Book of Common Prayer
Walking with Integrity
Psalm 26
1 Of David.
Vindicate me, Adonai,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and trusted in Adonai without wavering.
2 Probe me, Adonai, and test me,
refine my mind and my heart.
3 For Your love is before my eyes
and I have walked in Your truth.
4 I have not sat with men of falsehood,
nor do I consort with hypocrites.
5 I detest the company of evildoers,
and do not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence,
so I can walk around Your altar, Adonai,
7 hearing the voice of thanksgiving
while proclaiming all Your wonders.
8 Adonai, I love the House where You live,
the place where Your glory dwells.
9 Do not take my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with people of bloodshed—
10 in whose hands are wicked schemes,
whose right hand is full of bribes.
11 But I—I will walk in my integrity.
Redeem me and be gracious to me.
12 My feet stand on level ground.
In congregations I will bless Adonai.
Hoshia-na!
Psalm 28
1 Of David.
To You, Adonai, I call—
my Rock, do not be deaf to me.
If You were silent to me,
I would become like those going down to the Pit.
2 Hear the sound of my pleas,
when I cry to You for help,
when I lift up my hands toward Your holy Sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked and with doers of iniquity,
who speak peace with their neighbors,
while evil is in their hearts.
4 Repay them for their deeds, their evil acts.
Repay them for the deeds of their hands.
Bring back on them what they deserve.
5 Since they show no regard for the deeds of Adonai
nor the work of His hands,
He will tear them down
and never build them up.
6 Blessed be Adonai, because He has heard
the sound of my supplications.
7 Adonai is my strength and my shield.[a]
My heart trusts in Him, and I was helped.
Therefore my heart leaps for joy,
and I will praise Him with my song.
8 Adonai is their strength—
a stronghold of salvation for His anointed.
9 Save Your people, bless Your inheritance,
shepherd them and carry them forever.
With God Is the Fountain of Life
Psalm 36
1 For the music director, of David the servant of Adonai.
2 An oracle of Transgression—within my heart, to the wicked one:
“There is no fear of God before his eyes.[a]
3 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to notice his iniquity—or hate it.
4 His mouth’s words are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and do good.
5 Even on his bed he plans sin.
He puts himself on a path that is no good, never refusing evil.”
6 Your love, Adonai, is in the heavens,
Your faithfulness up to the skies.
7 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.
Your judgments are like the great deep.
You preserve man and beast, Adonai.
8 How precious is Your love, O God!
The children of men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
9 They drink their fill from the abundance of Your House.
You give them drink from the river of Your delights.
10 For with You is the fountain of life—
in Your light we see light.
11 Continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
and Your justice to the upright in heart.
12 May the foot of pride never tread on me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
13 There the evildoers lie fallen—
thrown down, not able to rise!
Make Me Know the Number of My Days
Psalm 39
1 For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2 I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3 So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
4 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
5 “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
6 Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7 Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.[a]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10 I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
11 Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12 With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13 Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
14 Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”
15 “So be very watchful over your souls since you saw no form on the day that Adonai spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image in the likeness of any figure—the form of a male or female, 17 the form of any animal that is on the earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18 the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the water under the earth— 19 and so that you do not lift up your eyes toward the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the heavenly host—and are drawn away and bow down and worship them. Adonai your God has allotted them to all the peoples under all the heavens. 20 But you, Adonai has taken, and He brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people for His own inheritance, as you are this day.
21 “Furthermore Adonai was angry with me because of your words, and He swore that I would not cross over the Jordan or enter the good land that Adonai your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 For I must die in this land; I am not crossing over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of that good land. 23 Watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of Adonai your God, which He cut with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything that Adonai your God has forbidden you. 24 For Adonai your God is a consuming fire[a]—a jealous God.
12 For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world, and most especially toward you, with simplicity and godly sincerity—not by human wisdom but by the grace of God. 13 For we write nothing to you other than what you can read and understand—and I hope you will understand in full 14 just as you understood us in part, so that we are your reason for boasting just as you also are ours in the Day of our Lord Yeshua.
Paul’s Change of Plans
15 Because of this confidence, I was planning to come to you first, so that you might have a second benefit— 16 to pass by you on my way to Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come back to you, and to be helped by you on my journey to Judea. 17 So when I was planning to do this, I didn’t do so lightly, did I? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh—so it might be with me “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 But as God is faithful, our message to you is not both “Yes” and “No.” [a] 19 For Ben-Elohim—Yeshua the Messiah, who was proclaimed among you by us, by myself and Silvanus[b] and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No.” Rather, in Him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For in Him all the promises of God are “Yes.” Therefore also through Him is the “Amen” by us, to the glory of God. [c] 21 Now it is God who establishes us with you in Messiah. He anointed us, 22 set His seal on us, and gave us the Ruach in our hearts as a pledge.
15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear Yeshua. 2 The Pharisees and the Torah scholars began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So He told this parable to them, saying, 4 “Which man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I’ve found my sheep that was lost!’ 7 I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one repenting sinner than over the ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”
8 “Or which woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin,[a] does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I’ve found the coin I had lost!’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.