Book of Common Prayer
69 (0) For the leader. Set to “Lilies.” By David:
2 (1) Save me, God!
For the water threatens my life.
3 (2) I am sinking down in the mud,
and there is no foothold;
I have come into deep water;
the flood is sweeping over me.
4 (3) I am exhausted from crying,
my throat is dry and sore,
my eyes are worn out
with looking for my God.
5 (4) Those who hate me for no reason
outnumber the hairs on my head.
My persecutors are powerful,
my enemies accuse me falsely.
Am I expected to return
things I didn’t steal?
6 (5) God, you know how foolish I am;
my guilt is not hidden from you.
7 (6) Let those who put their hope in you,
Adonai Elohim-Tzva’ot,
not be put to shame through me;
let those who are seeking you,
God of Isra’el,
not be disgraced through me.
8 (7) For your sake I suffer insults,
shame covers my face.
9 (8) I am estranged from my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s children,
10 (9) because zeal for your house is eating me up,
and on me are falling the insults
of those insulting you.
11 (10) I weep bitterly, and I fast,
but that too occasions insults.
12 (11) I clothe myself with sackcloth
and become an object of scorn,
13 (12) the gossip of those sitting by the town gate,
the theme of drunkards’ songs.
14 (13) As for me, Adonai, let my prayer to you
come at an acceptable time;
In your great grace, God, answer me
with the truth of your salvation.
15 (14) Rescue me from the mud!
Don’t let me sink!
Let me be rescued from those who hate me
and from the deep water.
16 (15) Don’t let the floodwaters overwhelm me,
don’t let the deep swallow me up,
don’t let the pit close its mouth over me.
17 (16) Answer me, Adonai, for your grace is good;
in your great mercy, turn to me.
18 (17) Don’t hide your face from your servant,
for I am in trouble; answer me quickly.
19 (18) Come near to me, and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.
20 (19) You know how I am insulted,
shamed and disgraced;
before you stand all my foes.
21 (20) Insults have broken my heart
to the point that I could die.
I hoped that someone would show compassion,
but nobody did;
and that there would be comforters,
but I found none.
22 (21) They put poison in my food;
in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
23 (22) Let their dining table
before them become a snare;
when they are at peace,
let it become a trap;
24 (23) let their eyes be darkened,
so that they can’t see,
and let their bodies
always be stumbling.
25 (24) Pour out your fury on them,
let your fierce anger overtake them.
26 (25) Let the place where they live be desolate,
with no one to live in their tents,
27 (26) for persecuting someone you had already stricken,
for adding to the pain of those you wounded.
28 (27) Add guilt to their guilt,
don’t let them enter your righteousness.
29 (28) Erase them from the book of life,
let them not be written with the righteous.
30 (29) Meanwhile, I am afflicted and hurting;
God, let your saving power raise me up.
31 (30) I will praise God’s name with a song
and extol him with thanksgiving.
32 (31) This will please Adonai more than a bull,
with its horns and hoofs.
33 (32) The afflicted will see it and rejoice;
you seeking after God, let your heart revive.
34 (33) For Adonai pays attention to the needy
and doesn’t scorn his captive people.
35 (34) Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them.
36 (35) For God will save Tziyon,
he will build the cities of Y’hudah.
[His people] will settle there and possess it.
37 (36) The descendants of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will live there.
Book III: Psalms 73–89
73 (0) A psalm of Asaf:
(1) How good God is to Isra’el,
to those who are pure in heart!
2 But as for me, I lost my balance,
my feet nearly slipped,
3 when I grew envious of the arrogant
and saw how the wicked prosper.
4 For when their death comes, it is painless;
and meanwhile, their bodies are healthy;
5 they don’t have ordinary people’s troubles,
they aren’t plagued like others.
6 So for them, pride is a necklace;
and violence clothes them like a robe.
7 Their eyes peep out through folds of fat;
evil thoughts overflow from their hearts.
8 They scoff and speak with malice,
they loftily utter threats.
9 They set their mouths against heaven;
their tongues swagger through the earth.
10 Therefore his people return here
and [thoughtlessly] suck up that whole cup of water.
11 Then they ask, “How does God know?
Does the Most High really have knowledge?”
12 Yes, this is what the wicked are like;
those free of misfortune keep increasing their wealth.
13 It’s all for nothing that I’ve kept my heart clean
and washed my hands, staying free of guilt;
14 for all day long I am plagued;
my punishment comes every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will talk like them,”
I would have betrayed a generation of your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
I found it too hard for me —
17 until I went into the sanctuaries of God
and grasped what their destiny would be.
18 Indeed, you place them on a slippery slope
and make them fall to their ruin.
19 How suddenly they are destroyed,
swept away by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakens;
Adonai, when you rouse yourself,
you will despise their phantoms.
21 When I had a sour attitude
and felt stung by pained emotions,
22 I was too stupid to understand;
I was like a brute beast with you.
23 Nevertheless, I am always with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your advice;
and afterwards, you will receive me with honor.
25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?
And with you, I lack nothing on earth.
26 My mind and body may fail; but God
is the rock for my mind and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who adulterously leave you.
28 But for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made Adonai Elohim my refuge,
so that I can tell of all your works.
56 Here is what Adonai says:
“Observe justice, do what is right,
for my salvation is close to coming,
my righteousness to being revealed.”
2 Happy is the person who does this,
anyone who grasps it firmly,
who keeps Shabbat and does not profane it,
and keeps himself from doing any evil.
3 A foreigner joining Adonai should not say,
“Adonai will separate me from his people”;
likewise the eunuch should not say,
“I am only a dried-up tree.”
4 For here is what Adonai says:
“As for the eunuchs who keep my Shabbats,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant:
5 in my house, within my walls,
I will give them power and a name
greater than sons and daughters;
I will give him an everlasting name
that will not be cut off.
6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to Adonai
to serve him, to love the name of Adonai,
and to be his workers,
all who keep Shabbat and do not profane it,
and hold fast to my covenant,
7 I will bring them to my holy mountain
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8 Adonai Elohim says,
he who gathers Isra’el’s exiles:
“There are yet others I will gather,
besides those gathered already.”
16 What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. 17 For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.
19 And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; 20 involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue 21 and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires.
2 Six days later, Yeshua took Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan and led them up a high mountain privately. As they watched, he began to change form, 3 and his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than anyone in the world could possibly bleach them. 4 Then they saw Eliyahu and Moshe speaking with Yeshua. 5 Kefa said to Yeshua, “It’s good that we’re here, Rabbi! Let’s put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moshe and one for Eliyahu.” 6 (He didn’t know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7 Then a cloud enveloped them; and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Yeshua.
9 As they came down the mountain, he warned them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves; but they continued asking each other, “What is this ‘rising from the dead’?” 11 They also asked him, “Why do the Torah-teachers say that Eliyahu has to come first?” 12 “Eliyahu will indeed come first,” he answered, “and he will restore everything. Nevertheless, why is it written in the Tanakh that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 There’s more to it: I tell you that Eliyahu has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as the Tanakh says about him.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.