Book of Common Prayer
A Royal Wedding Song
Psalm 45
1 For the music director, according to “Lilies.” Of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song, a love song.
2 My heart is stirred with a good word.
I speak my verses to the king.
My tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
3 You are the most handsome of the sons of men.
Grace pours from your lips.
Therefore God has blessed you forever.
4 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
in your splendor and your majesty.
5 In your majesty ride victoriously,
on behalf of truth, meekness and justice.
Let your right hand display awesome things.
6 Your arrows are sharp.
Peoples fall beneath you—
into the heart of the king’s enemies.
7 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and a scepter of justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
8 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore, God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.[a]
9 All your robes have myrrh, aloes, cassia.
From ivory palaces, stringed instruments
make you glad.
10 Kings’ daughters are among your honored women.
At your right hand stands the queen
in gold of Ophir.
11 “Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear.
Forget your people and your father’s house.
12 Then the king will desire your beauty.
Honor him, for he is your lord.
13 A daughter of Tyre comes with a gift.
The richest people will court your favor.”
14 All glorious is the king’s daughter within the palace—
her gown is interwoven with gold.[b]
15 She will be led to the king in embroidered garments.
Her virgins, her companions following her, are coming in to you.
16 They are led in with joy and gladness—
they enter into the palace of the king.
17 Your sons will take your fathers’ place.
You will make them princes throughout the land.
18 I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations.
Therefore the nations will praise you forever and ever.
In Celebration of God’s Reign
Psalm 47
1 For the music director, a psalm for the sons of Korah.
2 Clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of joy!
3 For Adonai Elyon is awesome,
a great King over all the earth.
4 He subdues peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
5 He chooses our inheritance for us,
the glory of Jacob whom He loved. Selah
6 God is gone up amidst shouting,
Adonai amidst the sound of the shofar.
7 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
8 For God is the King of all the earth.
Sing praises with a skillful song.
9 God reigns over the nations.
God sits upon His holy throne.
10 The princes of the peoples are gathered as a people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of earth belong to God—
He is greatly exalted!
Consider Zion’s Towers
Psalm 48
1 A song, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 Great is Adonai, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God—His holy mountain.
3 A beautiful height—the joy of the whole earth—
is Mount Zion, on the northern side of the city of the great King.[a]
4 God, in her palaces,
is known as a stronghold.
5 For behold, the kings assembled,
they advanced together.
6 They saw, then they were astounded,
they fled in terror.
7 Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman in labor.
8 With an east wind
You broke the ships of Tarshish.
9 As we have heard, so have we seen,
in the city of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
in the city of our God.
God will establish her forever. Selah
10 We have meditated on Your lovingkindness, O God,
in the midst of Your Temple.
11 Like Your Name, O God,
so is Your praise
to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
12 Mount Zion is glad,
the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of Your judgments.
13 Walk about Zion, go around her.
Count her towers.
14 Consider her ramparts,
go through her palaces,
so you may describe it to the next generation.
15 For this God is our God, forever and ever!
He will guide us to the end.
8 Then Adonai said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land into your hand. 2 Then you will do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king—except you will take its spoil and its cattle as booty for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up to Ai. Joshua selected 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them at night. 4 He commanded them saying: “Look, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Don’t go too far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5 Then I and all the troops with me will approach the city. Then it will be when they come out against us, like the first time, that we will flee before them. 6 So they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will think, ‘They are fleeing before us like the first time.’ While we are fleeing before them, 7 you will rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Adonai your God will give it into your hand. 8 Now when you have seized the city, you will set the city on fire—according to the word of Adonai you must do. See that you do as I have ordered you.”
9 So Joshua sent them off, and they went to the ambush site, taking position between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people. 10 Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people. He and the elders of Israel marched before the people to Ai. 11 All the people of war with him went up, advanced, and came in front of the city. They camped to the north of Ai, with a valley between him and Ai. 12 But he had taken about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So they stationed the people, the main army that was to the north of the city, and its rear guard to the west of the city. Then Joshua walked that night in the midst of the valley.
14 So it came to pass when the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and rose up early, and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place facing the Arabah. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 So Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. 16 Then all the people who were in Ai were summoned to pursue them, so they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. 17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, so they left the city open as they chased after Israel.
18 Then Adonai said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19 As soon as he stretched out his hand, the ambush arose quickly from their place, ran and entered the city and captured it; and immediately set the city on fire. 20 Now the men of Ai looked back and saw, behold, the smoke of the city rising up to the sky! They had no place to flee this way or that, since the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. 21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city rose up, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 The others also came out of the city against them, so they were surrounded by Israel, some on this side and some on that side. They struck them down until not one survivor or fugitive was left.
Unity in Community
14 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of disputes about opinions. 2 One person has faith to eat anything, but the weak eats only vegetables. 3 Don’t let the one who eats disparage the one who does not eat, and don’t let the one who does not eat judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. Yes, he shall stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day over another while another judges every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes that day does so to the Lord. The one who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who abstains, abstains to the Lord, and he gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself, and none dies for himself. 8 For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this reason Messiah died and lived again, so that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But you, why do you judge your brother?[a] Or you too, why do you look down on your brother? For we all will stand before the judgment seat of God. [b] 11 For it is written,
“As I live, says Adonai,
every knee shall bow to Me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.”[c]
12 So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Taken into Custody
47 While Yeshua was still speaking, here came Judah, one of the Twelve, and with him a big crowd with swords and clubs, from the ruling kohanim and elders of the people. 48 Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The One I kiss, He’s the One—seize Him!’ 49 And immediately Judah drew near[a] to Yeshua and said, “Shalom, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.
50 “Friend,” Yeshua said to him, “do what you’ve come to do.” Then they came up and threw their hands on Yeshua and seized Him. 51 And suddenly, one of those with Yeshua stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and he struck the kohen gadol’s servant and cut off his ear.
52 Then Yeshua said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! For all who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. [b] 53 Or do you suppose that I cannot call on My Father, and at once He will place at My side twelve legions[c] of angels? 54 How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”
55 At that hour Yeshua said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs, to capture Me as you would a revolutionary?[d] Every day I sat teaching in the Temple, and you didn’t seize Me. 56 But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples fled, abandoning Him.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.