Book of Common Prayer
18 (0) For the leader. By David the servant of Adonai, who addressed the words of this song to Adonai on the day when Adonai delivered him from the power of all his enemies, including from the power of Sha’ul. 2 He said:
(1) “I love you, Adonai, my strength!
3 (2) “Adonai is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer,
my God, my Rock, in whom I find shelter,
my shield, the power that saves me,
my stronghold.
4 (3) I call on Adonai, who is worthy of praise;
and I am saved from my enemies.
5 (4) “For the cords of death surrounded me,
the floods of B’liya‘al terrified me,
6 (5) the ropes of Sh’ol were wrapped around me,
the snares of death lay there before me.
7 (6) In my distress I called to Adonai;
I cried out to my God.
Out of his temple he heard my voice;
my cry reached his ears.
8 (7) “Then the earth quaked and shook,
the foundations of the mountains trembled.
They were shaken because he was angry.
9 (8) Smoke arose in his nostrils;
out of his mouth came devouring fire;
sparks blazed forth from him.
10 (9) He lowered heaven and came down
with thick darkness under his feet.
11 (10) He rode on a keruv; he flew,
swooping down on the wings of the wind.
12 (11) He made darkness his hiding-place,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
13 (12) From the brightness before him,
there broke through his thick clouds
hailstones and fiery coals.
14 (13) “Adonai also thundered in heaven,
Ha‘Elyon sounded his voice —
hailstones and fiery coals.
15 (14) He sent out arrows and scattered them,
shot out lightning and routed them.
16 (15) The channels of water appeared,
the foundations of the world were exposed
at your rebuke, Adonai,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
17 (16) “He sent from on high, he took me
and pulled me out of deep water;
18 (17) he rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from those who hated me,
for they were stronger than I.
19 (18) They came against me on my day of disaster,
but Adonai was my support.
20 (19) He brought me out to an open place;
he rescued me, because he took pleasure in me.
21 (20) Adonai rewarded me for my uprightness,
he repaid me because my hands were clean.
22 (21) “For I have kept the ways of Adonai,
I have not done evil by leaving my God;
23 (22) for all his rulings were before me,
I did not distance his regulations from me.
24 (23) I was pure-hearted with him
and kept myself from my sin.
25 (24) “Hence Adonai repaid me for my uprightness,
according to the purity of my hands in his view.
26 (25) With the merciful, you are merciful;
with a man who is sincere, you are sincere;
27 (26) with the pure, you are pure;
but with the crooked you are cunning.
28 (27) People afflicted, you save;
but haughty eyes, you humble.
29 (28) “For you, Adonai, light my lamp;
Adonai, my God, lights up my darkness.
30 (29) With you I can run through a whole troop of men,
with my God I can leap a wall.
31 (30) “As for God, his way is perfect,
the word of Adonai has been tested by fire;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
32 (31) “For who is God but Adonai?
Who is a Rock but our God?
33 (32) “It is God who girds me with strength;
he makes my way go straight.
34 (33) He makes me swift, sure-footed as a deer,
and enables me to stand on my high places.
35 (34) He trains my hands for war
until my arms can bend a bow of bronze;
36 (35) “You give me your shield, which is salvation,
your right hand holds me up,
your humility makes me great.
37 (36) You lengthen the steps I can take,
yet my ankles do not turn.
38 (37) “I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
without turning back until they were destroyed.
39 (38) I crushed them, so that they can’t get up;
they have fallen under my feet.
40 (39) “For you braced me with strength for the battle
and bent down my adversaries beneath me.
41 (40) You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed those who hated me.
42 (41) “They cried out, but there was no one to help,
even to Adonai, but he didn’t answer.
43 (42) I pulverized them like dust in the wind,
threw them out like mud in the streets.
44 (43) “You also freed me from the quarrels of my people.
You made me head of the nations;
a people I did not know now serve me —
45 (44) the moment they hear of me, they obey me,
foreigners come cringing to me.
46 (45) Foreigners lose heart
as they come trembling from their fortresses.
47 (46) “Adonai is alive! Blessed is my Rock!
Exalted be the God of my salvation,
48 (47) the God who avenges me
and subdues peoples under me.
49 (48) He delivers me from my enemies.
You lift me high above my enemies,
you rescue me from violent men.
50 (49) “So I give thanks to you, Adonai, among the nations;
I sing praises to your name.
51 (50) Great salvation he gives to his king;
he displays grace to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.”
6 “I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities,
left you nothing to eat in all your villages;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
7 “I withheld the rain from you
three months before the harvest.
I made it rain on one city
and not on another —
one field had rain,
while another with no rain dried up;
8 from two or three cities they would stagger to one city
for water to drink, but there wasn’t enough;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
9 “I struck your crops with hot winds and blight,
your many gardens and vineyards;
the cutter-worms devoured
your fig and olive trees;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
10 “I sent a plague on you like that of Egypt,
put your young men to death with the sword;
let your horses be captured;
and filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew S’dom and ‘Amora;
you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire;
still you haven’t returned to me,” says Adonai.
12 “This is why I will deal with you in this way, Isra’el;
and because I will deal with you in this way,
prepare to meet your God, Isra’el —
13 him who forms mountains and creates wind,
who declares to humankind his thoughts,
who turns the morning to darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth —
Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot is his name.”
11 Since everything is going to be destroyed like this, what kind of people should you be? You should lead holy and godly lives, 12 as you wait for the Day of God and work to hasten its coming. That Day will bring on the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt from the heat; 13 but we, following along with his promise, wait for new heavens and a new earth,[a] in which righteousness will be at home. 14 Therefore, dear friends, as you look for these things, do everything you can to be found by him without spot or defect and at peace. 15 And think of our Lord’s patience as deliverance, just as our dear brother Sha’ul also wrote you, following the wisdom God gave him. 16 Indeed, he speaks about these things in all his letters. They contain some things that are hard to understand, things which the uninstructed and unstable distort, to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
17 But you, dear friends, since you know this in advance, guard yourselves; so that you will not be led away by the errors of the wicked and fall from your own secure position. 18 And keep growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah. To him be the glory, both now and forever! Amen.
33 “Now listen to another parable. There was a farmer who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower; then he rented it to tenants and left. 34 When harvest-time came, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the crop. 35 But the tenants seized his servants — this one they beat up, that one they killed, another they stoned. 36 So he sent some other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. 37 Finally, he sent them his son, saying, ‘My son they will respect.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ 39 So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They answered him, “He will viciously destroy those vicious men and rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop when it’s due.” 42 Yeshua said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Tanakh,
‘The very rock which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone!
This has come from Adonai,
and in our eyes it is amazing’?[a]
43 Therefore, I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the kind of people that will produce its fruit!” 44 [b]
45 As the head cohanim and the P’rushim listened to his stories, they saw that he was speaking about them. 46 But when they set about to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds; because the crowds considered him a prophet.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.