For my life is spent with grief,
and my years with sighing:
my strength faileth because of mine iniquity,
and my bones are consumed.


The Lord Our Dwelling Place

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.


Lord, You have been our dwelling place


through all generations.


2Before the mountains were born,


or You brought forth the earth and world,


from everlasting to everlasting,


You are God.


3You return man to dust


and say, “Return, O sons of mortals.”


4For in Your sight a thousand years


are but a day that passes,


or a watch of the night.


5You whisk them away in their sleep;


they are like the new grass of the morning—


6in the morning it springs up new;


by evening it fades and withers.


7For we are consumed by Your anger


and terrified by Your wrath.


8You have set our iniquities before You,


our secret sins in the light of Your presence.


9For all our days decline in Your fury;


we finish our years with a sigh.


10The length of our days is seventy years—


or eighty if we are strong—


yet their pride is but labor and sorrow,


for they quickly pass, and we fly away.


11Who knows the power of Your anger?


Your wrath matches the fear You are due.


12So teach us to number our days,


that we may present a heart of wisdom.


13Return, O LORD! How long will it be?


Have compassion on Your servants.


14Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion,


that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.


15Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us,


for as many years as we have seen evil.


16May Your work be shown to Your servants,


and Your splendor to their children.


17May the favora of the Lord our God rest upon us;


establish for us the work of our hands—


establish the work of our hands!






11For as high as the heavens are above the earth,


so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.


12As far as the east is from the west,


so far has He removed our transgressions from us.


13As a father has compassion on his children,


so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.


14For He knows our frame;


He is mindful that we are dust.


15As for man, his days are like grass—


he blooms like a flower of the field;


16when the wind has passed over, it vanishes,


and its place remembers it no more.


17But from everlasting to everlasting


the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him,


and His righteousness to their children’s children—


18to those who keep His covenant


and remember to obey His precepts.


19The LORD has established His throne in heaven,


and His kingdom rules over all.




Our Eternal Dwelling
(Romans 8:18-27)

1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

6Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. 7For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we aspire to please Him, whether we are here in this body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.