Psalms 51:1-9

¹(52) For the end, a Psalm of instruction by David, when Doec the Idumean came and told Saul, and said to him, David is gone to the house of Abimelech. Why do you, O mighty man, boast of iniquity in your mischief? All the day

²your tongue has devised unrighteousness; like a sharpened razor you have wrought deceit.

³You have loved wickedness more than goodness; unrighteousness better than to speak righteousness. Pause.

⁴You have loved all words of destruction, and a deceitful tongue.

⁵Therefore may God destroy you for ever, may he pluck you up and utterly remove you from your dwelling, and your root from the land of the living. Pause.

⁶And the righteous shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say,

⁷Behold the man who made not God his help; but trusted in the abundance of his wealth, and strengthened himself in his vanity.

⁸But I am as a fruitful olive in the house of God: I have trusted in the mercy of God for ever, even for evermore.

⁹I will give thanks to you for ever, for you have done it: and I will wait on your name; for it is good before the saints.