Your Throne, O God, Is Forever
To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil1 of vthe Sons of Korah; a love song.
1 My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
I address my verses to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of wa ready scribe.
2 You are xthe most handsome of the sons of men;
ygrace is poured upon your lips;
therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 zGird your asword on your thigh, O bmighty one,
in cyour splendor and majesty!
4 In your majesty dride out victoriously
for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
let your right hand teach you eawesome deeds!
5 Your arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king’s enemies;
the peoples fall under you.
6 fYour throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The gscepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
7 hyou have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore iGod, your God, has janointed you
with the oil of kgladness lbeyond your companions;
8 your robes are all fragrant with mmyrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces nstringed instruments make you glad;
9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;
10 Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear:
forget your people and your father’s house,
11 and the king will desire your beauty.
Since he is your qlord, rbow to him.
13 All glorious is vthe princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
14 wIn many-colored robes xshe is led to the king,
with her virgin companions following behind her.
15 With joy and gladness they are led along
as they enter the palace of the king.
16 In place of your fathers shall be your sons;
you will make them yprinces in all the earth.
17 zI will cause your name to be remembered in all generations;
therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.
Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, uone who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in vthe true tent1 that the Lord wset up, not man. 3 For xevery high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus yit is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve za copy and ashadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, b“See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ2 has obtained a ministry that is cas much more excellent than the old as dthe covenant ehe mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 fFor if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:3
g“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 hFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and iwrite them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall jall know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
kand I will remember their sins no more.”
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And lwhat is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
