Book of Common Prayer
Even My Close Friend
Psalm 41
1 For the music director: a psalm of David.
2 Blessed is the one who considers the wretched—
Adonai will deliver him in the evil day.
3 Adonai will protect him and keep him alive.
He will be made blessed in the land.
You will not give him over to the desire of his foes.
4 Adonai will strengthen him on his sickbed.
May You restore him completely from his bed.
5 I said: “Adonai, have mercy on me.
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
6 My enemies speak evil about me:
“When will he die and his name perish?”
7 And if someone of them comes to see me, he speaks falsely.
He stores up evil in his heart,
then he goes out and chatters.
8 All who hate me whisper together about me
They imagine the worst about me:
9 “Something evil was poured into him—
he will not get up again from the place where he lies.”
10 Even my own close friend,
whom I trusted, who ate my bread,
has lifted up his heel against me.[a]
11 But You, Adonai, have mercy on me,
and raise me up, so I may repay them.
12 By this I know that You delight in me:
that my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.
13 You uphold me in my integrity
and set me before Your face forever.
14 Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen!
Treacherous Tongue!
Psalm 52
1 For the music director: a contemplative song of David, 2 when Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”
3 Why do you brag about evil, mighty man?
God’s lovingkindness is every day.
4 Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, working deceit.
5 You love evil instead of good,
lying rather than speaking right. Selah
6 You love only devouring words—
treacherous tongue!
7 God will pull you down forever,
and snatch you, rip you out of your tent,
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
8 Then the righteous will see and fear,
and laugh at him:
9 “Here is the man who did not make God his stronghold.
Instead he trusted in his great riches—
and was strong in his evil desire.”
10 But I—I am like an olive tree flourishing in the House of God.
I trust in God’s lovingkindness forever and ever.
11 I will praise You forever for what You have done.
I will hope in Your Name, for it is good,
in the presence of Your kedoshim.
Arise, O God of Our Fathers
Psalm 44
1 For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song.
2 We have heard with our ears, O God
—our fathers have told us—
of a work You did in their days, in days of old.
3 With Your hand You displaced nations, but You planted them.
You afflicted peoples, and You drove them out.
4 For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,
nor did their own arm save them.
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—
for You favored them.
5 You are my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
6 Through You we push back our foes.
Through Your Name we trample those rising up against us.
7 For I do not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
8 For You saved us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hated us.
9 In God we make our boast all day
and Your Name we praise forever. Selah
10 Yet You have spurned and humiliated us,
and no longer go out with our armies.
11 You make us retreat before the enemy.
Those who hate us have plundered us.
12 You gave us to be devoured like sheep[a]
and have scattered us among the nations.
13 You are selling Your people cheaply—
not even getting a great price for them.
14 You made us a taunt for our neighbors,
a scorn and ridicule for those around us.
15 You have made us a byword among the nations,
head-wagging among the peoples.
16 All day my disgrace is before me,
and my face is covered with shame—
17 because of the sound of taunting and reviling
from the face of a vengeful enemy.
18 All this came upon us, though we did not forget You,
nor were we false to Your covenant.
19 Our heart did not turn back,
nor did our steps stray from Your path.
20 Yet You crushed us in a place of jackals,
covered us with the shadow of death.
21 If we had forgotten the Name of our God
or stretched our hands to a foreign god,
22 would God not have discovered it?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
23 But for Your sake we are slain all day.
We are counted as sheep for slaughter.[b]
24 Awake! Why do you sleep, my Lord?
Wake up! Do not cast us off forever.
25 Why do You hide Your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
26 For our soul sinks down to the dust.
Our belly cleaves to the earth.
27 Arise, be our help,
and redeem us
for Your mercy’s sake.
Futility of Human Pleasures
2 I said within myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to see what is good.” Yet behold, this too was meaningless. 2 I said of laughter, “It is madness!” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” 3 I thought deeply about how to cheer my flesh with wine—letting my heart guide me with wisdom—and how to grasp folly, so that I could see what was worthwhile for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
4 I increased my possessions. I built myself houses and I planted myself vineyards. 5 I made royal gardens and parks for myself, and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I constructed for myself pools of water to irrigate a forest of flourishing trees. 7 I purchased male and female servants and had other servants who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than all my predecessors in Jerusalem. 8 I also amassed silver and gold for myself, as well as the treasure of kings and the provinces. I acquired male and female singers for myself, as well as the luxuries of humankind—vaults and vaults of them. [a] 9 So I became far wealthier than all before me in Jerusalem, yet my wisdom stayed with me.
10 I denied myself nothing that my eyes desired;
I withheld from my heart no enjoyment.
My heart took delight from all my toil—
this was my reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I considered all that my hands had done
and the toil I had expended to accomplish it,
behold, it all was futile and chasing after the wind.
There was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Futility of Human Wisdom
12 Then I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly. For what more can the one who succeeds the king do than what he has already done? 13 I realized that:
Wisdom is more beneficial than folly
as light is better than darkness.
14 A wise man has his eyes in his head,
while the fool walks in the darkness.
Yet, I also came to realize
that the same destiny befalls them both.
15 Then said I in my heart:
“I, even I, will have the same destiny as a fool.
So why have I become so wise?”
I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.”
Greetings from Paul
1 Paul, an emissary (sent not from men or by man, but by Yeshua the Messiah and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brothers with me.
To Messiah’s communities of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and our Lord Yeshua the Messiah— 4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father— 5 to Him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
No Other Gospel
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from the One who called you by the grace of Messiah, to a different “good news”— 7 not that there is another, but only some who are confusing you and want to distort the Good News of Messiah. 8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should announce any “good news” to you other than what we have proclaimed to you, let that person be cursed! 9 As we have said before, so I now repeat: if anyone proclaims to you “good news” other than what you received, let that person be under a curse! 10 Am I now trying to win people’s approval, or God’s? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Messiah.
How Paul Was Sent Out
11 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Good News proclaimed by me is not man-made. 12 I did not receive it from any human, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Yeshua the Messiah.
13 For you have heard of my earlier behavior in Judaism—how I persecuted God’s community beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 I was even advancing within Judaism beyond many my own age among my people, being a more extreme observer of my fathers’ traditions. 15 But when God—who set me apart from birth and called me through His grace[a]—was pleased 16 to reveal His Son to me so I would proclaim Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with any human. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were emissaries before me, either. Instead I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid. And because of his joy, he goes out and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. 46 Upon finding a pearl of great value, he went out and sold all that he had and bought it.
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea, gathering things of every kind. 48 When it was filled, they pulled it ashore; and they sat down and gathered up the good into containers, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth and separate the wicked from among the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace;[a] in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 “Have you understood all these things?”
They said to Him, “Yes.”
52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every Torah scholar discipled for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure both new things and old.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.