Book of Common Prayer
My Help and My Deliverer
Psalm 70
1 For the music director, of David, for a memorial.
2 O God, come quickly to deliver me,
Adonai, to help me.
3 May they be put to shame and disgrace
who seek my life.
May they be turned back in humiliation
who delight in my hurt.
4 May those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
be turned away because of their shame.
5 But may all who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You.
May those who love Your salvation
always say, “Let God be magnified.”
6 But I am poor and needy—
God, come quickly to me.
You are my help and my deliverer—
Adonai, do not delay.
My Hope When I Am Gray
Psalm 71
1 In You, Adonai, have I taken refuge.
Let me never be ashamed.
2 Deliver me and rescue me in Your justice.
Turn Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a sheltering rock where I may always go.
Give the command to save me—
for You are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the grasp of an evil, ruthless man.
5 For You are my hope, Adonai my Lord—
my trust from my youth.
6 From my birth I have leaned on You.
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise is always about You.
7 I am like an ominous sign to many,
but You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with Your praise
and with Your glory all day.
9 Do not cast me away in the time of old age.
When my strength fails, do not forsake me.
10 For my enemies speak against me.
Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
11 saying: “God has forsaken him—
Pursue and take him, for no one will deliver.”
12 O God, be not far from me!
My God, come quickly to help me.
13 Let the accusers of my soul
be disgraced and destroyed.
Let those who seek to harm me
be covered with scorn and confusion.
14 But I—I will hope continually
and will praise You more and more.
15 My mouth will recount Your justice and Your salvation all day,
though I do not know the sum of them.
16 I come because of the mighty deeds of Adonai my Lord.
I will remember Your righteousness—Yours alone.
17 God, You taught me from my youth,
and I still keep declaring Your wonders.
18 So even until I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
till I tell of Your strong arm to the next generation,
Your might to all who are to come.
19 For Your righteousness, O God,
reaches to high heaven.
You have done great things—O God,
who is like You?
20 You made me see many troubles and evils
—You will revive me again—
from the depths of the earth
You will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and comfort me once again.
22 So I will praise You with the harp for your truth, O my God.
I will sing praises to You with the lyre O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy
—when I sing praises to You—
and my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 Also my tongue will tell of Your righteousness all day.
For those who seek my hurt have been put to shame and confusion.
Intercession for Restoration of Zion
Psalm 74
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Why have You cast us off forever, O God?
Why does Your anger smolder against the flock of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased of old,
redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance,
and Mount Zion, where You dwelt.
3 Lift Your steps toward the perpetual ruins—
an enemy has done all evil to the Sanctuary!
4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place.
They have set up their standards as signs.
5 It seemed like bringing up axes
into a thicket of trees—
6 and now all its carved work
they smash with hatchet and hammers!
7 They set Your Sanctuary on fire,
burning it to the ground.
They defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
8 They said in their hearts: “Let us crush them totally!”
They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs.
No longer is there any prophet—
and no one among us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary mock?
Will the enemy revile Your Name forever?
11 Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?
Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them!
12 Yet God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the land.
13 You split the sea with Your power.
You smashed the monsters’ heads in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan,
giving him as food to the desert dwellers.
15 You opened up spring and brook.
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours.
You provided moon and sun.
17 You set all the borders of earth.
You made summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy mocked, Adonai,
and how foolish people despised Your Name.
19 Do not deliver Your turtledove’s soul to the wild beast.
Do not forget the life of Your afflicted ones forever.
20 Look upon the covenant—for haunts of violence
fill the dark places of earth.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame.
But let the poor and needy praise Your Name.
22 Rise up O God, and defend Your cause.
Remember how the fool mocks You all day.
23 Do not forget the noise of Your foes,
the uproar of those rising up against You,
ascending continually.
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.
Not Welcome in the Gerasenes
26 They sailed over to the country of the Gerasenes, which is on the opposite side of the Galilee. 27 A demon-plagued man from the town met Yeshua as He was coming out onto the land. The man hadn’t worn any clothing for a long time and was living not in a house but in the tombs.
28 Seeing Yeshua, he cried out and fell down before Yeshua, and with a loud voice said, “What’s between You and me, Yeshua, Ben El Elyon? I’m begging You, do not torment me!” 29 For Yeshua commanded the defiling spirit to come out of the man. For many times it had seized him so that, even though he was restrained and bound with chains and shackles, he would break the chains and be driven by the demons into the desert.
30 Yeshua questioned him, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he said, for many demons had entered him. 31 They kept begging Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. [a] 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding on the mountain. The demons urged Yeshua to let them enter these pigs, and He gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered into the pigs. The herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and was drowned. 34 But when the herdsmen saw what happened, they ran away and reported it in the town and countryside.
35 People went out to see what had happened. They came to Yeshua and found the man from whom the demons had gone—clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Yeshua. And they were frightened. 36 Now those who had seen it reported how the demon-plagued man had been restored. 37 And all the people from the region surrounding the Gerasenes asked Yeshua to go away from them because they were overcome by great fear. So He got into a boat and returned.
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Yeshua. But Yeshua sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and describe all that God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole town all that Yeshua had done for him.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.