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VERSES ABOUT JOY
Think about it: the joy of the Lord doesn't just fill you with strength, it brings us all together. It's a joy that's not meant to be kept to yourself; it needs to be shared. Just like the Israelites were instructed to celebrate and share what they had with each other, you can spread the joy of the Lord with everyone you know.
This joy challenges you to love your neighbor and share the Gospel. When your heart is joyful in God, you are strong and empowered to spread that joy throughout your community. It's a lasting joy, something no one can take away.
Psalm 98:4-6 says, "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King." You can find so many verses like this that talk about the joy of our God.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Still they will speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I will convert their captivity: 'May the Lord bless you, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain.'
In that day, will Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian, a blessing in the midst of the earth,
And he will love you and multiply you. And he will bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land: your grain as well as your vintage, oil, and herds, and the flocks of your sheep, upon the land about which he swore to your fathers that he would give it to you.
And extending his hands to the people, he blessed them. And so, the victims for sin, and the holocausts, and the peace offerings being completed, he descended.
and sojourn in it, and I will be with you, and I will bless you. For to you and to your offspring I will give all these regions, completing the oath that I promised to Abraham your father.
And he blessed them at that time, saying: "In you, Israel will be blessed, and it will be said: 'May God treat you like Ephraim, and like Manasseh.' " And he established Ephraim before Manasseh.
I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
And they will know their offspring among the nations, and their progeny in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them: that these are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.
The God of your father will be your helper, and the Almighty will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the abyss that lies beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
so that you may love the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and so that you may live, and he may multiply you and bless you in the land, which you shall enter in order to possess.
"Be consoled, be consoled, O my people!" says your God.
Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.
He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers, and who has weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a scale?
Who has assisted the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor and has revealed things to him?
With whom has he consulted? And who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and guided him to knowledge, and revealed the way of understanding to him?
Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a bucket, and they are considered as the smallest grain on a balance. Behold, the islands are like a little dust.
And Lebanon will not be sufficient to start a fire, and its animals will not be sufficient for a burnt offering.
All the nations in his sight are as if they did not exist, and they are considered by him as if they were nothingness and emptiness.
Therefore, to whom would you liken God? Or with what image would you replace him?
Should the workman cast a statue? Or has the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.
And the Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian, because of Joseph, and he multiplied all his substance, as much in the buildings, as in the fields.
And this shall be: just as you were a curse among the Gentiles, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid. Let your hands be strengthened.
A Canticle in steps. When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became like those who are consoled.
Then our mouth was filled with gladness and our tongue with exultation. Then they will say among the nations: "The Lord has done great things for them."
The Lord will take all sickness away from you. And the very grievous infirmities of Egypt, which you have known, he will not bring upon you, but upon your enemies.
So, because of deceitfulness, truly, you have placed it before them. While they were being lifted up, you were casting them down.
How have they been brought to desolation? They have suddenly failed. They have perished because of their iniquity.
Behold, you will call to a nation that you did not know. And nations that did not know you will rush to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. For he has glorified you.
The Lord will grant that your enemies, who rise up against you, will fall down in your sight. They will come against you by one way, and they will flee from your face by seven ways.
And this has pleased them, because they are in their debt. For, since the Gentiles have become partakers of their spiritual things, they also ought to minister to them in worldly things.
For thus says the Lord of hosts: After the glory, he has sent me to the Gentiles, which have despoiled you. For he who touches you, touches the pupil of my eye.
Thus Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold to Abraham: "All nations shall be blessed in you."
And let them sing in accordance with the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord.
For the Lord is exalted, and he looks with favor on the humble. But the lofty he knows from a distance.
You had little before I came to you, and now you have achieved riches. And the Lord has blessed you since my arrival. It is just, therefore, that at sometime I also should provide for my own house."
For the mountains will be moved, and the hills will tremble. But my mercy will not depart from you, and the covenant of my peace will not be shaken, said the Lord, who has compassion on you.
For you have struck all those who oppose me without cause. You have broken the teeth of sinners.
And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed my voice."
And your offspring will be like the dust of the earth. You will spread abroad to the West, and to the East, and to the North, and to the Meridian. And in you and in your offspring, all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.
And he will turn all these curses upon your enemies, and upon those who hate and persecute you.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an acquired people, so that you may announce the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And there shall not be anyone indigent or begging among you, so that the Lord your God may bless you in the land which he will deliver to you as a possession.
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and I will exalt my sign before the peoples. And they will carry your sons in their arms, and they will bear your daughters on their shoulders.
A Canticle in steps: of Solomon. Unless the Lord has built the house, those who build it have labored in vain. Unless the Lord has guarded the city, he who guards it watches in vain.
It is in vain that you rise before daylight, that you rise up after you have sat down, you who chew the bread of sorrow. Whereas, to his beloved, he will give sleep.
And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take up the sons of Israel, from the midst of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them together on every side, and I will lead them onto their own soil.
And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be ruler over all. And they will no longer be two nations, nor will they be divided any more into two kingdoms.
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed watchmen all day and all night unceasingly; they will not be silent. You who are mindful of the Lord, you should not be silent,
and you should not grant silence to him, until he makes firm and establishes Jerusalem as a praise upon the earth.
And may the peoples serve you, and may the tribes reverence you. May you be the lord of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down before you. Whoever curses you, may he be cursed, and whoever blesses you, may he be filled with blessings."
Certainly, I will take you away from the Gentiles, and I will gather you together from all the lands, and I will lead you into your own land.
And I will pour clean water over you, and you shall be cleansed from all your filth, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.
And I will give to you a new heart, and I will place in you a new spirit. And I will take away the heart of stone from your body, and I will give to you a heart of flesh.
Enlarge the place of your tent and extend the skins of your tabernacles, unsparingly. Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
For you shall extend to the right and to the left. And your offspring shall inherit the nations, and you shall inhabit the desolate cities.
A Canticle Psalm to the sons of Korah. Unto the end. For Mahalath, to answer the understanding of Heman the Ezrahite.
My eyes languished before destitution. All day long, I cried out to you, O Lord. I stretched out my hands to you.
Will you perform wonders for the dead? Or will physicians raise to life, and so confess to you?
Could anyone declare your mercy in the sepulcher, or your truth from within perdition?
Will your wonders be known in the darkness, or your justice in the land of oblivion?
And I have cried out to you, O Lord, and in early morning, my prayer will come before you.
Lord, why do you reject my prayer? Why do you turn your face away from me?
I am poor, and I have been amid hardships from my youth. And, though I have been exalted, I am humbled and disturbed.
Your wrath has crossed into me, and your terrors have disturbed me.
They have surrounded me like water, all day long. They have surrounded me, all at once.
Friend and neighbor, and my acquaintances, you have sent far away from me, away from misery.
O Lord, God of my salvation: I have cried out, day and night, in your presence.
Let my prayer enter in your sight. Incline your ear to my petition.
And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. And they will look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will feel sorrow over him, as one would be sorrowful at the death of a firstborn.
And I will make them a blessing all around my hill. And I will send the rain in due time; there will be showers of blessing.
And the tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the land will yield its crop. And they will be in their own land without fear. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have crushed the chains of their yoke, and when I will have rescued them from the hand of those who rule over them.
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and I will exalt my sign before the peoples. And they will carry your sons in their arms, and they will bear your daughters on their shoulders.
And kings will be your caretakers, and queens will be your nursemaids. They will reverence you with their face to the ground, and they will lick the dust at your feet. And you will know that I am the Lord. For those who hope in him will not be confounded.
Listen to the word of the Lord, O Gentiles, and announce it amid the islands that are far away, and say: "Whoever has scattered Israel will gather him, and he will guard him as a shepherd guards his flock."
Unto the end. For those who will be changed: of David.
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me.
And I covered my soul with fasting, and it has become a reproach to me.
And I put on a haircloth as my garment, and I became a parable to them.
Those who sat at the gate spoke against me, and those who drank wine made me their song.
But as for me, truly, my prayer is to you, O Lord. This time has pleased you well, O God. In the multitude of your mercy, in the truth of your salvation, hear me.
Rescue me from the quagmire, so that I may not become trapped. Free me from those who hate me and from deep waters.
Do not allow the tempest of water to submerge me, nor the deep to absorb me. And do not allow the well to close in on me.
Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is kind. Look upon me, according to the fullness of your compassion.
And do not turn your face away from your servant, for I am in trouble: heed me quickly.
Attend to my soul, and free it. Rescue me, because of my enemies.
Save me, O God, for the waters have entered, even to my soul.
For, from the rising of the sun even to its setting, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place, a clean oblation is being sacrificed and offered to my name. For my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of hosts.
And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared at the summit of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it.
In that day, man shall cast aside his idols of silver and his images of gold, which he had made for himself, as if to reverence the moles and the bats.
And so he will go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of stone, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.
Therefore, rest away from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he considers himself to be exalted.
And many peoples will go, and they will say: "Let us approach and ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And in this way, all of Israel may be saved, just as it was written: "From Zion shall arrive he who delivers, and he shall turn impiety away from Jacob.
I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your offspring may live,
and when you will have returned to him, so as to obey his commandments, just as I have instructed you this day, with your sons, with your whole heart and with your whole soul,
and so that you may love the Lord your God, and obey his voice, and cling to him, (for he is your life and the length of your days) and so that you may live in the land, about which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them."
You have mitigated all your wrath. You have turned aside from the wrath of your indignation.
For the Lord has heard the poor, and he has not despised his prisoners.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him: the sea, and everything that crawls in it.