The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned among the cherubim. Let the earth be moved. The LORD is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is Holy! The King’s strength also loves justice. You establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.

A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the LORD.

Hear my prayer, LORD! Let my cry come to you. Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call. For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places. I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?

When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams? You little hills, like lambs? Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.

Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will stand up for me against the evildoers? Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul would have soon lived in silence. When I said, “My foot is slipping!” Your loving kindness, LORD, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul. Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD has been my high tower, my God, the rock of my refuge. He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.

Ascribe to the LORD, you families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is also established. It can’t be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy before the LORD; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.

He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders. He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land. He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country. He spoke, and the locusts came with the grasshoppers, without number. They ate up every plant in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground. He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood. He brought them out with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.

Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house. His righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment.

The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them.

Praise the LORD, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise him. The LORD builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. The LORD upholds the humble. He brings the wicked down to the ground.