Book of Common Prayer
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.”
Book V: Psalms 107–150
107 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
2 Let those redeemed by Adonai say it,
those he redeemed from the power of the foe.
3 He gathered them from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the sea.
4 They wandered in the desert, on paths through the wastes,
without finding any inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
their life was ebbing away.
6 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
7 He led them by a direct path
to a city where they could live.
8 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
9 For he has satisfied the hungry,
filled the starving with good.
10 Some lived in darkness, in death-dark gloom,
bound in misery and iron chains,
11 because they defied God’s word,
scorned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he humbled their hearts by hard labor;
when they stumbled, no one came to their aid.
13 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
14 He led them from darkness, from death-dark gloom,
shattering their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
16 For he shattered bronze doors
and cut through iron bars.
17 There were foolish people who suffered affliction
because of their crimes and sins;
18 they couldn’t stand to eat anything;
they were near the gates of death.
19 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress;
20 he sent his word and healed them,
he delivered them from destruction.
21 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
22 Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and proclaim his great deeds with songs of joy.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
plying their trade on the great ocean,
24 saw the works of Adonai,
his wonders in the deep.
25 For at his word the storm-wind arose,
lifting up towering waves.
26 The sailors were raised up to the sky,
then plunged into the depths.
At the danger, their courage failed them,
27 they reeled and staggered like drunk men,
and all their skill was swallowed up.
28 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
29 He silenced the storm and stilled its waves,
30 and they rejoiced as the sea grew calm.
Then he brought them safely
to their desired port.
31 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
32 Let them extol him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the leaders’ council.
27 (28) At that time, just as I used to watch over them with the intent to uproot, break down, overthrow, destroy and do harm; so then I will watch over them to build and plant,” says Adonai. 28 (29) “When those days come they will no longer say,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
29 (30) Rather, each will die for his own sin;
every one who eats sour grapes,
his own teeth will be set on edge.
30 (31) “Here, the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Y’hudah. 31 (32) It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them,” says Adonai. 32 (33) “For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra’el after those days,” says Adonai: “I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 33 (34) No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, ‘Know Adonai’; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.”
34 (35) This is what Adonai says,
who gives the sun as light for the day,
who ordained the laws for the moon and stars
to provide light for the night,
who stirs up the sea until its waves roar —
Adonai-Tzva’ot is his name:
5 So imitate God, as his dear children; 2 and live a life of love, just as also the Messiah loved us, indeed, on our behalf gave himself up as an offering, as a slaughtered sacrifice to God with a pleasing fragrance. 3 Among you there should not even be mentioned sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed; these are utterly inappropriate for God’s holy people. 4 Also out of place are obscenity and stupid talk or coarse language; instead, you should be giving thanks. 5 For of this you can be sure: every sexually immoral, impure or greedy person — that is, every idol-worshipper — has no share in the Kingdom of the Messiah and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty talk; for it is because of these things that God’s judgment is coming on those who disobey him. 7 So don’t become partners with them!
8 For you used to be darkness; but now, united with the Lord, you are light. Live like children of light, 9 for the fruit of the light is in every kind of goodness, rightness and truth — 10 try to determine what will please the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the deeds produced by darkness, but instead expose them, 12 for it is shameful even to speak of the things these people do in secret. 13 But everything exposed to the light is revealed clearly for what it is, 14 since anything revealed is a light. This is why it says,
“Get up, sleeper! Arise from the dead,
and the Messiah will shine on you!”
15 Therefore, pay careful attention to how you conduct your life — live wisely, not unwisely. 16 Use your time well, for these are evil days. 17 So don’t be foolish, but try to understand what the will of the Lord is.
18 Don’t get drunk with wine, because it makes you lose control. Instead, keep on being filled with the Spirit — 19 sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to each other; sing to the Lord and make music in your heart to him; 20 always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
9 As Yeshua passed on from there he spotted a tax-collector named Mattityahu sitting in his collection booth. He said to him, “Follow me!” and he got up and followed him.
10 While Yeshua was in the house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners came and joined him and his talmidim at the meal. 11 When the P’rushim saw this, they said to his talmidim, “Why does your rabbi eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” 12 But Yeshua heard the question and answered, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. 13 As for you, go and learn what this means: ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifices.’[a] For I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous,’ but sinners!”
14 Next, Yochanan’s talmidim came to him and asked, “Why is it that we and the P’rushim fast frequently, but your talmidim don’t fast at all?” 15 Yeshua said to them, “Can wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then they will fast. 16 No one patches an old coat with a piece of unshrunk cloth, because the patch tears away from the coat and leaves a worse hole. 17 Nor do people put new wine in old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine spills and the wineskins are ruined. No, they pour new wine into freshly prepared wineskins, and in this way both are preserved.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.