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They took the Covenant Box to the tent which David had prepared for it and put it inside. Then they offered sacrifices and fellowship offerings to God.
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After David had finished offering the sacrifices, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD
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and distributed food to them all. He gave each man and woman in Israel a loaf of bread, a piece of roasted meat, and some raisins.
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David appointed some of the Levites to lead the worship of the LORD, the God of Israel, in front of the Covenant Box, by singing and praising him.
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Asaph was appointed leader, with Zechariah as his assistant. Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed Edom, and Jeiel were to play harps. Asaph was to sound the cymbals,
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and two priests, Benaiah and Jahaziel, were to blow trumpets regularly in front of the Covenant Box.
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It was then that David first gave Asaph and the other Levites the responsibility for singing praises to the LORD.
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Give thanks to the LORD, proclaim his greatness; tell the nations what he has done.
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Sing praise to the LORD; tell the wonderful things he has done.
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Be glad that we belong to him; let all who worship him rejoice!
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Go to the LORD for help, and worship him continually.
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You descendants of Jacob, God's servant, descendants of Israel, whom God chose, remember the miracles that God performed and the judgments that he gave.
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The LORD is our God; his commands are for all the world.
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Never forget God's covenant, which he made to last forever,
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the covenant he made with Abraham, the promise he made to Isaac.
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The LORD made a covenant with Jacob, one that will last forever.
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"I will give you the land of Canaan," he said. "It will be your own possession."
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God's people were few in number, strangers in the land of Canaan.
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They wandered from country to country, from one kingdom to another.
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But God let no one oppress them; to protect them, he warned the kings:
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"Don't harm my chosen servants; do not touch my prophets."
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Sing to the LORD, all the world! Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.
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Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.
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The LORD is great and is to be highly praised; he is to be honored more than all the gods.
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The gods of all other nations are only idols, but the LORD created the heavens.
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Glory and majesty surround him, power and joy fill his Temple.
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Praise the LORD, all people on earth, praise his glory and might.
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Praise the LORD's glorious name; bring an offering and come into his Temple. Bow down before the Holy One when he appears;
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tremble before him, all the earth! The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved.
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Be glad, earth and sky! Tell the nations that the LORD is king.
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Roar, sea, and every creature in you; be glad, fields, and everything in you!
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The trees in the woods will shout for joy when the LORD comes to rule the earth.
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Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good; his love is eternal.
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Say to him, "Save us, O God our Savior; gather us together; rescue us from the nations, so that we may be thankful and praise your holy name."
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Praise the LORD, the God of Israel! Praise him now and forever! Then all the people said, "Amen," and praised the LORD.
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King David put Asaph and the other Levites in permanent charge of the worship that was held at the place where the Covenant Box was kept. They were to perform their duties there day by day.
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Obed Edom son of Jeduthun and sixty-eight men of his clan were to assist them. Hosah and Obed Edom were in charge of guarding the gates.
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Zadok the priest and his fellow priests, however, were in charge of the worship of the LORD at the place of worship in Gibeon.
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Every morning and evening they were to burn sacrifices whole on the altar in accordance with what was written in the Law which the LORD gave to Israel.
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There with them were Heman and Jeduthun and the others who were specifically chosen to sing praises to the LORD for his eternal love.
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Heman and Jeduthun also had charge of the trumpets and cymbals and the other instruments which were played when the songs of praise were sung. The members of Jeduthun's clan were in charge of guarding the gates.
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Then everyone went home, and David went home to spend some time with his family.
1
Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good; his love is eternal.
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Who can tell all the great things he has done? Who can praise him enough?
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Happy are those who obey his commands, who always do what is right.
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Remember me, LORD, when you help your people; include me when you save them.
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Let me see the prosperity of your people and share in the happiness of your nation, in the glad pride of those who belong to you.
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We have sinned as our ancestors did; we have been wicked and evil.
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Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God's wonderful acts; they forgot the many times he showed them his love, and they rebelled against the Almighty at the Red Sea.
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But he saved them, as he had promised, in order to show his great power.
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He gave a command to the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led his people across on dry land.
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He saved them from those who hated them; he rescued them from their enemies.
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But the water drowned their enemies; not one of them was left.
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Then his people believed his promises and sang praises to him.
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But they quickly forgot what he had done and acted without waiting for his advice.
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They were filled with craving in the desert and put God to the test;
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so he gave them what they asked for, but also sent a terrible disease among them.
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There in the desert they were jealous of Moses and of Aaron, the LORD's holy servant.
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Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram and his family;
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fire came down on their followers and burned up those wicked people.
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They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai and worshiped that idol;
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they exchanged the glory of God for the image of an animal that eats grass.
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They forgot the God who had saved them by his mighty acts in Egypt.
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What wonderful things he did there! What amazing things at the Red Sea!
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When God said that he would destroy his people, his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God and kept his anger from destroying them.
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Then they rejected the pleasant land, because they did not believe God's promise.
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They stayed in their tents and grumbled and would not listen to the LORD.
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So he have them a solomn warning that he would make them die in the desert
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and scatter their descendants among the heathen, letting them die in foreign countries.
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Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
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They stirred up the LORD's anger by their actions, and a terrible disease broke out among them.
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But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty, and the plague was stopped.
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This has been remembered in his favor ever since and will be for all time to come.
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At the springs of Meribah the people made the LORD angry, and Moses was in trouble on their account.
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They made him so bitter that he spoke without stopping to think.
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They did not kill the heathen, as the LORD had commanded them to do,
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but they intermarried with them and adopted their pagan ways.
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God's people worshiped idols, and this caused their destruction.
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They offered their own sons and daughters as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
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They killed those innocent children, and the land was defiled by those murders.
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They made themselves impure by their actions and were unfaithful to God.
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So the LORD was angry with his people; he was disgusted with them.
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He abandoned them to the power of the heathen, and their enemies ruled over them.
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They were oppressed by their enemies and were in complete subjection to them.
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Many times the LORD rescued his people, but they chose to rebel against him and sank deeper into sin.
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Yet the LORD heard them when they cried out, and he took notice of their distress.
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For their sake he remembered his covenant, and because of his great love he relented.
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He made all their oppressors feel sorry for them.
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Save us, O LORD our God, and bring us back from among the nations, so that we may be thankful and praise your holy name.
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Praise the LORD, the God of Israel; praise him now and forever! Let everyone say, "Amen!" Praise the LORD!
1
When Jesus finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the territory of Judea on the other side of the Jordan River.
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Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
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Some Pharisees came to him and tried to trap him by asking, "Does our Law allow a man to divorce his wife for whatever reason he wishes?"
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Jesus answered, "Haven't you read the scripture that says that in the beginning the Creator made people male and female?
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And God said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.'
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So they are no longer two, but one. No human being must separate, then, what God has joined together."
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The Pharisees asked him, "Why, then, did Moses give the law for a man to hand his wife a divorce notice and send her away?"
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Jesus answered, "Moses gave you permission to divorce your wives because you are so hard to teach. But it was not like that at the time of creation.
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I tell you, then, that any man who divorces his wife for any cause other than her unfaithfulness, commits adultery if he marries some other woman."
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His disciples said to him, "If this is how it is between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry."
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Jesus answered, "This teaching does not apply to everyone, but only to those to whom God has given it.
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For there are different reasons why men cannot marry: some, because they were born that way; others, because men made them that way; and others do not marry for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Let him who can accept this teaching do so."
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Some people brought children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and to pray for them, but the disciples scolded the people.
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Jesus said, "Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
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He placed his hands on them and then went away.
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Once a man came to Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?"
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"Why do you ask me concerning what is good?" answered Jesus. "There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life."
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"What commandments?" he asked. Jesus answered, "Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely;
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respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself."
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"I have obeyed all these commandments," the young man replied. "What else do I need to do?"
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Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me."
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When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.
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Jesus then said to his disciples, "I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
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I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle."
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When the disciples heard this, they were completely amazed. "Who, then, can be saved?" they asked.
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Jesus looked straight at them and answered, "This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible."
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Then Peter spoke up. "Look," he said, "we have left everything and followed you. What will we have?"
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Jesus said to them, "You can be sure that when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the New Age, then you twelve followers of mine will also sit on thrones, to rule the twelve tribes of Israel.
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And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life.
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But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.
