The renormalization factor relating the bare to the renormalization group invariant quark masses is accurately calculated in quenched lattice QCD using a recursive finite-size technique. The result is presented in the form of a product of a universal factor times another factor, which depends on the details of the lattice theory but is easy to compute, since it does not involve any large scale differences. As a byproduct the Lambda-parameter of the theory is obtained with a total error of 8%. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.