Psalms · 19 verses

Psalms 51

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

In this psalm, God takes no pleasure in sacrifice—until Zion prospers and Jerusalem’s walls are built, when bulls return to the altar.

A prayer with bones in itvv. 1–15

David begins by asking mercy, cleansing, and a heart remade from within. The prayer is wonderfully physical: sin is washed away, a face is hidden, and even crushed bones are summoned to rejoice. Once restored, the speaker promises to teach transgressors, sing of righteousness, and have his lips opened for praise.

The sacrifice that returnsvv. 16–19

Then the psalm puts sacrifice aside: burnt offerings are not what God desires, while a broken and contrite heart is not despised. Yet the final movement brings the altar back into view. When Zion prospers and Jerusalem’s walls are built, righteous sacrifices and whole burnt offerings will once again please God, with bulls waiting in the wings.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Ps 51:1For 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.
Ps 51:2Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Ps 51:3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Ps 51:4Against 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.
Ps 51:5Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Ps 51:6Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Ps 51:7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Ps 51:8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
Ps 51:9Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Ps 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Ps 51:11Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Ps 51:12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Ps 51:13Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.
Ps 51:14Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.
Ps 51:15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.
Ps 51:16For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.
Ps 51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Ps 51:18In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Ps 51:19Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 337 passages were voted onto 19 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

10 Ezekiel 11:19And 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,
10 2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!
10 Ephesians 4:22–24to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
10 Matthew 5:8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
10 Romans 12:2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
10 Acts 15:9He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts by faith.
10 Titus 3:5He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
10 Jeremiah 32:39I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
10 Proverbs 20:9Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?
10 Psalms 24:4He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
17 Psalms 34:18The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
1 Acts 3:19Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
10 Colossians 3:10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
1 Isaiah 44:22I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
17 Isaiah 66:2Has 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.
10 James 1:8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Onward

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