Book of Common Prayer
63 (0) A psalm of David, when he was in the desert of Y’hudah:
2 (1) O God, you are my God;
I will seek you eagerly.
My heart thirsts for you,
my body longs for you
in a land parched and exhausted,
where no water can be found.
3 (2) I used to contemplate you in the sanctuary,
seeing your power and glory;
4 (3) for your grace is better than life.
My lips will worship you.
5 (4) Yes, I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
6 (5) I am as satisfied as with rich food;
my mouth praises you with joy on my lips
7 (6) when I remember you on my bed
and meditate on you in the night watches.
8 (7) For you have been my help;
in the shadow of your wings I rejoice;
9 (8) my heart clings to you;
your right hand supports me.
10 (9) But those who seek to destroy my life —
may they go to the lowest parts of the earth.
11 (10) May they be given over to the power of the sword;
may they become prey for jackals.
12 (11) But the king will rejoice in God.
Everyone who swears by him will exult,
for the mouths of liars will be silenced.
98 (0) A psalm:
(1) Sing a new song to Adonai,
because he has done wonders.
His right hand, his holy arm
have won him victory.
2 Adonai has made known his victory;
revealed his vindication in full view of the nations,
3 remembered his grace and faithfulness
to the house of Isra’el.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
4 Shout for joy to Adonai, all the earth!
Break forth, sing for joy, sing praises!
5 Sing praises to Adonai with the lyre,
with the lyre and melodious music!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the shofar,
shout for joy before the king, Adonai!
7 Let the sea roar, and everything in it;
the world, and those living in it.
8 Let the floods clap their hands;
let the mountains sing together for joy
9 before Adonai, for he has come to judge the earth;
he will judge the world rightly and the peoples fairly.
103 (0) By David:
(1) Bless Adonai, my soul!
Everything in me, bless his holy name!
2 Bless Adonai, my soul,
and forget none of his benefits!
3 He forgives all your offenses,
he heals all your diseases,
4 he redeems your life from the pit,
he surrounds you with grace and compassion,
5 he contents you with good as long as you live,
so that your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.
6 Adonai brings vindication and justice
to all who are oppressed.
7 He made his ways known to Moshe,
his mighty deeds to the people of Isra’el.
8 Adonai is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in grace.
9 He will not always accuse,
he will not keep his anger forever.
10 He has not treated us as our sins deserve
or paid us back for our offenses,
11 because his mercy toward those who fear him
is as far above earth as heaven.
12 He has removed our sins from us
as far as the east is from the west.
13 Just as a father has compassion on his children,
Adonai has compassion on those who fear him.
14 For he understands how we are made,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 Yes, a human being’s days are like grass,
he sprouts like a flower in the countryside —
16 but when the wind sweeps over, it’s gone;
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the mercy of Adonai on those who fear him
is from eternity past to eternity future,
and his righteousness extends
to his children’s children,
18 provided they keep his covenant
and remember to follow his precepts.
19 Adonai has established his throne in heaven;
his kingly power rules everything.
20 Bless Adonai, you angels of his,
you mighty warriors who obey his word,
who carry out his orders!
21 Bless Adonai, all his troops,
who serve him and do what he wants!
22 Bless Adonai, all his works,
in every place where he rules!
Bless Adonai, my soul!
8 “All the mitzvot I am giving you today you are to take care to obey, so that you will live, increase your numbers, enter and take possession of the land Adonai swore about to your ancestors. 2 You are to remember everything of the way in which Adonai led you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was in your heart — whether you would obey his mitzvot or not. 3 He humbled you, allowing you to become hungry, and then fed you with man, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that a person does not live on food alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of Adonai. 4 During these forty years the clothing you were wearing didn’t grow old, and your feet didn’t swell up. 5 Think deeply about it: Adonai was disciplining you, just as a man disciplines his child. 6 So obey the mitzvot of Adonai your God, living as he directs and fearing him. 7 For Adonai your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs and water welling up from the depths in valleys and on hillsides. 8 It is a land of wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food in abundance and lack nothing in it; a land where the stones contain iron and the hills can be mined for copper. 10 So you will eat and be satisfied, and you will bless Adonai your God for the good land he has given you.
17 For the Messiah did not send me to immerse but to proclaim the Good News — and to do it without relying on “wisdom” that consists of mere rhetoric, so as not to rob the Messiah’s execution-stake of its power. 18 For the message about the execution-stake is nonsense to those in the process of being destroyed, but to us in the process of being saved it is the power of God. 19 Indeed, the Tanakh says,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent.”[a]
20 Where does that leave the philosopher, the Torah-teacher, or any of today’s thinkers? Hasn’t God made this world’s wisdom look pretty foolish? 21 For God’s wisdom ordained that the world, using its own wisdom, would not come to know him. Therefore God decided to use the “nonsense” of what we proclaim as his means of saving those who come to trust in it. 22 Precisely because Jews ask for signs and Greeks try to find wisdom, 23 we go on proclaiming a Messiah executed on a stake as a criminal! To Jews this is an obstacle, and to Greeks it is nonsense; 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, this same Messiah is God’s power and God’s wisdom! 25 For God’s “nonsense” is wiser than humanity’s “wisdom.”
And God’s “weakness” is stronger than humanity’s “strength.” 26 Just look at yourselves, brothers — look at those whom God has called! Not many of you are wise by the world’s standards, not many wield power or boast noble birth. 27 But God chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise; God chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the strong; 28 and God chose what the world looks down on as common or regards as nothing in order to bring to nothing what the world considers important; 29 so that no one should boast before God. 30 It is his doing that you are united with the Messiah Yeshua. He has become wisdom for us from God, and righteousness and holiness and redemption as well! 31 Therefore — as the Tanakh says — “Let anyone who wants to boast, boast about Adonai.”[b]
18 Also Yochanan’s talmidim and the P’rushim were fasting; and they came and asked Yeshua, “Why is it that Yochanan’s talmidim and the talmidim of the P’rushim fast, but your talmidim don’t fast?” 19 Yeshua answered them, “Can wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, fasting is out of the question. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; and when that day comes, they will fast. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old coat; if he does, the new patch tears away from the old cloth and leaves a worse hole. 22 And no one puts new wine in old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is for freshly prepared wineskins.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.