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The Law and Sacrifices

35One who keeps the law makes many offerings;
²   one who heeds the commandments makes an offering of well-being.
³ One who returns a kindness offers choice flour,
⁴   and one who gives alms sacrifices a thank-offering.
⁵ To keep from wickedness is pleasing to the Lord,
   and to forsake unrighteousness is an atonement.
⁶ Do not appear before the Lord empty-handed,
⁷   for all that you offer is in fulfilment of the commandment.
⁸ The offering of the righteous enriches the altar,
   and its pleasing odour rises before the Most High.
⁹ The sacrifice of the righteous is acceptable,
   and it will never be forgotten.
¹⁰ Be generous when you worship the Lord,
   and do not stint the first fruits of your hands.
¹¹ With every gift show a cheerful face,
   and dedicate your tithe with gladness.
¹² Give to the Most High as he has given to you,
   and as generously as you can afford.

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.’

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ ²⁹Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news,^{* 30}who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’