SOTD Psalm 54

Psalm 54

The Lord Upholds My Life

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”

¹O God, save me by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
²O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.

³ For strangers have risen against me;
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves.
Selah

⁴Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
⁵He will return the evil to my enemies;
in your faithfulness put an end to them.

⁶With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.
⁷For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

SOTD Psalm 53

Psalm 53

There Is None Who Does Good

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.

²God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

³They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

⁴Have those who work evil no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon God?

⁵There they are, in great terror,
where there is no terror!
For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

⁶Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

SOTD Psalm 52

Psalm 52

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

¹Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
²Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
³You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking what is right.
Selah

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

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

⁶The righteous shall see and fear,
and shall laugh at him, saying,
⁷“See the man who would not make
God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

⁸But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
⁹I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.

SOTD Psalm 51

Psalm 51

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

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

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken 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 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

SOTD Psalm 50

Psalm 50

God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ The Mighty One, God the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.

³Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
before him is a devouring fire,
around him a mighty tempest.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵“Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge!
Selah

⁷ “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
⁸Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹²“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

¹⁶But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷ For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother’s son.
²¹These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

²²“Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
²³The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”

SOTD Psalm 49

Psalm 49

Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹ Hear this, all peoples!
Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
² both low and high,
rich and poor together!
³My mouth shall speak wisdom;
the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

⁵ Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
⁶those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
⁷Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
⁸for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
⁹that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.

¹⁰For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
¹¹Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.
¹²Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
yet after them people approve of their boasts.
Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
¹⁵But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me.
Selah

¹⁶Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
when the glory of his house increases.
¹⁷ For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
his glory will not go down after him.
¹⁸For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
¹⁹his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
who will never again see light.
²⁰ Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

SOTD Psalm 48

Psalm 48

Zion, the City of Our God

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹ Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, ² beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
³Within her citadels God
has made himself known as a fortress.

⁴For behold, the kings assembled;
they came on together.
⁵As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
they were in panic; they took to flight.
⁶ Trembling took hold of them there,
anguish as of a woman in labor.
⁷By the east wind you shattered
the ships of Tarshish.
⁸As we have heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts,
in the city of our God,
which God will establish forever.
Selah

⁹We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple.
¹⁰As your name, O God,
so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments!

¹²Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
¹³consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
¹⁴that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever.

SOTD Psalm 47

Psalm 47

God Is King over All the Earth

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹ Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
²For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
³He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
⁴He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves.
Selah

⁵God has gone up with a shout,
the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
⁷For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!

⁸God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
⁹ The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted!