The Way of Love
1 If I zspeak 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 bknowledge, and if I have all cfaith, dso as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I egive away all I have, and if I deliver up my body fto be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is gpatient and hkind; love idoes not envy or boast; it is not jarrogant 5 or rude. kIt does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;2 6 it does not lrejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures 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 we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when 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 mgave up childish ways. 12 For now we nsee in a mirror dimly, but then oface to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as pI have been fully known.
13 qSo now rfaith, hope, and love abide, these three; but sthe greatest of these is love.
My Rock and My Fortress
Of David.
1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who ptrains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge,
3 O Lord, rwhat is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
4 Man is like a sbreath;
his days are like a passing tshadow.
5 uBow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
vTouch the mountains so that they smoke!
6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;
send out your warrows and rout them!
7 Stretch out your hand from on high;
rescue me and xdeliver me from the many waters,
from the hand of foreigners,
8 whose mouths speak lies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing a new song to you, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp yI will play to you,
10 who gives zvictory to kings,
who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouths speak lies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
12 May aour sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
13 bmay our granaries be full,
providing all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
14 may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;2
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
15 cBlessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
dBlessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
