All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord,
For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.’
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
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