Book of Common Prayer

God Provides for and Protects His People

For the music director. Of the sons of Korah.

According to Alamoth. A song.^[a]

Foreign Nations Come to Worship in Jerusalem

Of the sons of Korah. A psalm. A song.^[a]

Solomon’s Prayer to Yahweh

²² Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all of the assembly of Israel, and he spread out his hands to the heavens, ²³ and he said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the loyal love for your servants who are walking before you with all their heart. ²⁴ You have kept for your servant David my father what you promised to him, and you have spoken with your mouth, and with your hand you have fulfilled it this very day. ²⁵ So then, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you promised to him, saying, ‘For you, no man will be cut off from before me who will be sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons keep their ways to walk before me just as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶ So then, O God of Israel, please let your word be confirmed which you have promised^[a] to your servant David my father. ²⁷ For will God really dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens could not contain you! How could^[b] this house that I have built? ²⁸ You must regard the prayer of your servant and his plea! O Yahweh my God, listen to the pleading and to the prayer that your servant is praying before you this day, ²⁹ so that your eyes will be open to this house night and day, to the place which you said, ‘My name will be there,’ to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. ³⁰ You must listen to the plea of your servant and your people Israel which they pray toward this place; and you must hear from the place where you live, from heaven you must hear and you must forgive.

Jewish and Gentile Believers United in Christ

¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, ¹² that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, ¹⁵ invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus^[a] making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself.^{[b] 17} And coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to the ones who were near, ¹⁸ because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ Consequently, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,^{[c] 21} in whom the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are built up together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.^[d]