Book of Common Prayer

To the Overcomer upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

¹ ¶ How amiable are thy habitations, O LORD of the hosts!

² My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing to the living God.

³ Even the sparrow has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young upon thine altars, O LORD of the hosts, my King and my God.

⁴ Happy are those that dwell in thy house; they shall continually praise thee. Selah.

⁵ Happy is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are thy ways,

⁶ who passing through the valley of Baca, shall make it a well; the rain also shall fill the pools.

⁷ They go forth in a great multitude; and in order, they shall see God in Zion.

⁸ ¶ O LORD God of the hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

⁹ Behold, O God our shield and look upon the face of thine anointed,

¹⁰ for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand outside of them. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield unto us; the LORD will give grace and glory; he will not withhold good from those that walk uprightly.

¹² O LORD of the hosts, happy is the man that trusts in thee.

19 ¶ And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and of how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

² Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if by tomorrow at this time I have not made thy person as one of them.

³ And when he saw that, he arose and departed to save his life and came to Beersheba, which is in Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and desiring to die, he said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers.

⁵ And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat.

⁶ Then he looked and behold, there was a cake baked on the coals and a cruse of water at his head. And he ate and drank and went back to sleep.

⁷ And the angel of the LORD came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for there is a great journey before thee.

⁸ And he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God.

⁹ ¶ And there he went into a cave, where he lodged; and the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

¹⁰ And he replied, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of the hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left, and they seek me to take my life.

¹¹ And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

¹² And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice,

3 ¶ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

⁴ And such trust we have through the Christ towards God:

⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,

⁶ ¶ who also has made us able ministers of the new testament, 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 the letter engraved in stones was glorious, so that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to fade away,

⁸ How shall not the ministry of the Spirit be for greater glory?

⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, much more shall the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

¹⁸ Therefore we all, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord with uncovered face, are transformed from glory to glory into the same likeness, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.