Psalm 51
David's great penitential psalm after his sin with Bathsheba. He pleads for mercy and a clean heart, acknowledging his sin is against God alone. He asks God to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit. Broken and contrite hearts God will not despise.
PsalmsPsalm 51 of 15019 versesBerean Standard Bible
In this passage: Jerusalem
If God speaks to you through Psalm 51, record what He said in Doxa and come back to it.
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
So you are right when you speak, justified when you judge
“Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.””
Read Romans 3:4›Paul quotes David's confession after his greatest failure: 'So that you may be proved right when you speak.' Even our failures prove God's faithfulness.
“Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.””
Read Romans 3:4›Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.
Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.
For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Read next
Best Prayer Apps 2026: Hallow, Pray.com, PrayerMate & Doxa TestedWhere to keep your prayers, the answers to them, and your testimonies, compared app by app.Cross-references for Psalm 51
“Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,”
“And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,”
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!”
“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.”
“Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.”
Cross-references from OpenBible.info, licensed CC BY.
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If God speaks to you through Psalm 51
Doxa is where you record what God has said to you, in the words it came in, weigh it against Scripture with people you trust, and come back to it in the years that follow.
