Day 162: Psalms 49-51

The Limits of Wealth, True Worship, and the Prayer for a Clean Heart

Psalm 49

1 Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,

2 both low and high, rich and poor together.

3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart shall utter understanding.

4 I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle on the harp.

5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

6 Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—

7 none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.

8 For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,

9 that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.

10 For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

11 Their graves are their homes forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves.

12 But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.

13 This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah.

14 They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.

15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.

16 Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

17 for when he dies he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him.

18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul—and men praise you when you do well for yourself—

19 he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.

20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the animals that perish.

Psalm 50

1 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.

2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.

3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.

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

5 “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.

7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.

8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.

9 I will take no bull out of your house, nor male goats out of your pens.

10 For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.

11 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.

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

13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.

15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

16 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,

17 since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?

18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.

19 You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.

20 You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.

21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.

22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.

23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

Psalm 51

1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.

4 Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

5 Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

11 Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you.

14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

15 Lord, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise.

16 For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.