³ I recognize my faults;
    I am always conscious of my sins.
^4 (B)I have sinned against you—only against you—
    and done what you consider evil.
So you are right in judging me;
    you are justified in condemning me.
⁵ I have been evil from the day I was born;
    from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

⁶ Sincerity and truth are what you require;
    fill my mind with your wisdom.
⁷ Remove my sin, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness;
    and though you have crushed me and broken me,
    I will be happy once again.
⁹ Close your eyes to my sins
    and wipe out all my evil.

¹⁰ Create a pure heart in me, O God,
    and put a new and loyal spirit in me.
¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence;
    do not take your holy spirit away from me.
¹² Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation,
    and make me willing to obey you.
¹³ Then I will teach sinners your commands,
    and they will turn back to you.

¹⁴ Spare my life, O God, and save me,^[b]
    and I will gladly proclaim your righteousness.
¹⁵ Help me to speak, Lord,
    and I will praise you.

¹⁶ You do not want sacrifices,
    or I would offer them;
you are not pleased with burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;
    you will not reject a humble and repentant heart.

¹⁸ O God, be kind to Zion and help her;
    rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifices
    and with our burnt offerings;
    and bulls will be sacrificed on your altar.

³ Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
    He made us, and we belong to him;
    we are his people, we are his flock.

⁴ Enter the Temple gates with thanksgiving;
    go into its courts with praise.
    Give thanks to him and praise him.

^5 (A)The Lord is good;
    his love is eternal
    and his faithfulness lasts forever.

⁶ The Lord judges in favor of the oppressed
    and gives them their rights.
⁷ He revealed his plans to Moses
    and let the people of Israel see his mighty deeds.
^8 (A)The Lord is merciful and loving,
    slow to become angry and full of constant love.
⁹ He does not keep on rebuking;
    he is not angry forever.
¹⁰ He does not punish us as we deserve
    or repay us according to our sins and wrongs.
¹¹ As high as the sky is above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who honor him.
¹² As far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our sins from us.
¹³ As a father is kind to his children,
    so the Lord is kind to those who honor him.
¹⁴ He knows what we are made of;
    he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for us, our life is like grass.
We grow and flourish like a wild flower;
¹⁶     then the wind blows on it, and it is gone—
    no one sees it again.
¹⁷ But for those who honor the Lord, his love lasts forever,
    and his goodness endures for all generations
¹⁸ of those who are true to his covenant
    and who faithfully obey his commands.

¹⁹ The Lord placed his throne in heaven;
    he is king over all.
²⁰ Praise the Lord, you strong and mighty angels,
    who obey his commands,
    who listen to what he says.
²¹ Praise the Lord, all you heavenly powers,
    you servants of his, who do his will!
²² Praise the Lord, all his creatures
    in all the places he rules.
Praise the Lord, my soul!

⁷ Where could I go to escape from you?
    Where could I get away from your presence?
⁸ If I went up to heaven, you would be there;
    if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.
⁹ If I flew away beyond the east
    or lived in the farthest place in the west,
¹⁰ you would be there to lead me,
    you would be there to help me.
¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me
    or the light around me to turn into night,
¹² but even darkness is not dark for you,
    and the night is as bright as the day.
    Darkness and light are the same to you.

¹³ You created every part of me;
    you put me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because you are to be feared;
    all you do is strange and wonderful.
    I know it with all my heart.
¹⁵ When my bones were being formed,
    carefully put together in my mother's womb,
when I was growing there in secret,
    you knew that I was there—
¹⁶     you saw me before I was born.
The days allotted to me
    had all been recorded in your book,
    before any of them ever began.
^17 (A)O God, how difficult I find your thoughts;^[b]
    how many of them there are!
¹⁸ If I counted them, they would be more than the grains of sand.
    When I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ O God, how I wish you would kill the wicked!
    How I wish violent people would leave me alone!
²⁰ They say wicked things about you;
    they speak evil things against your name.^[c]
21 O Lord, how I hate those who hate you!
    How I despise those who rebel against you!
²² I hate them with a total hatred;
    I regard them as my enemies.

²³ Examine me, O God, and know my mind;
    test me, and discover my thoughts.
²⁴ Find out if there is any evil in me
    and guide me in the everlasting way.^[d]