Psalm 147:1-11

Common English Bible

Psalm 147

147 Praise the Lord!
Because it is good to sing praise to our God!
Because it is a pleasure to make beautiful praise!

²The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem, gathering up Israel’s exiles.
³God heals the brokenhearted
    and bandages their wounds.
⁴God counts the stars by number,
    giving each one a name.
⁵Our Lord is great and so strong!
    God’s knowledge can’t be grasped!
⁶The Lord helps the poor,
    but throws the wicked down on the dirt!

⁷Sing to the Lord with thanks;
    sing praises to our God with a lyre!
⁸God covers the skies with clouds;
    God makes rain for the earth;
God makes the mountains sprout green grass.
⁹    God gives food to the animals—
    even to the baby ravens when they cry out.
¹⁰God doesn’t prize the strength of a horse;
    God doesn’t treasure the legs of a runner.
¹¹No. The Lord treasures the people
who honor him,
    the people who wait for his faithful love.

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Revelation 7:9-8:1

Common English Bible

The great crowd and seventh seal

⁹After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰They cried out with a loud voice:

“Victory belongs to our God
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

¹¹All the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell facedown before the throne and worshipped God, ¹²saying,

“Amen! Blessing and glory
        and wisdom and thanksgiving
        and honor and power and might
            be to our God forever and always. Amen.”

¹³Then one of the elders said to me, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

Then he said to me, “These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. ¹⁵This is the reason they are before God’s throne. They worship him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. ¹⁶They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, ¹⁷because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water,^[a] and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” 8 ¹Then, when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.