The Living Bible (193 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
I bless the holy name of God with all my heart.
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Yes, I will bless the Lord and not forget the glorious things he does for me.
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He forgives all my sins. He heals me.
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He ransoms me from hell. He surrounds me with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
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He fills my life with good things! My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
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He gives justice to all who are treated unfairly.
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He revealed his will and nature to Moses and the people of Israel.
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He is merciful and tender toward those who don’t deserve it; he is slow to get angry and full of kindness and love.
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He never bears a grudge, nor remains angry forever.
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He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins,
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for his mercy toward those who fear and honor him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
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He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.
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He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence him.
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For he knows we are but dust
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and that our days are few and brief, like grass, like flowers,
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blown by the wind and gone forever.
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But the loving-kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to those who reverence him; his salvation is to children’s children of those who are faithful to his covenant and remember to obey him!
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The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything there is.
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Bless the Lord, you mighty angels of his who carry out his orders, listening for each of his commands.
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Yes, bless the Lord, you armies of his angels who serve him constantly.
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Let everything everywhere bless the Lord. And how I bless him too!
I bless the Lord: O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and with majesty and light! You stretched out the starry curtain of the heavens,
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and hollowed out the surface of the earth to form the seas. The clouds are his chariots. He rides upon the wings of the wind.
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The angels
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are his messengers—his servants of fire!
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You bound the world together so that it would never fall apart.
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You clothed the earth with floods of waters covering up the mountains.
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You spoke, and at the sound of your shout the water collected into its vast ocean beds, and mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed.
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And then you set a boundary for the seas so that they would never again cover the earth.
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He placed springs in the valleys and streams that gush from the mountains.
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They give water for all the animals to drink. There the wild donkeys quench their thirst,
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and the birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees.
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He sends rain upon the mountains and fills the earth with fruit.
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The tender grass grows up at his command to feed the cattle, and there are fruit trees, vegetables, and grain for man to cultivate,
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and wine to make him glad, and olive oil as lotion for his skin, and bread to give him strength.
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The Lord planted the cedars of Lebanon. They are tall and flourishing.
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There the birds make their nests, the storks in the firs.
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High in the mountains are pastures for the wild goats, and rock badgers burrow in among the rocks and find protection there.
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He assigned the moon to mark the months and the sun to mark the days.
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He sends the night and darkness, when all the forest folk come out.
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Then the young lions roar for their food, but they are dependent on the Lord.
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At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest,
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and men go off to work until the evening shadows fall again.
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O Lord, what a variety you have made! And in wisdom you have made them all! The earth is full of your riches.
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There before me lies the mighty ocean, teeming with life of every kind, both great and small.
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And look! See the ships! And over there, the whale you made to play in the sea.
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Every one of these depends on you to give them daily food.
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You supply it, and they gather it. You open wide your hand to feed them, and they are satisfied with all your bountiful provision.
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But if you turn away from them, then all is lost. And when you gather up their breath, they die and turn again to dust.
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Then you send your Spirit, and new life is born
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to replenish all the living of the earth.
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Praise God forever! How he must rejoice in all his work!
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The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains burst into flame at his touch.
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I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will praise God to my last breath!
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May he be pleased by all these thoughts about him, for he is the source of all my joy.
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Let all sinners perish—all who refuse to praise him. But I will praise him. Hallelujah!
Thank the Lord for all the glorious things he does; proclaim them to the nations.
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Sing his praises and tell everyone about his miracles.
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Glory in the Lord; O worshipers of God, rejoice.
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Search for him and for his strength, and keep on searching!
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Think of the mighty deeds he did for us, his chosen ones—descendants of God’s servant Abraham, and of Jacob. Remember how he destroyed our enemies.
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He is the Lord our God. His goodness
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is seen everywhere throughout the land.
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Though a thousand generations pass he never forgets his promise, his covenant with Abraham and Isaac
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and confirmed with Jacob. This is his never-ending treaty with the people of Israel:
“I will give you the land of Canaan as your inheritance.”
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He said this when they were but few in number, very few, and were only visitors in Canaan.
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Later they were dispersed among the nations and were driven from one kingdom to another;
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but through it all he would not let one thing be done to them apart from his decision.
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He destroyed many a king who tried!
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“Touch not these chosen ones of mine,” he warned, “and do not hurt my prophets.”
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He called for a famine on the land of Canaan, cutting off its food supply.
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Then he sent Joseph as a slave to Egypt to save his people from starvation.
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There in prison they hurt his feet with fetters and placed his neck in an iron collar
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until God’s time finally came—how God tested his patience!
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Then the king sent for him and set him free.
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He was put in charge of all the king’s possessions.
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At his pleasure he could imprison the king’s aides and teach the king’s advisors.
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Then Jacob (Israel) arrived in Egypt and lived there with his sons.
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In the years that followed, the people of Israel multiplied explosively until they were a greater nation than their rulers.
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At that point God turned the Egyptians against the Israelis; they hated and enslaved them.
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But God sent Moses as his representative, and Aaron with him,
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to call down miracles of terror upon the land of Egypt.
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They
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followed his instructions. He sent thick darkness through the land
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and turned the nation’s water into blood, poisoning the fish.
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Then frogs invaded in enormous numbers; they were found even in the king’s private rooms.
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When Moses spoke, the flies and other insects swarmed in vast clouds from one end of Egypt to the other.
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Instead of rain he sent down murderous hail, and lightning flashes overwhelmed the nation.
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Their grapevines and fig trees were ruined; all the trees lay broken on the ground.
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He spoke, and hordes of locusts came
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and ate up everything green, destroying all the crops.
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Then he killed the oldest child in each Egyptian home, their pride and joy—
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and brought his people safely out from Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; there were no sick and feeble folk among them then.
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Egypt was glad when they were gone, for the dread of them was great.
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He spread out a cloud above them to shield them from the burning sun and gave them a pillar of flame at night to give them light.
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They asked for meat, and he sent them quail and gave them manna—bread from heaven.
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He opened up a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry and barren land;
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for he remembered his sacred promises to Abraham his servant.
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So he brought his chosen ones singing into the Promised Land.
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He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, complete with their growing crops; they ate what others planted.
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This was done to make them faithful and obedient to his laws. Hallelujah!