Psalms 63:3–5

²³For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

¹⁶Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

¹⁵O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

¹⁵By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

⁵For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

²⁰For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

¹I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

¹²To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

²Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

⁵Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

⁶And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

⁷For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

⁸But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

¹⁰Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

¹⁹I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

²Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

⁶For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

¹⁷I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

⁶There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

³³I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.

²Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

²²¶ And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:

²³And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:

²⁴Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.

²⁵Therefore now, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.

²⁶And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.

²⁷But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

²⁸Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:

²⁹That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.

³⁰And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.

³¹¶ If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:

³²Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

³³¶ When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:

³⁴Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.

³⁵¶ When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:

³⁶Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

³⁷¶ If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

³⁸What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

³⁹Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

⁴⁰That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

⁴¹Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name’s sake;

⁴²(For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;

⁴³Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.

⁴⁴¶ If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name:

⁴⁵Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

⁴⁷Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

⁴⁸And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

⁴⁹Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,

⁵⁰And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:

⁵¹For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:

⁵²That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.

⁵³For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.

⁵⁴And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

⁵⁵And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

⁵⁶Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

⁵⁷The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us:

⁵⁸That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require:

⁶⁰That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.

⁶¹Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

⁶²¶ And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord.

⁶³And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.

⁶⁴The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord: for there he offered burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brasen altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive the burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

¹I WILL extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

²Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

³Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

¹⁰The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.

¹PRAISE ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

²While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

⁷How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

⁸They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

⁹For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

⁶¶ And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

¹⁵As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

⁴Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

¹¹And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

¹²But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:

¹³So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

¹⁴The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

¹⁵The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

³Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant.

⁴Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

²³My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.

⁵And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

⁶And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

⁷Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

⁴Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

³⁴My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

¹PRAISE ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

²Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

³Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

⁴Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.