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Psalm 47

1  Clap your hands together, all you peoples; ♦︎
   O sing to God with shouts of joy.
2  For the Lord Most High is to be feared; ♦︎
   he is the great King over all the earth.
3  He subdued the peoples under us ♦︎
   and the nations under our feet.
4  He has chosen our heritage for us, ♦︎
   the pride of Jacob, whom he loves.
5  God has gone up with a merry noise, ♦︎
   the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.
6  O sing praises to God, sing praises; ♦︎
   sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7  For God is the King of all the earth; ♦︎
   sing praises with all your skill.
8  God reigns over the nations; ♦︎
   God has taken his seat upon his holy throne.
9  The nobles of the peoples are gathered together ♦︎
   with the people of the God of Abraham.
10  For the powers of the earth belong to God ♦︎
   and he is very highly exalted.

The Essence of the Law

12 So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God^* and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. ¹⁴Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, ¹⁵yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. ¹⁶Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. ¹⁷For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, ¹⁸who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. ¹⁹You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. ²²Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

5¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us^* and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Renounce Pagan Ways

3 But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. ⁴Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. ⁵Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷Therefore do not be associated with them. ⁸For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— ⁹for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. ¹⁰Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; ¹³but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
‘Sleeper, awake!
   Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.’