five
you shall flee
until you are left
as a flag on the top of a mountain
and as a banner on a hill.
God’s Promise to Zion
18 Therefore, the Lord longs to be gracious to you,
and therefore, He waits on high to have mercy on you;
for the Lord is a God of justice;
how blessed are all who long for Him.
4 Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest remains, let us fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word preached did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed have entered this rest, as He has said,
“As I have sworn in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”[a]
However, His works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For He spoke somewhere about the seventh day like this: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”[b] 5 And again in the present passage He said, “They shall not enter My rest.”[c]
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and they to whom it was first preached did not enter due to unbelief, 7 again He establishes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David, after so long a time, as it has been said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts.”[d]
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have later spoken of another day. 9 Therefore a rest remains for the people of God. 10 For whoever enters His rest will also cease from his own works, as God did from His. 11 Let us labor therefore to enter that rest, lest anyone fall by the same pattern of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 There is no creature that is not revealed in His sight, for all things are bare and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.