The Lord Has Chosen Zion
A Song of mAscents.
1 Remember, O Lord, in David’s favor,
all ythe hardships he endured,
2 how he swore to the Lord
and zvowed to athe Mighty One of Jacob,
3 “I will not enter my house
or get into my bed,
4 I will not bgive sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,
5 until I cfind a place for the Lord,
a dwelling place for athe Mighty One of Jacob.”
6 Behold, we heard of it in dEphrathah;
we found it in ethe fields of Jaar.
7 “Let us go to his dwelling place;
8 hArise, O Lord, and go to your iresting place,
you and the ark of your jmight.
9 Let your kpriests be lclothed with righteousness,
and let your msaints shout for joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
11 pThe Lord swore to David a sure oath
qfrom which he will not turn back:
r“One of the sons of your body1
I will set on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant
and my testimonies that I shall teach them,
their sons also forever
shall ssit on your throne.”
13 For the Lord has tchosen Zion;
he has udesired it for his dwelling place:
14 “This is my vresting place forever;
here I will wdwell, for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly xbless her provisions;
I will ysatisfy her poor with bread.
16 Her zpriests I will clothe with salvation,
and her zsaints will shout for joy.
17 There I will make aa horn to sprout for David;
I have prepared ba lamp for cmy anointed.
18 His enemies I will dclothe with shame,
but on him his crown will shine.”
The Way of Love
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have aprophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, bso as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 cIf I give away all I have, and dif I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 eLove is patient and fkind; love gdoes not envy or boast; it his not arrogant 5 or rude. It idoes not insist on its own way; it jis not irritable or resentful;2 6 it kdoes not rejoice at wrongdoing, but lrejoices with the truth. 7 mLove bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, eendures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For nwe know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but owhen the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For pnow we see in a mirror dimly, but qthen face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as rI have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.