Book of Common Prayer
95 Come, let’s sing to Adonai!
Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
3 For Adonai is a great God,
a great king greater than all gods.
4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;
the mountain peaks too belong to him.
5 The sea is his — he made it —
and his hands shaped the dry land.
6 Come, let’s bow down and worship;
let’s kneel before Adonai who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people
in his pasture, the sheep in his care.
If only today you would listen to his voice:
8 “Don’t harden your hearts, as you did at M’rivah,
as you did on that day at Massah in the desert,
9 when your fathers put me to the test;
they challenged me, even though they saw my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation;
I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray,
they don’t understand how I do things.’
11 Therefore I swore in my anger
that they would not enter my rest.”
32 (0) By David. A maskil:
(1) How blessed are those whose offense is forgiven,
those whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed those to whom Adonai imputes no guilt,
in whose spirit is no deceit!
3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
because of my groaning all day long;
4 day and night your hand was heavy on me;
the sap in me dried up as in a summer drought. (Selah)
5 When I acknowledged my sin to you,
when I stopped concealing my guilt,
and said, “I will confess my offenses to Adonai”;
then you, you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah)
6 This is what everyone faithful should pray
at a time when you can be found.
Then, when the floodwaters are raging,
they will not reach to him.
7 You are a hiding-place for me,
you will keep me from distress;
you will surround me
with songs of deliverance. (Selah)
8 “I will instruct and teach you
in this way that you are to go;
I will give you counsel;
my eyes will be watching you.”
9 Don’t be like a horse or mule
that has no understanding,
that has to be curbed with bit and bridle,
or else it won’t come near you.
10 Many are the torments of the wicked,
but grace surrounds those who trust in Adonai.
11 Be glad in Adonai; rejoice, you righteous!
Shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
143 (0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, hear my prayer;
listen to my pleas for mercy.
In your faithfulness, answer me,
and in your righteousness.
2 Don’t bring your servant to trial,
since in your sight no one alive
would be considered righteous.
3 For an enemy is pursuing me;
he has crushed my life into the ground
and left me to live in darkness,
like those who have been long dead.
4 My spirit faints within me;
my heart is appalled within me.
5 I remember the days of old,
reflecting on all your deeds,
thinking about the work of your hands.
6 I spread out my hands to you,
I long for you like a thirsty land. (Selah)
7 Answer me quickly, Adonai,
because my spirit is fainting.
Don’t hide your face from me,
or I’ll be like those who drop down into a pit.
8 Make me hear of your love in the morning,
because I rely on you.
Make me know the way I should walk,
because I entrust myself to you.
9 Adonai, rescue me from my enemies;
I have hidden myself with you.
10 Teach me to do your will,
because you are my God;
Let your good Spirit guide me
on ground that is level.
11 For your name’s sake, Adonai, preserve my life;
in your righteousness, bring me out of distress.
12 In your grace, cut off my enemies;
destroy all those harassing me;
because I am your servant.
102 (0) Prayer of a sufferer overcome by weakness and pouring out his complaint before Adonai:
2 (1) Adonai, hear my prayer!
Let my cry for help reach you!
3 (2) Don’t hide your face from me
when I am in such distress!
Turn your ear toward me;
when I call, be quick to reply!
4 (3) For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones are burning like a furnace.
5 (4) I am stricken and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
6 (5) Because of my loud groaning,
I am just skin and bones.
7 (6) I am like a great owl in the desert,
I’ve become like an owl in the ruins.
8 (7) I lie awake and become
like a bird alone on the roof.
9 (8) My enemies taunt me all day long;
mad with rage, they make my name a curse.
10 (9) For I have been eating ashes like bread
and mingling tears with my drink
11 (10) because of your furious anger,
since you picked me up just to toss me aside.
12 (11) My days decline like an evening shadow;
I am drying up like grass.
13 (12) But you, Adonai, are enthroned forever;
your renown will endure through all generations.
14 (13) You will arise and take pity on Tziyon,
for the time has come to have mercy on her;
the time determined has come.
15 (14) For your servants love her very stones;
they take pity even on her dust.
16 (15) The nations will fear the name of Adonai
and all the kings on earth your glory,
17 (16) when Adonai has rebuilt Tziyon,
and shows himself in his glory,
18 (17) when he has heeded the plea of the poor
and not despised their prayer.
19 (18) May this be put on record for a future generation;
may a people yet to be created praise Adonai.
20 (19) For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
from heaven Adonai surveys the earth
21 (20) to listen to the sighing of the prisoner,
to set free those who are sentenced to death,
22 (21) to proclaim the name of Adonai in Tziyon
and his praise in Yerushalayim
23 (22) when peoples and kingdoms have been gathered together
to serve Adonai.
24 (23) He has broken my strength in midcourse,
he has cut short my days.
25 (24) I plead, “God, your years last through all generations;
so don’t take me away when my life is half over!
26 (25) In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth;
heaven is the work of your hands.
27 (26) They will vanish, but you will remain;
like clothing, they will all grow old;
yes, you will change them like clothing,
and they will pass away.
28 (27) But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
29 (28) The children of your servants will live securely
and their descendants be established in your presence.”
130 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, I call to you from the depths;
2 hear my cry, Adonai!
Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.
3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins,
who, Adonai, could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.
5 I wait longingly for Adonai;
I put my hope in his word.
6 Everything in me waits for Adonai
more than guards on watch wait for morning,
more than guards on watch wait for morning.
7 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai!
For grace is found with Adonai,
and with him is unlimited redemption.
8 He will redeem Isra’el
from all their wrongdoings.
6 If you seek Adonai, you will survive.
Otherwise, he will break out against
the house of Yosef like fire,
devouring Beit-El,
with no one to quench the flames.
7 You who turn justice to bitter wormwood
and throw righteousness to the ground!
8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who brings deathlike shadows over the morning,
who darkens the day into night,
who calls for the water in the sea
and with it floods the earth —
Adonai is his name —
9 he flashes destruction on the strong,
so that destruction overcomes the fortress.
10 They hate anyone promoting justice
at the city gate,
they detest anyone who speaks the truth.
11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and extort from them levies of grain;
although you have built houses of cut stone,
you will not live in them;
and though you have planted pleasant vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.
12 For I know how numerous are your crimes
and how outrageous your sins —
bullying the innocent, extorting ransoms
pushing the poor aside at the gate.
13 At times like these a prudent person stays silent,
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you will survive.
Then Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot will be with you,
as you say he is.
15 Hate evil, love good, and uphold justice at the gate.
Maybe Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
will take pity on the survivors of Yosef.
12 So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us, 2 looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting,[a] Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.[b] 3 Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the contest against sin.
5 Also you have forgotten the counsel which speaks with you as sons:
“My son, don’t despise the discipline of Adonai
or become despondent when he corrects you.
6 For Adonai disciplines those he loves
and whips everyone he accepts as a son.”[c]
7 Regard your endurance as discipline; God is dealing with you as sons. For what son goes undisciplined by his father? 8 All legitimate sons undergo discipline; so if you don’t, you’re a mamzer and not a son!
9 Furthermore, we had physical fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them; how much more should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! 10 For they disciplined us only for a short time and only as best they could; but he disciplines us in a way that provides genuine benefit to us and enables us to share in his holiness.
11 Now, all discipline, while it is happening, does indeed seem painful, not enjoyable; but for those who have been trained by it, it later produces its peaceful fruit, which is righteousness. 12 So,
strengthen your drooping arms,
and steady your tottering knees;[d]
13 and
make a level path for your feet;[e]
so that what has been injured will not get wrenched out of joint but rather will be healed.
14 Keep pursuing shalom with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
9 Also, to some who were relying on their own righteousness and looking down on everyone else, he told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Parush and the other a tax-collector. 11 The Parush stood and prayed to himself, ‘O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, immoral, or like this tax-collector! 12 I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on my entire income, . . . ’ 13 But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God! Have mercy on me, sinner that I am!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home right with God rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.