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Psalm 50

The Acceptable Sacrifice

A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ The mighty one, God the Lord,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
   God shines forth.

³ Our God comes and does not keep silence,
   before him is a devouring fire,
   and a mighty tempest all around him.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above
   and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ ‘Gather to me my faithful ones,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’
⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness,
   for God himself is judge.
          Selah

⁷ ‘Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
   O Israel, I will testify against you.
   I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
   your burnt-offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house,
   or goats from your folds.
¹⁰ For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
   the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know all the birds of the air,^*
   and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹² ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
   for the world and all that is in it is mine.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
   or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,^*
   and pay your vows to the Most High.
¹⁵ Call on me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.’

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says:
   ‘What right have you to recite my statutes,
   or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷ For you hate discipline,
   and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸ You make friends with a thief when you see one,
   and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹ ‘You give your mouth free rein for evil,
   and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰ You sit and speak against your kin;
   you slander your own mother’s child.
²¹ These things you have done and I have been silent;
   you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

²² ‘Mark this, then, you who forget God,
   or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.
²³ Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me;
   to those who go the right way^*
   I will show the salvation of God.’

Psalm 147

Praise for God’s Care for Jerusalem

¹ Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
   for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
   he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the broken-hearted,
   and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars;
   he gives to all of them their names.
⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
   his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶ The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
   he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
   make melody to our God on the lyre.
⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds,
   prepares rain for the earth,
   makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He gives to the animals their food,
   and to the young ravens when they cry.
¹⁰ His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
   nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;^*
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
   in those who hope in his steadfast love.