Book of Common Prayer
In God I Trust
Psalm 56
1 For the music director: “A Silent Dove Far Away,” a Michtam of David, when the Philistines had seized him in Gath.
2 Be gracious to me, O God!
For man has crushed me,
fighting all day he oppresses me.
3 My foes trample me all day.
For many are fighting me arrogantly.
4 In a day when I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
5 In God—I keep praising His word—
in God I trust, I will not fear.
What can mere flesh do to me?
6 All day they twist my words.
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
7 They stir up strife; they lie hidden.
They mark my steps, eager to take my soul.
8 In spite of such sin, will they escape?
In fierce anger, O God, cast down such people!
9 You have recorded my wanderings.
You put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
10 Then my enemies will turn back in the day I call.
This I know—that God is for me.
11 In God—I keep praising His word—
in Adonai—I keep praising His word—
12 in God I trust, I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
13 I am under vows to You, O God.
I will present thank offerings to You.
14 For You have delivered my soul from death
and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God in the light of life.
Be Exalted Over All the Earth
Psalm 57
1 For the music director, “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
2 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me,
for in You my soul takes refuge.
In the shadow of Your wings I take refuge,
until destruction passes by.
3 I will cry out to El Elyon,
to God who accomplishes it for me.
4 He will send from heaven and save me.
He rebukes the one trampling on me. Selah
God is sending His mercy and His truth.
5 My soul is in the midst of lions.
I lie among those breathing fire—
sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongue is a sharp sword.
6 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let Your glory be over all the earth!
7 They spread a net for my steps,
my soul is bowed down.
They have dug a pit before me—
they fell into it themselves. Selah
8 My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing, yes, I will make music.
9 Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
10 I will praise You, my Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
11 For Your lovingkindness is great up to the heavens,
and Your truth to the skies.
12 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let Your glory be over all the earth!
God Really Judges
Psalm 58
1 For the music director: “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David.
2 Do you really speak of justice, O “gods”?
Do you judge with fairness, sons of man?
3 No, in heart you devise injustice.
Your hands weigh out violence on earth.
4 The wicked are strangers from the womb.
Speaking lies, they go astray from birth.
5 Their venom is like a serpent’s venom,
like a deaf cobra shutting its ear—
6 not hearing the voice of charmers,
or a cunning spell binder.
7 O God, break their teeth in their mouths.
Tear out the fangs of young lions, Adonai.
8 Let them flow away like water that runs off.
When he bends his bow, let the arrows be cut off.
9 Like a slug melting away as it slithers,
like a woman’s miscarriage,
may they never see the sun.
10 Even before your pots can feel a thorn
—whether alive or ablaze—
He will sweep the wicked away.
11 The righteous one will rejoice
when he beholds vengeance,
when he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked.
12 Then men will say:
“There really is a reward for the righteous.
There really is a God who judges on earth!”
Protect Me from Conspiracies
Psalm 64
1 For the music director, a psalm of David.
2 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint.
Protect my life from terror of the enemy.
3 Hide me from the conspiracy of evildoers,
from the tumult of workers of iniquity,
4 who sharpened their tongue like a sword,
and aimed their arrow—bitter words,
5 to shoot from hiding at the innocent,
shooting suddenly at him, with no fear.
6 They are firming up their evil plan.
They talk about setting secret traps.
They asked, “Who would see them?”
7 They are plotting injustices:
“We have completed a perfect plot!”
A man’s inward part and heart are deep.
8 But God will shoot them with an arrow—
suddenly their wounds will appear.
9 So their tongue will be their downfall.
All who see them will flee away.
10 Then all men will fear.
So they will declare the work of God,
and ponder what He has done.
11 The righteous will be glad in Adonai and take refuge in Him.
Let all the upright in heart give glory!
Praise is Awaitng You in Zion
Psalm 65
1 For the music director, a psalm, a song of David.
2 Praise is awaiting You in Zion, O God,
and to You the vow will be fulfilled.
3 O You who hear prayer,
to You all flesh will come.
4 Records of sins overwhelm me—
You will atone for our transgressions.
5 Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts!
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your House—Your holy Temple.
6 You respond to us in righteousness with awe-inspiring works
—O God of our salvation—
hope of all ends of the earth and farthest seas,
7 who establishes mountains by His power,
being girded with might,
8 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the tumult of the peoples.
9 Those dwelling in the uttermost parts stand in awe of Your signs.
You make morning and evening shout for joy.
10 You visit the land and make it abundant,
greatly enriching it—
the stream of God is full of water.
You prepare their grain,
for so You have prepared the earth.
11 You drench her furrows,
leveling the ridges.
You soften her with showers,
blessing her growth.
12 You crown the year with Your goodness.
Your wagon tracks drip with abundance.
13 Pastures of the wilderness overflow
and hills are robed with joy.
14 Meadows are clothed with flocks
and valleys are covered with grain—
they shout for joy, yes, they sing!
16 Then the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake Adonai to worship other gods! 17 For it was Adonai our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us all along the way that we travelled and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. 18 It was Adonai who drove out from before us all the peoples, the Amorites that lived in the land. Therefore we also will worship Adonai, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to worship Adonai, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not pardon your transgression and your sins. 20 If you forsake Adonai and worship foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done good to you.”
21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! For we will worship Adonai.”
22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses to yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves Adonai, to worship Him.”
“We are witnesses,” they responded.
23 “Now therefore, get rid of the foreign gods that are in your midst, and incline your hearts to Adonai, God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will worship none but Adonai our God, and we will obey none but His voice.”
25 So Joshua cut a covenant with the people that day, and set for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26 Then Joshua wrote these words in the scroll of the Torah of God. Also he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the Sanctuary of Adonai. 27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone will be a witness to us. For it has heard all the words of Adonai which He has spoken to us. So it will be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.”
28 Joshua then dismissed the people, each to his own inheritance.
29 Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Adonai, died at the age of 110 years. 30 So they buried him in the territory of his own portion in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 31 Israel worshipped Adonai all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work of Adonai that He had done for Israel.
32 Joseph’s bones, which Bnei-Yisrael had brought up from Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the parcel of ground that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for 100 pieces of silver.[a] It became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
33 Then Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah, which had been given to Phinehas his son, in the hill country of Ephraim.
Welcome the Apostolic Team
16 Now I recommend to you our sister Phoebe—who is a servant-leader of Messiah’s community at Cenchrea— 2 so you may receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of kedoshim, and help her in whatever matter she may need from you. For she herself has become a patroness of many, including me as well.
3 Greet Prisca[a] and Aquila, my fellow workers in Messiah Yeshua, 4 who risked their own necks for my life. Not only I give them thanks, but also all of Messiah’s communities among the Gentiles. 5 Greet also the community that meets in their house. Greet Epaenetus whom I dearly love, who is the first fruit in Asia[b] for Messiah.
6 Greet Miriam, who has worked hard for you.
7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kin and fellow prisoners who are well known[c] among the emissaries. They were in Messiah before me.
8 Greet Ampliatus, whom I dearly love in the Lord.
9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Messiah, and Stachys whom I dearly love.
10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Messiah. Greet those from the household of Aristobulus.
11 Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those from the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Persis whom I dearly love, who has worked hard in the Lord.
13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother—who was also a mother to me.
14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters with them.
15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, also Olympas and all the kedoshim with them.
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All of Messiah’s communities greet you.
24 When Pilate saw he was accomplishing nothing, but instead a riot was starting, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this blood,”[a] he said. “You see to it yourselves!”
25 All the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children!”[b]
26 Then he released to them Bar-Abba. And after he had Yeshua scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
Nailed to a Stake
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Yeshua into the Praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around Him. 28 They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe around Him. 29 And after braiding a crown of thorns, they placed it on His head and put a staff in His right hand. And falling on their knees before Him, they mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat on Him, and they took the staff and beat Him over and over on the head. 31 When they finished mocking Him, they stripped the robe off Him and put His own clothes back on Him. And they led Him away to crucify Him.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.