Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

The Lord Appears to Solomon

1 ^tAs soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, ^uas he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by ^vputting my name there forever. My ^weyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, ^xif you will walk before me, ^yas David your father walked, ^zwith integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will ^aestablish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ^b‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and ^cthe house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a ^dproverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins.¹ Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will ^ehiss, and they will say, ^f‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they ^gabandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has ^hbrought all this disaster on them.’”

15 And this is the account of the ^pforced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the ^qMillo and the ^rwall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the ^sCanaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to ^this daughter, Solomon’s wife; 17 so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,¹ 19 and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his ^uchariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 All the people who were left of ^vthe Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel— 21 their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction²—^wthese Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. 22 But ^xof the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

23 These were the ^ychief officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

24 But Pharaoh’s daughter went up ^zfrom the city of David to ^aher own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

25 ^bThree times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the ^caltar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it³ before the Lord. So he finished the house.

26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent with the ^dfleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to ^eOphir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon.

The Earthly Holy Place

1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a ^utent¹ was prepared, the first section, in which were the ^vlampstand and the ^wtable and the ^xbread of the Presence.² It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section³ called the ^yMost Holy Place, 4 having the ^zgolden altar of incense and the ^aark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the ^bmanna, and ^cAaron’s staff that ^dbudded, and the ^etablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the ^fcherubim of glory overshadowing the ^gmercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

6 These preparations having thus been made, ^hthe priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but ⁱonce a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers ^jfor himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the ^kway into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age).⁴ According to this arrangement, ^lgifts and sacrifices are offered ^mthat cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Redemption Through the Blood of Christ

11 But when Christ appeared as a ⁿhigh priest of the ^ogood things that have come,⁵ then through the greater and more perfect ^ptent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he ^qentered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and ^rthe sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify⁶ for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered ^shimself without blemish to God, ^tpurify our^{7 u}conscience from ^vdead works to serve the living God.