I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.

There Is None Who Does Good

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of Asaph.

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

But you, O God my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!

He Heals the Brokenhearted

Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.

Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.

The Year of the Lord's Favor

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

“Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day.

Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

The Messenger of the Lord

You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.