Book of Common Prayer
5 (0) For the leader. On wind instruments. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Give ear to my words, Adonai,
consider my inmost thoughts.
3 (2) Listen to my cry for help,
my king and my God, for I pray to you.
4 (3) Adonai, in the morning you will hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my needs before you
and wait expectantly.
5 (4) For you are not a God
who takes pleasure in wickedness;
evil cannot remain with you.
6 (5) Those who brag cannot stand before your eyes,
you hate all who do evil,
7 (6) you destroy those who tell lies,
Adonai detests men of blood and deceivers.
8 (7) But I can enter your house
because of your great grace and love;
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in reverence for you.
9 (8) Lead me, Adonai, in your righteousness
because of those lying in wait for me;
make your way straight before me.
10 (9) For in their mouths there is nothing sincere,
within them are calamities,
their throats are open tombs,
they flatter with their tongues.
11 (10) God, declare them guilty!
Let them fall through their own intrigues,
For their many crimes, throw them down;
since they have rebelled against you.
12 (11) But let all who take refuge in you rejoice,
let them forever shout for joy!
Shelter them; and they will be glad,
those who love your name.
13 (12) For you, Adonai, bless the righteous;
you surround them with favor like a shield.
6 (0) For the leader. With stringed instruments. On sh’minit [low-pitched musical instruments?]. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Adonai, don’t rebuke me in your anger,
don’t discipline me in the heat of your fury.
3 (2) Be gracious to me, Adonai,
because I am withering away;
heal me, Adonai,
because my bones are shaking;
4 (3) I am completely terrified;
and you, Adonai — how long?
5 (4) Come back, Adonai, and rescue me!
Save me for the sake of your grace;
6 (5) for in death, no one remembers you;
in Sh’ol, who will praise you?
7 (6) I am worn out with groaning;
all night I drench my bed with tears,
flooding my couch till it swims.
8 (7) My vision is darkened with anger;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
9 (8) Get away from me, all you workers of evil!
For Adonai has heard the sound of my weeping,
10 (9) Adonai has heard my pleading,
Adonai will accept my prayer.
11 (10) All my enemies will be confounded,
completely terrified;
they will turn back
and be suddenly put to shame.
10 Why, Adonai, do you stand at a distance?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in their arrogance hunt down the poor,
who get caught in the schemes they think up.
3 For the wicked boasts about his lusts;
he blesses greed and despises Adonai.
4 Every scheme of the wicked in his arrogance [says],
“There is no God, [so] it won’t be held against me.”
5 His ways prosper at all times.
Your judgments are way up there,
so he takes no notice.
His adversaries? He scoffs at them all.
6 In his heart he thinks, “I will never be shaken;
I won’t meet trouble, not now or ever.”
7 His mouth is full of curses, deceit, oppression;
under his tongue, mischief and injustice.
8 He waits near settlements in ambush
and kills an innocent man in secret;
his eyes are on the hunt for the helpless.
9 Lurking unseen like a lion in his lair,
he lies in wait to pounce on the poor,
then seizes the poor and drags him off in his net.
10 Yes, he stoops, crouches down low;
and the helpless wretch falls into his clutches.
11 He says in his heart, “God forgets,
he hides his face, he will never see.”
12 Arise, Adonai! God, raise your hand!
Don’t forget the humble!
13 Why does the wicked despise God
and say in his heart, “It won’t be held against me”?
14 You have seen; for you look at mischief and grief,
so that you can take the matter in hand.
The helpless commits himself to you;
you help the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked!
As for the evil man,
search out his wickedness
until there is none left.
16 Adonai is king forever and ever!
The nations have vanished from his land.
17 Adonai, you have heard what the humble want;
you encourage them and listen to them,
18 to give justice to the fatherless and oppressed,
so that no one on earth will strike terror again.
11 (0) For the leader. By David:
(1) In Adonai I find refuge.
So how can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to the mountains!
2 See how the wicked are drawing their bows
and setting their arrows on the string,
to shoot from the shadows at honest men.
3 If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
4 Adonai is in his holy temple.
Adonai, his throne is in heaven.
His eyes see and test humankind.
5 Adonai tests the righteous;
but he hates the wicked and the lover of violence.
6 He will rain hot coals down on the wicked,
fire, sulfur and scorching wind
will be what they get to drink.
7 For Adonai is righteous;
he loves righteousness;
the upright will see his face.
15 “Therefore, watch out for yourselves! Since you did not see a shape of any kind on the day Adonai spoke to you in Horev from the fire, 16 do not become corrupt and make yourselves a carved image having the shape of any figure — not a representation of a human being, male or female, 17 or a representation of any animal on earth, or a representation of any bird that flies in the air, 18 or a representation of anything that creeps along on the ground, or a representation of any fish in the water below the shoreline. 19 For the same reason, do not look up at the sky, at the sun, moon, stars and everything in the sky, and be drawn away to worship and serve them; Adonai your God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky. 20 No, you Adonai has taken and brought out of the smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of inheritance for him, as you are today.
21 “But Adonai was angry with me on account of you and swore that I would not cross the Yarden and go into that good land, which Adonai your God is giving you to inherit. 22 Rather, I must die in this land and not cross the Yarden; but you are to cross and take possession of that good land. 23 Watch out for yourselves, so that you won’t forget the covenant of Adonai your God, which he made with you, and make yourself a carved image, a representation of anything forbidden to you by Adonai your God. 24 For Adonai your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
11 I would like you to bear with me in a little foolishness — please do bear with me! 2 For I am jealous for you with God’s kind of jealousy; since I promised to present you as a pure virgin in marriage to your one husband, the Messiah; 3 and I fear that somehow your minds may be seduced away from simple and pure devotion to the Messiah, just as Havah was deceived by the serpent and his craftiness. 4 For if someone comes and tells you about some other Yeshua than the one we told you about, or if you receive a spirit different from the one you received or accept some so-called “good news” different from the Good News you already accepted, you bear with him well enough! 5 For I don’t consider myself in any way inferior to these “super-emissaries.” 6 I may not be a skilled speaker, but I do have the knowledge; anyhow, we have made this clear to you in every way and in every circumstance.
7 Or did I sin in humbling myself so that you could be exalted, in proclaiming God’s Good News to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other congregations by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and had needs, I did not burden anyone: my needs were met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. In nothing have I been a burden to you, nor will I be. 10 The truthfulness of the Messiah is in me, so that this boast concerning me is not going to be silenced anywhere in Achaia. 11 Why won’t I ever accept your support? Is it that I don’t love you? God knows I do! 12 No, I do it — and will go on doing it — in order to cut the ground from under those who want an excuse to boast that they work the same way we do. 13 The fact is that such men are pseudo-emissaries: they tell lies about their work and masquerade as emissaries of the Messiah. 14 There is nothing surprising in that, for the Adversary himself masquerades as an angel of light; 15 so it’s no great thing if his workers masquerade as servants of righteousness. They will meet the end their deeds deserve.
16 I repeat: don’t let anyone think I am a fool. But even if you do, at least receive me as a fool; so that I too may do a little boasting! 17 What I am saying is not in accordance with the Lord; rather, this conceited boasting is spoken as a fool would speak. 18 Since many people boast in a worldly way, I too will boast this way. 19 For since you yourselves are so wise, you gladly put up with fools! 20 You put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, exploits you, takes you in, puffs himself up, slaps you in the face. 21 To my shame, I must admit that we have been too “weak” to do such things!
But if anyone dares to boast about something — I’m talking like a fool! — I am just as daring.
16 “Now when you fast, don’t go around looking miserable, like the hypocrites. They make sour faces so that people will know they are fasting. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 17 But you, when you fast, wash your face and groom yourself, 18 so that no one will know you are fasting — except your Father, who is with you in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves wealth here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and burglars break in and steal. 20 Instead, store up for yourselves wealth in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and burglars do not break in or steal. 21 For where your wealth is, there your heart will be also. 22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body.’ So if you have a ‘good eye’ [that is, if you are generous] your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if you have an ‘evil eye’ [if you are stingy] your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.