The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the council of the upright, and in the congregation. The LORD’s works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them. His work is honor and majesty. His righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. The LORD is gracious and merciful. He has given food to those who fear him. He always remembers his covenant.

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, my soul. While I live, I will praise the LORD. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist. Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.

He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies. He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons, until the time that his word happened, and the LORD’s word proved him true. The king sent and freed him, even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions, to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.

Praise the LORD! Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the LORD’s name. Blessed be the LORD’s name, from this time forward and forever more. From the rising of the sun to its going down, the LORD’s name is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens.

For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song.

May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah. That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations, let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you. Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us. God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him.

Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before the LORD, our Maker, for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice! Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work. Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “They are a people who err in their heart. They have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”

“We will go into his dwelling place. We will worship at his footstool.” Arise, LORD, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy! For your servant David’s sake, don’t turn away the face of your anointed one. The LORD has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne. If your children will keep my covenant, my testimony that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne forever more.”

He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends out his commandment to the earth. His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool, and scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them. He causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow. He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!

They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips. They didn’t destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood. Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds. Therefore the LORD burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance.

A Song of Ascents.

Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say: many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long. The LORD is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked. Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper doesn’t fill his hand, nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom. Neither do those who go by say, “The blessing of the LORD be on you. We bless you in the LORD’s name.”