^49:14Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home.

^49:15But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah

^49:16Do not be afraid when some become rich, when the wealth of their houses increases.

^49:17For when they die they will carry nothing away; their wealth will not go down after them.

^49:18Though in their lifetime they count themselves happy —for you are praised when you do well for yourself—

^49:19they will go to the company of their ancestors, who will never again see the light.

^49:20Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish.

^50:0The Acceptable Sacrifice.
A Psalm of Asaph.

^50:1The mighty one, God the Lord , speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

^50:2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

^50:3Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him.

^50:4He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

^50:5“Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

^50:6The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah

^50:7“Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.

^50:8Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.

^50:9I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds.

^50:10For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

^50:11I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.

^50:12“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.

^50:13Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

^50:14Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.

^50:15Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

^50:16But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips?

^50:17For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.

^50:18You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers.

^50:19“You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.

^50:20You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother's child.

^50:21These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

^50:22“Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.

^50:23Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.”

^51:0Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon

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To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

^51:1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

^51:2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

^51:3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

^51:4Against 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 judgment.

^51:5Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

^51:6You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

^51:7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

^51:8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

^51:9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

^51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

^51:11Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

^51:12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

^51:13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

^51:14Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

^51:15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

^51:16For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

^51:17The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

^51:18Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,

^51:19then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

^52:0Judgment on the Deceitful

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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.”

^52:1Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long

^52:2you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.

^52:3You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah

^52:4You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.

^52:5But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

^52:6The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,

^52:7“See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”

^52:8But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

^52:9I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.

^53:0Denunciation of Godlessness.
To the leader: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

^53:1Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts; there is no one who does good.

^53:2God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.

^53:3They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.

^53:4Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?

^53:5There 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.

^53:6O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

^54:0Prayer for Vindication

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To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “David is in hiding among us.”

^54:1Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.

^54:2Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

^54:3For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah

^54:4But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

^54:5He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.

^54:6With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord , for it is good.

^54:7For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

^55:0Complaint about a Friend's Treachery.
To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

^55:1Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.

^55:2Attend to me, and answer me; I am troubled in my complaint. I am distraught

^55:3by the noise of the enemy, because of the clamor of the wicked. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me.

^55:4My heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

^55:5Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.

^55:6And I say, “O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;

^55:7truly, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah

^55:8I would hurry to find a shelter for myself from the raging wind and tempest.”

^55:9Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech; for I see violence and strife in the city.

^55:10Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;

^55:11ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.

^55:12It is not enemies who taunt me— I could bear that; it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me— I could hide from them.

^55:13But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend,

^55:14with whom I kept pleasant company; we walked in the house of God with the throng.

^55:15Let death come upon them; let them go down alive to Sheol; for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

^55:16But I call upon God, and the Lord will save me.

^55:17Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.

^55:18He will redeem me unharmed from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.

^55:19God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah will hear, and will humble them— because they do not change, and do not fear God.

^55:20My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me

^55:21with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war; with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.

^55:22Cast your burden on the Lord , and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

^55:23But you, O God, will cast them down into the lowest pit; the bloodthirsty and treacherous shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.