HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 877
PSAL M 54
page 507
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All day long you plot destruction.
Your tongue cuts like a sharp razor;
you’re an expert at telling lies.
You love evil more than good
and lies more than truth.
Interlude
You love to destroy others with your words,
you liar!
But God will strike you down once and
for all.
He will pull you from your home
and uproot you from the land of the
living.
Interlude
The righteous will see it and be amazed.
They will laugh and say,
“Look what happens to mighty warriors
who do not trust in God.
They trust their wealth instead
and grow more and more bold in their
wickedness.”
But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the
house of God.
I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.
I will praise you forever, O God,
for what you have done.
I will trust in your good name
in the presence of your faithful people.
53
For the choir director: A meditation;
a psalm* of David.
1
Only fools say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
not one of them does good!
2
God looks down from heaven
on the entire human race;
he looks to see if anyone is truly wise,
if anyone seeks God.
But no, all have turned away;
all have become corrupt.*
No one does good,
not a single one!
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Will those who do evil never learn?
They eat up my people like bread
and wouldn’t think of praying to God.
Terror will grip them,
terror like they have never known before.
God will scatter the bones of your enemies.
You will put them to shame, for God has
rejected them.
Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue
Israel?
When God restores his people,
Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel
will rejoice.
53:title Hebrew According to mahalath; a maskil. These may
be literary or musical terms. 53:3 Greek version reads have
become useless. Compare Rom 3:12. 54:title Hebrew maskil.
This may be a literary or musical term.
54
For the choir director: A psalm* of
David, regarding the time the Ziphites
came and said to Saul, “We know where David
is hiding.” To be accompanied by stringed
instruments.
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Come with great power, O God,
and rescue me!
Defend me with your might.
Listen to my prayer, O God.
Pay attention to my plea.
For strangers are attacking me;
violent people are trying to
kill me.
They care nothing for God.
Interlude
But God is my helper.
The Lord keeps me alive!
• Salvation
PS A LM 51:1-12
David had committed adultery and
murder (2 Samuel 11:1-17). In this psalm
he pleads with God to cleanse him from
sin’s stain. The image is not one of a
superficial wiping away but one of a
deep scrubbing of the soul. The result of
David’s confession is a heart made not
merely clean but white as snow and then
filled with the joy of salvation. Have you
ever wondered if God could forgive you?
David’s prayer assures us that no matter
how dark the stain, we can be made
white and pure by God’s forgiveness and
cleansing. Make this psalm your daily
prayer of personal confession.
• Abortion
PS A LM 51:5
The psalmist is not saying he sinned at
conception but that he was conceived
with the human bent toward sin, or
sinfulness. This suggests that the unborn
child has latent sinfulness throughout the
entire nine months of development and
is born a sinner. Some justify abortion by
claiming that the unborn child is not fully
a human being but only a physical body
in the early stages of development. But if
the unborn child exhibits human qualities,
suggesting that the child is truly a human
being, then abortion is murder. Here the
Bible seems quite clear that the unborn
child is human, for only human beings
are conceived with the human tendency
to sin.