Book of Common Prayer
ק (Kuf)
145 Wholeheartedly I am calling on you;
answer me, Adonai; I will keep your laws.
146 I am calling on you; save me;
and I will observe your instruction.
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I put my hope in your word.
148 My eyes are open before the night watches,
so that I can meditate on your promise.
149 In your grace, hear my voice;
Adonai, in keeping with your justice, revive me.
150 The pursuers of carnality are getting close;
they are distancing themselves from your Torah.
151 You are close by, Adonai;
and all your mitzvot are truth.
152 Long ago I learned from your instruction
that you established it forever.
ר (Resh)
153 Look at my distress, and rescue me,
for I do not forget your Torah.
154 Plead my cause, and redeem me;
in keeping with your promise, revive me.
155 Salvation is far away from the wicked,
because they don’t seek your laws.
156 Great is your compassion, Adonai;
in keeping with your rulings, revive me.
157 Although my persecutors and foes are many,
I have not turned away from your instruction.
158 I look at traitors with disgust,
because they don’t keep your word.
159 See how I love your precepts, Adonai;
in keeping with your grace, revive me.
160 The main thing about your word is that it’s true;
and all your just rulings last forever.
ש (Shin)
161 Princes persecute me for no reason,
but my heart stands in awe of your words.
162 I take joy in your promise,
like someone who finds much booty.
163 I hate falsehood, I detest it;
but I love your Torah.
164 I praise you seven times a day
because of your righteous rulings.
165 Those who love your Torah have great peace;
nothing makes them stumble.
166 I hope for your deliverance, Adonai;
I obey your mitzvot.
167 My soul observes your instruction,
and I love it so much!
168 I observe your precepts and instruction,
for all my ways lie open before you.
ת (Tav)
169 Let my cry come before you, Adonai;
in keeping with your word, give me understanding.
170 Let my prayer come before you;
in keeping with your promise, rescue me.
171 Let my lips speak praise,
because you teach me your laws.
172 Let my tongue sing of your promise,
because all your mitzvot are righteous.
173 Let your hand be ready to help me,
because I choose your precepts.
174 I long for your deliverance, Adonai;
and your Torah is my delight.
175 Let me live, and I will praise you;
let your rulings help me.
176 I strayed like a lost sheep; seek out your servant;
for I do not forget your mitzvot.
128 (0) A song of ascents:
(1) How happy is everyone who fears Adonai,
who lives by his ways.
2 You will eat what your hands have produced;
you will be happy and prosperous.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
in the inner parts of your house.
Your children around the table will be
like shoots from an olive tree.
4 This is the kind of blessing that will fall
on him who fears Adonai.
5 May Adonai bless you from Tziyon!
May you see Yerushalayim prosper
all the days of your life,
6 and may you live to see your children’s children!
Shalom on Isra’el.
129 (0) A song of ascents:
(1) Since I was young they have often attacked me —
let Isra’el repeat it —
2 since I was young they have often attacked me,
but they haven’t overcome me.
3 The plowmen plowed on my back;
wounding me with long furrows.
4 But Adonai is righteous;
he cuts me free from the yoke of the wicked.
5 Let all who hate Tziyon
be thrown back in confusion.
6 Let them be like grass on the roof,
which dries out before it grows up
7 and never fills the reaper’s hands
or the arms of the one who binds sheaves,
8 so that no passer-by says,
“Adonai’s blessing on you!
We bless you in the name of Adonai!”
130 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, I call to you from the depths;
2 hear my cry, Adonai!
Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.
3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins,
who, Adonai, could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.
5 I wait longingly for Adonai;
I put my hope in his word.
6 Everything in me waits for Adonai
more than guards on watch wait for morning,
more than guards on watch wait for morning.
7 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai!
For grace is found with Adonai,
and with him is unlimited redemption.
8 He will redeem Isra’el
from all their wrongdoings.
30 “As for you, [Yirmeyahu,] prophesy all these words against them; say to them,
‘Adonai is roaring from on high,
raising his voice from his holy dwelling,
roaring with might against his own habitation,
shouting out loud, like those who tread grapes,
against everyone living on earth.
31 The sound resounds to the ends of the earth,
for Adonai is indicting the nations,
about to pass judgment on all humankind;
the wicked he has handed over to the sword,’
says Adonai.” 32 Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:
“Disaster is spreading from nation to nation,
a mighty tempest is being unleashed
from the farthest ends of the earth.”
33 On that day, those killed by Adonai will be strewn
from one end of the earth to the other;
they will not be mourned or gathered or buried,
but will lie on the ground like dung.
34 “Wail, shepherds! Cry!
Wallow in the dust, you lords of the flock!
For the days for your slaughter have come.
I will break you in pieces,
and like a prized vase you will fall.”
35 The shepherds have no way to flee,
the lords of the flock no way to escape.
36 Hear the cry of the shepherds,
the wails of the lords of the flock!
For Adonai is destroying their pasture,
37 the peaceful grazing grounds are silenced,
because of Adonai’s fierce anger.
38 Like a lion, he has abandoned his lair;
for their land has become desolate
because of the oppressor’s fierce sword
and because of Adonai’s fierce anger.
14 But how can they call on someone if they haven’t trusted in him? And how can they trust in someone if they haven’t heard about him? And how can they hear about someone if no one is proclaiming him? 15 And how can people proclaim him unless God sends them? — as the Tanakh puts it, “How beautiful are the feet of those announcing good news about good things!”[a]
16 The problem is that they haven’t all paid attention to the Good News and obeyed it. For Yesha‘yahu says,
“Adonai, who has trusted what he has heard from us?”[b]
17 So trust comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through a word proclaimed about the Messiah.
18 “But, I say, isn’t it rather that they didn’t hear?” No, they did hear —
“Their voice has gone out throughout the whole world
and their words to the ends of the earth.”[c]
19 “But, I say, isn’t it rather that Isra’el didn’t understand?”
“I will provoke you to jealousy over a non-nation,
over a nation void of understanding I will make you angry.”[d]
20 Moreover, Yesha‘yahu boldly says,
“I was found by those who were not looking for me,
I became known to those who did not ask for me”;[e]
21 but to Isra’el he says,
“All day long I held out my hands
to a people who kept disobeying and contradicting.”[f]
10 “Yes, indeed! I tell you, the person who doesn’t enter the sheep-pen through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 But the one who goes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. 3 This is the one the gate-keeper admits, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out. 4 After taking out all that are his own, he goes on ahead of them; and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. 5 They never follow a stranger but will run away from him, because strangers’ voices are unfamiliar to them.”
6 Yeshua used this indirect manner of speaking with them, but they didn’t understand what he was talking to them about. 7 So Yeshua said to them again, “Yes, indeed! I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All those who have come before me have been thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. 13 The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me — 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. 16 Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again! 18 No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.