Your kindness is a greater joy than life itself; thus my lips will speak your praise. I will bless you all my life; with uplifted hands I will call on your name.
I love you, O Lord, my strength, O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior and a savior. He will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you through his love. He will exult over you with shouts of joy.
As for me, I do not regard my life as of any value, only that I finish the race and complete the mission that I received from the Lord Jesus—to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace.
All this took place in order to fulfill what the Lord had announced through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” a name that means “God is with us.”