Book of Common Prayer
25 (0) By David:
(1) I lift my inner being to you, Adonai;
2 I trust you, my God.
Don’t let me be disgraced,
don’t let my enemies gloat over me.
3 No one waiting for you will be disgraced;
disgrace awaits those who break faith for no reason.
4 Make me know your ways, Adonai,
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth, and teach me;
for you are the God who saves me,
my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember your compassion and grace, Adonai;
for these are ages old.
7 Don’t remember my youthful sins or transgressions;
but remember me according to your grace
for the sake of your goodness, Adonai.
8 Adonai is good, and he is fair;
this is why he teaches sinners the way [to live],
9 leads the humble to do what is right
and teaches the humble [to live] his way.
10 All Adonai’s paths are grace and truth
to those who keep his covenant and instructions.
11 For the sake of your name, Adonai,
forgive my wickedness, great though it is.
12 Who is the person who fears Adonai?
He will teach him the way to choose.
13 He will remain prosperous,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 Adonai relates intimately with those who fear him;
he makes them know his covenant.
15 My eyes are always directed toward Adonai,
for he will free my feet from the net.
16 Turn to me, and show me your favor;
for I am alone and oppressed.
17 The troubles of my heart are growing and growing;
bring me out of my distress.
18 See my affliction and suffering,
and take all my sins away.
19 Consider my enemies, how many there are
and how cruelly they hate me.
20 Protect me and rescue me;
don’t let me be disgraced,
for I take refuge in you.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
because my hope is in you.
22 God! Redeem Isra’el
from all their troubles!
9 (0) For the leader. On the death of Labben. A psalm of David:
2 (1) I give thanks to Adonai with all my heart.
I will tell about all your wonderful deeds.
3 (2) I will be glad and exult in you.
I will sing praise to your name, ‘Elyon.
4 (3) When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before you.
5 (4) For you upheld my cause as just,
sitting on the throne as the righteous judge.
6 (5) You rebuked the nations, destroyed the wicked,
blotted out their name forever and ever.
7 (6) The enemy is finished, in ruins forever;
you destroyed their cities; all memory of them is lost.
8 (7) But Adonai is enthroned forever;
he has set up his throne for judgment.
9 (8) He will judge the world in righteousness;
he will judge the peoples fairly.
10 (9) Adonai is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a tower of strength in times of trouble.
11 (10) Those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you have not abandoned those who seek you, Adonai.
12 (11) Sing praises to Adonai, who lives in Tziyon;
proclaim his deeds among the peoples.
13 (12) For the avenger of blood remembers them,
he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted:
14 (13) “Have mercy on me, Adonai!
See how I suffer from those who hate me;
you raise me from the gates of death,
15 (14) so that I can proclaim all your praises
at the gates of the daughter of Tziyon
and rejoice in this deliverance of yours.”
16 (15) The nations have drowned in the pit they dug,
caught their own feet in the net they hid.
17 (16) Adonai made himself known and executed judgment;
the wicked are ensnared in the work of their own hands. (Higgayon; Selah)
18 (17) The wicked will return to Sh’ol,
all the nations that forget God.
19 (18) For the poor will not always be forgotten
or the hope of the needy perish forever.
20 (19) Arise, Adonai! Don’t let mortals prevail!
Let the nations be judged in your presence.
21 (20) Strike them with terror, Adonai!
Let the nations know they are only human. (Selah)
15 (0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, who can rest in your tent?
Who can live on your holy mountain?
2 Those who live a blameless life,
who behave uprightly,
who speak truth from their hearts
3 and keep their tongues from slander;
who never do harm to others
or seek to discredit neighbors;
4 who look with scorn on the vile,
but honor those who fear Adonai;
who hold to an oath, no matter the cost;
5 who refuse usury when they lend money
and refuse a bribe to damage the innocent.
Those who do these things
never will be moved.
9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves diligently as long as you live, so that you won’t forget what you saw with your own eyes, so that these things won’t vanish from your hearts. Rather, make them known to your children and grandchildren — 10 the day you stood before Adonai your God at Horev, when Adonai said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my very words, so that they will learn to hold me in awe as long as they live on earth, and so that they will teach their children.’ 11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain; and the mountain blazed with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, clouds and thick mist. 12 Then Adonai spoke to you out of the fire! You heard the sound of words but saw no shape, there was only a voice. 13 He proclaimed his covenant to you, which he ordered you to obey, the Ten Words; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. 14 At that time Adonai ordered me to teach you laws and rulings, so that you would live by them in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.
1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy
To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, along with all God’s people throughout Achaia:
2 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
3 Praised be God, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, compassionate Father, God of all encouragement and comfort; 4 who encourages us in all our trials, so that we can encourage others in whatever trials they may be undergoing with the encouragement we ourselves have received from God.
5 For just as the Messiah’s sufferings overflow into us, so through the Messiah our encouragement also overflows. 6 So if we undergo trials, it is for your encouragement and deliverance; and if we are encouraged, that should encourage you when you have to endure sufferings like those we are experiencing. 7 Moreover, our hope for you remains staunch, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you will also share in the encouragement.
8 For, brothers, we want you to know about the trials we have undergone in the province of Asia. The burden laid on us was so far beyond what we could bear that we even despaired of living through it. 9 In our hearts we felt we were under sentence of death. However, this was to get us to rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead! 10 He rescued us from such deadly peril, and he will rescue us again! The one in whom we have placed our hope will indeed continue to rescue us. 11 And you must add your help by praying for us; for the more people there are praying, the more people there will be to give thanks when their prayer for us is answered.
25 Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid. 27 Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot be my talmid.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it? 29 If you don’t, then when you have laid the foundation but can’t finish, all the onlookers start making fun of you 30 and say, ‘This is the man who began to build, but couldn’t finish!’
31 “Or again, suppose one king is going out to wage war with another king. Doesn’t he first sit down and consider whether he, with his ten thousand troops, has enough strength to meet the other one, who is coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he hasn’t, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to inquire about terms for peace.
33 “So every one of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has cannot be my talmid. 34 Salt is excellent. But if even the salt becomes tasteless, what can be used to season it? 35 It is fit for neither soil nor manure — people throw it out. Those who have ears that can hear, let them hear!”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.