841 What a beautiful home, God of the Angel Armies! I've always longed to live in a place like this, 2 Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive! 3 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there. They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship. God of the Angel Armies! King! God! 4 How blessed they are to live and sing there! 5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; 6 They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! 7 God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn - Zion! God in full view!
8 God of the Angel Armies, listen: O God of Jacob, open your ears - I'm praying! 9 Look at our shields, glistening in the sun, our faces, shining with your gracious anointing. 10 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I'd rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin. 11 All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn't scrimp with his traveling companions. 12 It's smooth sailing all the way with God of the Angel Armies.
851 God, you smiled on your good earth! You brought good times back to Jacob! 2 You lifted the cloud of guilt from your people, you put their sins far out of sight. 3 You took back your sin-provoked threats, you cooled your hot, righteous anger. 4 Help us again, God of our help; don't hold a grudge against us forever. 5 You aren't going to keep this up, are you? scowling and angry, year after year? 6 Why not help us make a fresh start - a resurrection life? Then your people will laugh and sing! 7 Show us how much you love us, God! Give us the salvation we need!
8 I can't wait to hear what he'll say. God's about to pronounce his people well, The holy people he loves so much, so they'll never again live like fools. 9 See how close his salvation is to those who fear him? Our country is home base for Glory! 10 Love and Truth meet in the street, Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss! 11 Truth sprouts green from the ground, Right Living pours down from the skies! 12 Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty; our land responds with Bounty and Blessing. 13 Right Living strides out before him, and clears a path for his passage.
861 Bend an ear, God; answer me. I'm one miserable wretch! 2 Keep me safe - haven't I lived a good life? Help your servant - I'm depending on you! 3 You're my God; have mercy on me. I count on you from morning to night. 4 Give your servant a happy life; I put myself in your hands! 5 You're well-known as good and forgiving, bighearted to all who ask for help. 6 Pay attention, God, to my prayer; bend down and listen to my cry for help. 7 Every time I'm in trouble I call on you, confident that you'll answer.
8 There's no one quite like you among the gods, O Lord, and nothing to compare with your works. 9 All the nations you made are on their way, ready to give honor to you, O Lord, Ready to put your beauty on display, 10 parading your greatness, And the great things you do - God, you're the one, there's no one but you! 11 Train me, God, to walk straight; then I'll follow your true path. Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I'll worship in joyful fear. 12 From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord; I've never kept secret what you're up to. 13 You've always been great toward me - what love! You snatched me from the brink of disaster! 14 God, these bullies have reared their heads! A gang of thugs is after me - and they don't care a thing about you. 15 But you, O God, are both tender and kind, not easily angered, immense in love, and you never, never quit. 16 So look me in the eye and show kindness, give your servant the strength to go on, save your dear, dear child! 17 Make a show of how much you love me so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed, As you, God, gently and powerfully put me back on my feet.
121 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. 4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. 5 The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, 6 let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't. If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; 7 if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; 8 if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. 9 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. 10 Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. 11 Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, 12 cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. 13 Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. 14 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. 15 Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. 16 Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody. 17 Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. 18 If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. 19 Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." 20 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. 21 Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.
