Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

84 How lovely is your Temple, O Lord of the armies of heaven.

² I long, yes, faint with longing to be able to enter your courtyard and come near to the Living God. ³ Even the sparrows and swallows are welcome to come and nest among your altars and there have their young, O Lord of heaven’s armies, my King and my God! ⁴ How happy are those who can live in your Temple, singing your praises.

⁵ Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who want above all else to follow your steps. ⁶ When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of springs where pools of blessing and refreshment collect after rains! ⁷ They will grow constantly in strength, and each of them is invited to meet with the Lord in Zion.

⁸ O Jehovah, God of the heavenly armies, hear my prayer! Listen, God of Israel. ⁹ O God, our Defender and our Shield, have mercy on the one you have anointed as your king.^[a]

¹⁰ A single day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a doorman of the Temple of my God than live in palaces^[b] of wickedness. ¹¹ For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk along his paths.^[c]

¹² O Lord of the armies of heaven, blessed are those who trust in you.

5 King Hiram of Tyre had always been a great admirer of David, so when he learned that David’s son Solomon was the new king of Israel, he sent ambassadors to extend congratulations and good wishes. ^2-3 Solomon replied with a proposal about the Temple of the Lord he wanted to build. His father David, Solomon pointed out to Hiram, had not been able to build it because of the numerous wars going on, and he had been waiting for the Lord to give him peace.

⁴ “But now,” Solomon said to Hiram, “the Lord my God has given Israel peace on every side; I have no foreign enemies or internal rebellions. ⁵ So I am planning to build a Temple for the Lord my God, just as he instructed my father that I should do. For the Lord told him, ‘Your son, whom I will place upon your throne, shall build me a Temple.’ ⁶ Now please assist me with this project. Send your woodsmen to the mountains of Lebanon to cut cedar timber for me, and I will send my men to work beside them, and I will pay your men whatever wages you ask; for as you know, no one in Israel can cut timber like you Sidonians!”

⁷ Hiram was very pleased with the message from Solomon. “Praise God for giving David a wise son to be king of the great nation of Israel,” he said. ⁸ Then he sent this reply to Solomon: “I have received your message and I will do as you have asked concerning the timber. I can supply both cedar and cypress. ⁹ My men will bring the logs from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea and build them into rafts. We will float them along the coast to wherever you need them; then we will break the rafts apart and deliver the timber to you. You can pay me with food for my household.”

¹⁰ So Hiram produced for Solomon as much cedar and cypress timber as he desired, ¹¹ and in return Solomon sent him an annual payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat for his household and 96 gallons of pure olive oil. ¹² So the Lord gave great wisdom to Solomon just as he had promised. And Hiram and Solomon made a formal alliance of peace.

^5-6 Then, teaching them more about prayer,^[a] he used this illustration: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You would shout up to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit and I’ve nothing to give him to eat.’ ⁷ He would call down from his bedroom, ‘Please don’t ask me to get up. The door is locked for the night and we are all in bed. I just can’t help you this time.’

⁸ “But I’ll tell you this—though he won’t do it as a friend, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you everything you want—just because of your persistence. ⁹ And so it is with prayer—keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding; knock and the door will be opened. ¹⁰ Everyone who asks, receives; all who seek, find; and the door is opened to everyone who knocks.

¹¹ “You men who are fathers—if your boy asks for bread, do you give him a stone? If he asks for fish, do you give him a snake? ¹² If he asks for an egg, do you give him a scorpion? Of course not!^[b]

¹³ “And if even sinful persons like yourselves give children what they need, don’t you realize that your heavenly Father will do at least as much, and give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him?”