Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 84[a]
Longing for God’s Dwelling
1 For the director.[b] “Upon the gittith.” A psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts.[c]
3 My soul yearns and is filled with longing
for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
4 Just as the sparrow searches for a home
and the swallow builds a nest for herself
where she may place her young,
so do I seek your altars,[d]
O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
5 Blessed[e] are those who dwell in your house;
they offer continuous praise to you. Selah
6 Blessed are those who find strength in you,
who set their hearts upon your ways.[f]
7 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they turn it into a region of springs,
and the early rain covers it with pools.[g]
8 [h]They move forward with increasing strength
as they behold the God of gods in Zion.
9 O Lord of hosts, hear my prayer;
listen to my pleas, O God of Jacob. Selah
10 O God, look upon our shield[i]
behold the face of your anointed one.
11 It is better to spend one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper[j] in God’s house
than dwell inside the tents of the wicked.
12 The Lord God serves as our sun[k] and our shield;
the Lord showers us with grace and glory.
He does not withhold any good thing
from those who walk in integrity.
13 O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the man who puts his trust in you.
Chapter 19
Elijah Flees to Horeb.[a] 1 Now Ahab told Jezebel about everything that Elijah had done, and all about how he had killed all of the prophets by the sword. 2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, “May the gods do this to me and more if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like their lives.”
3 He rose up and fled for his life, going to Beer-sheba in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 He went a day’s journey off into the desert. He came to a broom tree and sat down under it, and he asked to die. He said, “It is enough, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
5 As he lay there, he fell asleep under the broom tree, and, behold, an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around, and by his head there was a piece of bread that had been cooked on coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and then he laid down again.
7 The angel of the Lord touched him a second time and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too difficult for you.” 8 He got up, and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled for forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb. 9 He entered a cave and spent the night there. The word of the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He answered, “I have been zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant and torn down your altars and killed your prophets by the sword. I am the only survivor, and they are seeking to take my life away.”
11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord will pass by.” There was a powerful, strong wind that tore the mountain apart and shattered rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a tiny whisper.
Chapter 3
A Letter from God.[a] 1 Are we beginning once again to commend ourselves to you? Surely, as is true in some cases, we do not need letters of recommendation to you or from you. 2 You yourselves are our letter, one that is written on our hearts, so that it may be known and read by all. 3 And you make it clear that you are a letter from Christ entrusted to our care, a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and written not on tablets of stone[b] but on tablets of the human heart.
4 Such is the complete confidence in God that we have through Christ. 5 Obviously, we are not competent of ourselves to take credit for anything as coming from us. Our competence comes from God 6 who has empowered us to be the ministers of a new covenant, not written but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Ministers of a New Covenant.[c] 7 Now if the ministry of death, engraved with letters on stone, was so glorious that the Israelites could not fix their glance on the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory that would soon fade, 8 how much greater will be the glory of the ministry of the Spirit?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much richer in glory will be the ministry of righteousness!
18 And as we gaze upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, all of us are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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