Book of Common Prayer
55 (0) For the leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David:
2 (1) Listen, God, to my prayer!
Don’t hide yourself from my plea!
3 (2) Pay attention to me, and answer me!
I am panic-stricken as I make my complaint,
I shudder 4 (3) at how the enemy shouts,
at how the wicked oppress;
for they keep heaping trouble on me
and angrily tormenting me.
5 (4) My heart within me is pounding in anguish,
the terrors of death press down on me,
6 (5) fear and trembling overwhelm me,
horror covers me.
7 (6) I said, “I wish I had wings like a dove!
Then I could fly away and be at rest.
8 (7) Yes, I would flee to a place far off,
I would stay in the desert. (Selah)
9 (8) I would quickly find me a shelter
from the raging wind and storm.”
10 (9) Confuse, Adonai, confound their speech!
For I see violence and fighting in the city.
11 (10) Day and night they go about its walls;
within are malice and mischief.
12 (11) Ruin is rife within it,
oppression and fraud never leave its streets.
13 (12) For it was not an enemy who insulted me;
if it had been, I could have borne it.
It was not my adversary who treated me with scorn;
if it had been, I could have hidden myself.
14 (13) But it was you, a man of my own kind,
my companion, whom I knew well.
15 (14) We used to share our hearts with each other;
in the house of God we walked with the crowd.
16 (15) May he put death on them;
let them go down alive to Sh’ol;
for evil is in their homes
and also in their hearts.
17 (16) But I will call on God,
and Adonai will save me.
18 (17) Evening, morning and noon I complain
and moan; but he hears my voice.
19 (18) He redeems me and gives me peace,
so that no one can come near me.
For there were many who fought me.
20 (19) God will hear and will humble them,
yes, he who has sat on his throne from the start. (Selah)
For they never change,
and they don’t fear God.
21 (20) [My companion] attacked those
who were at peace with him;
he broke his solemn word.
22 (21) What he said sounded smoother than butter,
but his heart was at war.
His words seemed more soothing than oil,
but in fact they were sharp swords.
23 (22) Unload your burden on Adonai,
and he will sustain you.
He will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
24 (23) But you will bring them down, God,
into the deepest pit.
Those men, so bloodthirsty and treacherous,
will not live out half their days.
But for my part, [Adonai,]
I put my trust in you.
138 (0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, Adonai,
when they hear the words you have spoken.
5 They will sing about Adonai’s ways,
“Great is the glory of Adonai!”
6 For though Adonai is high, he cares for the lowly;
while the proud he perceives from afar.
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
139 (0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
3 you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
4 that before I speak even a word, Adonai,
you know all about it already.
5 You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
6 Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.
7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I lie down in Sh’ol, you are there.
9 If I fly away with the wings of the dawn
and land beyond the sea,
10 even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Let darkness surround me,
let the light around me be night,”
12 even darkness like this
is not too dark for you;
rather, night is as clear as day,
darkness and light are the same.
13 For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
17 God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
18 If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.
19 God, if only you would kill off the wicked!
Men of blood, get away from me!
20 They invoke your name for their crafty schemes;
yes, your enemies misuse it.
21 Adonai, how I hate those who hate you!
I feel such disgust with those who defy you!
22 I hate them with unlimited hatred!
They have become my enemies too.
23 Examine me, God, and know my heart;
test me, and know my thoughts.
8 (9) But the greatest advantage to the country is when the king makes himself a servant to the land.
9 (10) The lover of money never has enough money;
the lover of luxury never has enough income.
This too is pointless.
10 (11) When the quantity of goods increases,
so does the number of parasites consuming them;
so the only advantage to the owner is
that he gets to watch them do it.
11 (12) The sleep of a working man is sweet,
whether he eats little or much;
but the overfullness of the rich
won’t let them sleep at all.
12 (13) Here is a gross evil which I have seen under the sun: the owner of wealth hoards it to his own hurt.
13 (14) Due to some misfortune,
the wealth turns to loss;
and then if he has fathered a son,
he has nothing to leave him.
14 (15) Just as he came from his mother’s womb,
so he will go back naked as he came,
and for his efforts he will take nothing
that he can carry away in his hand.
15 (16) This too is a gross evil, that in every respect as he came, so will he go; thus what profit does he have after toiling to earn the wind? 16 (17) All his life he eats in darkness, in frustration, in sickness and in anger.
17 (18) This is what I have seen to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work that he engages in under the sun for all the days of his life that God has given him, for this is his allotted portion. 18 (19) Also, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, along with the power to enjoy it, so that he takes his allotted portion and finds pleasure in his work — this is a gift of God; 19 (20) for he will not brood over the fact that his life is short, since God keeps him occupied with what will bring him joy.
23 Now before the time for this trusting faithfulness came, we were imprisoned in subjection to the system which results from perverting the Torah into legalism, kept under guard until this yet-to-come trusting faithfulness would be revealed. 24 Accordingly, the Torah functioned as a custodian until the Messiah came, so that we might be declared righteous on the ground of trusting and being faithful. 25 But now that the time for this trusting faithfulness has come, we are no longer under a custodian.
26 For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness; 27 because as many of you as were immersed into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah, in whom 28 there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; for in union with the Messiah Yeshua, you are all one. 29 Also, if you belong to the Messiah, you are seed of Avraham and heirs according to the promise.
4 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a minor he is no different from a slave, even though he is the legal owner of the estate; 2 rather, he is subject to guardians and caretakers until the time previously set by his father. 3 So it is with us — when we were “children” we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe; 4 but when the appointed time arrived, God sent forth his Son. He was born from a woman, born into a culture in which legalistic perversion of the Torah was the norm, 5 so that he might redeem those in subjection to this legalism and thus enable us to be made God’s sons. 6 Now because you are sons, God has sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit who cries out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”). 7 So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son you are also an heir.
8 In the past, when you did not know God, you served as slaves beings which in reality are non-gods. 9 But now you do know God, and, more than that, you are known by God. So how is it that you turn back again to those weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to enslave yourselves to them once more? 10 You observe special days, months, seasons and years! 11 I fear for you that my work among you has been wasted!
15 Then some P’rushim and Torah-teachers from Yerushalayim came to Yeshua and asked him, 2 “Why is it that your talmidim break the Tradition of the Elders? They don’t do n’tilat-yadayim before they eat!” 3 He answered, “Indeed, why do you break the command of God by your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say, ‘If anyone says to his father or mother, “I have promised to give to God what I might have used to help you,” 6 then he is rid of his duty to honor his father or mother.’ Thus by your tradition you make null and void the word of God! 7 You hypocrites! Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you,
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
9 Their worship of me is useless,
because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’”[c]
10 Then he called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand this! 11 What makes a person unclean is not what goes into his mouth; rather, what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean!”
12 The talmidim came to him and said, “Do you know that the P’rushim were offended by what you said?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my Father in heaven has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Let them be. They are blind guides. When a blind man guides another blind man, both will fall in a pit.”
15 Kefa said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 So he said, “Don’t you understand even now? 17 Don’t you see that anything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and passes out into the latrine? 18 But what comes out of your mouth is actually coming from your heart, and that is what makes a person unclean. 19 For out of the heart come forth wicked thoughts, murder, adultery and other kinds of sexual immorality, theft, lies, slanders. . . . 20 These are what really make a person unclean, but eating without doing n’tilat-yadayim does not make a person unclean.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.