The Privileges of Dwelling in Zion

871 This house is resting on the holy mountain. 2 The Lord has more love for the doors of Zion than for all the tents of Jacob. 3 Noble things are said of you, O town of God. (Selah.)

4 Rahab and Babylon will be named among those who have knowledge of me; see, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man had his birth there. 5 And of Zion it will be said, This or that man had his birth there; and the Most High will make her strong. 6 The Lord will keep in mind, when he is writing the records of the people, that this man had his birth there. (Selah.) 7 The players on instruments will be there, and the dancers will say, All my springs are in you.

A Prayer for Deliverance from Death

881 O Lord, God of my salvation, I have been crying to you for help by day and by night: 2 Let my prayer come before you; give ear to my cry: 3 For my soul is full of evils, and my life has come near to the underworld. 4 I am numbered among those who go down into the earth; I have become like a man for whom there is no help: 5 My soul is among the dead, like those in the underworld, to whom you give no more thought; for they are cut off from your care. 6 You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places. 7 The weight of your wrath is crushing me, all your waves have overcome me. (Selah.) 8 You have sent my friends far away from me; you have made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and not able to come out. 9 My eyes are wasting away because of my trouble: Lord, my cry has gone up to you every day, my hands are stretched out to you.

10 Will you do works of wonder for the dead? will the shades come back to give you praise? (Selah.) 11 Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction? 12 May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead? 13 But to you did I send up my cry, O Lord; in the morning my prayer came before you. 14 Lord, why have you sent away my soul? why is your face covered from me? 15 I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no strength. 16 The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken by your cruel punishments. 17 They are round me all the day like water; they have made a circle about me. 18 You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me.

131 Let everyone put himself under the authority of the higher powers, because there is no power which is not of God, and all powers are ordered by God. 2 For which reason everyone who puts himself against the authority puts himself against the order of God: and those who are against it will get punishment for themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear to the good work but to the evil. If you would have no fear of the authority, do good and you will have praise; 4 For he is the servant of God to you for good. But if you do evil, have fear; for the sword is not in his hand for nothing: he is God's servant, making God's punishment come on the evil-doer. 5 So put yourselves under the authority, not for fear of wrath, but because you have the knowledge of what is right. 6 For the same reason, make payment of taxes; because the authority is God's servant, to take care of such things at all times.

7 Give to all what is their right: taxes to him whose they are, payment to him whose right it is, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour is to be given. 8 Be in debt for nothing, but to have love for one another: for he who has love for his neighbour has kept all the law. 9 And this, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not put to death, Do not take what is another's, Do not have desire for what is another's, and if there is any other order, it is covered by this word, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. 10 Love does no wrong to his neighbour, so love makes the law complete.

11 See then that the time has come for you to be awake from sleep: for now is your salvation nearer than when you first had faith. 12 The night is far gone, and the day is near: so let us put off the works of the dark, arming ourselves with light, 13 With right behaviour as in the day; not in pleasure-making and drinking, not in bad company and unclean behaviour, not in fighting and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give thought to the flesh to do its desires.