The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has revived me. The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from your law. I remember your ordinances of old, LORD, and have comforted myself. Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live. I have remembered your name, LORD, in the night, and I obey your law. This is my way, that I keep your precepts.

How I love your law! It is my meditation all day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe your word. I have not turned away from your ordinances, for you have taught me. How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them. The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for your commandments. Turn to me, and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name. Establish my footsteps in your word. Don’t let any iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from the oppression of man, so I will observe your precepts. Make your face shine on your servant. Teach me your statutes. Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his loving kindness endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his loving kindness endures forever; to him who alone does great wonders, for his loving kindness endures forever; to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his loving kindness endures forever; to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his loving kindness endures forever;

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?

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.

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his Anointed, saying, “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath: “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”

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.