The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 Generous in love - God, give grace! Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record.
1
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.
2
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down.
3
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.
4
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born.
5
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
6
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
7
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.
8
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.
9
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.
11
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!
12
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.
13
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
14
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.
15
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.
16
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice.
17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Make Zion the place you delight in, repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.
18
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 Then you'll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and large, Including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!
19
then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.