Псалтирь 15:2

Look at what's happening in this line: David isn't reciting a creed, he's remembering a moment when he said something out loud — "Я сказал Господу." This is a decision he made and spoke, not just a feeling he had. The first half is simple: "Ты — Господь мой." You are my Master. My King. Not one option among several, but mine, exclusively.

Then comes the strange, almost startling second half: "блага мои Тебе не нужны" — my good things are not needed by You. Sit with that for a second. David isn't saying "I have nothing good to offer." He's saying something more unsettling: whatever good he has — his obedience, his worship, his loyalty, his sacrifices — none of it adds anything to God. God isn't hungry for what David brings to the table. This is actually one of the hardest phrases in the Hebrew Bible to translate cleanly — some translations (like the English ESV) render it "I have no good apart from you," which flips the emphasis: instead of "God doesn't need my goods," it becomes "God is my only source of good." Both readings sit in the Hebrew text's ambiguity, and Christians have genuinely disagreed on which one the poet intended. The Russian Synodal follows the older