God's Goodness & Mercy

⁵And the LORD descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD. ⁶Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, ⁷maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

³⁴Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

⁸Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

¹Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul; all that is within me, bless His holy name. ²Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds— ³He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases, ⁴who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you with loving devotion and compassion, ⁵who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. ⁸The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. ⁹He will not always accuse us, nor harbor His anger forever. ¹⁰He has not dealt with us according to our sins or repaid us according to our iniquities. ¹¹For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. ¹²As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. ¹³As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His loving devotion endures forever. ²Give thanks to the God of gods. His loving devotion endures forever. ³Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁴He alone does great wonders. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁵By His insight He made the heavens. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁶He spread out the earth upon the waters. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁷He made the great lights—His loving devotion endures forever. ⁸the sun to rule the day, His loving devotion endures forever. ⁹the moon and stars to govern the night. His loving devotion endures forever. ²³He remembered us in our low estate His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁴and freed us from our enemies. His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁵He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁶Give thanks to the God of heaven! His loving devotion endures forever.

¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. ¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

¹³The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They lifted up their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.” And the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud

¹¹And they sang responsively with praise and thanksgiving to the LORD: “For He is good; for His loving devotion to Israel endures forever.” Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD had been laid.

⁶Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

⁶Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and loving devotion, for they are from age to age. ⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD. ⁸Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way. ⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. ¹⁰All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees.

⁵For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You. ¹⁵But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.

³Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. ⁴Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name. ⁵For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever. ²Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy ³and gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. ⁴Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell. ⁵They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted within them. ⁶Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. ⁷He led them on a straight path to reach a city where they could live. ⁸Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men. ⁹For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever. ²Let Israel say, “His loving devotion endures forever.” ³Let the house of Aaron say, “His loving devotion endures forever.” ⁴Let those who fear the LORD say, “His loving devotion endures forever.” ²⁹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

⁸The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion. ⁹The LORD is good to all; His compassion rests on all He has made. ¹⁴The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. ¹⁵The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season. ¹⁶You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. ¹⁷The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds. ¹⁸The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth. ¹⁹He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. ²⁰The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. ²¹My mouth will declare the praise of the LORD; let every creature bless His holy name forever and ever.

⁷“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back. ⁸In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer. ⁹“For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. ¹⁰Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

²²Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. ²³They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! ²⁴“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? ¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

⁷The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.

³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

¹¹Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. ¹³After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing. ¹⁷Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food, but here I am, starving to death! ¹⁸I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ ²⁰So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ²¹The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

⁴Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

⁶For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁴But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. ⁶This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.