Psalm 48 ¹Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. ²Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. ³God is known in her palaces for a refuge. ⁴For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. ⁵They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. ⁶Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. ⁷Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. ⁸As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah. ⁹We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. ¹⁰According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. ¹¹Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. ¹²Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. ¹³Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. ¹⁴For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

¹Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: ²Both low and high, rich and poor, together. ³My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. ⁴I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. ⁵Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? ⁶They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; ⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: ⁸(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) ⁹That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. ¹⁰For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. ¹¹Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. ¹²Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. ¹³This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. ¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. ¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. ¹⁶Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; ¹⁷For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. ¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. ¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. ²⁰Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

¹The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. ²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. ³Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. ⁴He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. ⁵Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. ⁶And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah. ⁷Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. ⁸I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. ⁹I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. ¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. ¹¹I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. ¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. ¹³Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: ¹⁵And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. ¹⁶But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? ¹⁷Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee. ¹⁸When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. ¹⁹Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. ²⁰Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. ²¹These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. ²²Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. ²³Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

¹Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. ²Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. ³For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. ⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. ⁵Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. ⁶Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. ⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. ⁹Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. ¹²Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. ¹³Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. ¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. ¹⁵O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. ¹⁶For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. ¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. ¹⁸Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.