Book of Common Prayer
The Joy of Worshiping in the Temple
For the music director; on the Gittith.
Of the sons of Korah. A psalm.[a]
84 How lovely are your dwelling places,
O Yahweh of hosts!
2 My soul longs and even fails
for the courtyards of Yahweh.
My heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
3 Even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
near your altars, O Yahweh of hosts,
my king and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;[b]
they can ever praise you. Selah
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you;
in their heart are the highways to Zion.
6 Passing through the Valley of Baca,[c]
they make it a spring.
The early rain covers it with blessings[d] as well.
7 They go from strength to strength,
until each appears before God in Zion.[e]
8 O Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah
9 Look at our shield, O God,
and have regard for the face of your anointed one.
10 Because better is a day in your courtyards
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be at the threshold of the house[f] of my God
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 Because Yahweh God is a sun and a shield;
Yahweh gives grace and honor.
He does not withhold good from those who walk blamelessly.
12 O Yahweh of hosts,
blessed is the man who trusts you.
Elijah Flees to Horeb
19 Then Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “Thus may the gods do to me, and may they add to it, surely at this time tomorrow I will make your life as the life of one of them!” 3 Then he became afraid,[a] got up, and fled for his life.[b] He came to Beersheba which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went into the wilderness one day’s journey, and he went and sat under a certain broom tree. Then he asked Yahweh that he might die,[c] and he said, “It is enough now, Yahweh; take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”[d] 5 He lay down and fell asleep under a certain broom tree, and suddenly this angel was touching him and said to him, “Get up, eat!” 6 He looked, and behold, a bread cake on hot coals was near his head and a jar of water, so he ate and drank. Then he did it again and lay down. 7 The angel of Yahweh appeared a second time and touched him and said, “Get up, eat, for the journey is greater than you.” 8 So he got up, ate, drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights up to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Elijah Encounters Yahweh at Horeb
9 He came to the cave there and spent the night there. Suddenly the word of Yahweh came to him and asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”[e] 10 Then he said, “I have been very zealous for Yahweh the God of hosts, for the Israelites[f] have forsaken your covenant. They have demolished your altars, and they have killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left over, and they seek to take my life. 11 He[g] said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Suddenly Yahweh was passing by, with a great and strong wind ripping the mountains and crushing rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake was a fire, but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.
New Covenant Ministry
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by all people, 3 revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Now we possess such confidence through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also makes us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministry of death in letters carved on stone came with glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look intently into the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was transitory, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more with glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, by much more will the ministry of righteousness overflow with glory.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting[a] the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
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