Book of Common Prayer
Adonai Still Faithful to Israel
Psalm 106
1 Halleluyah!
Praise Adonai, for He is good,
for His lovingkindness endures forever.
2 Who can speak of Adonai’s mighty acts
or declare His praise?
3 Blessed are those who maintain justice,
who do what is right at all times.
4 Remember me, Adonai,
when You show favor to Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation,
5 so I may behold the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
exult in the joy of Your nation,
and give praise with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,
we have committed iniquity,
we have acted wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not ponder Your wonders.
Nor did they remember Your abundant lovingkindness,
but rebelled by the sea—at the Sea of Reeds.
8 Yet He saved them for His Name’s sake,
to make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Sea of Reeds
and it dried up,
and He led them through the depths as through a wilderness.
10 So He saved them from the hand of those who hated them,
redeemed them from the enemy’s hand.
11 The waters covered their adversaries—
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed His words.
They were singing His praise.
13 How quickly they forgot His works,
and would not wait for His counsel!
14 In the wilderness they craved ravenously,
in the desert they tested God.
15 So He gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
16 Then they envied Moses in the camp,
and also Aaron, the holy one of Adonai.
17 The earth opened up, swallowed Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
18 Also a fire blazed in their company,
a flame consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb
and worshipped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a grass-eating ox.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt—
22 miracles in the land of Ham,
awesome things by the Sea of Reeds.
23 So He commanded their extermination,
had not Moses, His chosen one,
stood in the breach before Him,
to turn His wrath from destroying them.
24 Then they scorned the pleasing land—
they did not trust in His word.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents.
They would not listen to Adonai’s voice.
26 Therefore He swore to them
that He would make them fall in the desert,
27 and disperse their offspring among the nations,
and scatter them through the lands.
28 Then they yoked themselves to Baal of Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of dead things.
29 So they provoked Him with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
so the plague was stopped.
31 It was credited to him as righteousness,
from generation to generation forever.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered Him,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
33 For they embittered his spirit
and he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples,
as Adonai had commanded them.
35 Instead they mingled with the nations
and learned their practices.
36 They worshipped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and their daughters,
sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was desecrated with blood.
39 So they defiled themselves by their deeds,
and prostituted themselves by their practices.
40 Therefore the anger of Adonai was kindled against His people,
and He abhorred His inheritance.
41 He handed them to the nations—
those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so they were subdued under their hand.
43 Many times He delivered them,
but they kept rebelling deliberately,
and so sank low into their iniquity.
44 Yet He saw their distress,
when He heard their cry,
45 remembered His covenant to them,[a]
and relented in the greatness of His mercy.
46 He caused them to be pitied
in the presence of all their captors.
47 Save us, Adonai our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so we may praise Your holy Name
and triumph in Your praise.
48 Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting even to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Halleluyah!
17 Then Samuel summoned the people to Adonai at Mizpah. 18 He said to Bnei-Yisrael, “Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: I brought Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. 19 But today you have spurned your God, who is your deliverer from all your calamities and your distresses. For you said to Him: ‘No! Rather set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before Adonai by your tribes and by your thousands.”
20 So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. 21 Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was chosen. Finally, Saul son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him, he could not be found. 22 Therefore, they inquired of Adonai further, “Has the man come here yet?” Adonai answered, “He has just hidden himself among the baggage.” 23 So they ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders up.
24 Then Samuel announced to all the people, “Do you see the one Adonai has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people!”
Then all the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!” 25 Then Samuel explained to the people the rules of kingship, wrote them in a scroll and placed it before Adonai. Then Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. 26 Saul also went home to Gibeah, accompanied by men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But certain worthless men said, “How can this one save us?” So they despised him and brought him no present. But he kept silent.
44 “Our fathers had the Tent of Witness in the wilderness—just as the One speaking to Moses had directed him to make it according to the design he had seen. 45 Our fathers received it in turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land of the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it remained until the days of David, 46 who found favor in God’s sight. He asked to find a dwelling place for the God[a] of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built a house for Him. 48 However, Elyon does not dwell in man-made houses. As the prophet says,
49 ‘Heaven is My throne,
and the earth is the footstool of My feet.
What kind of house will you build for Me, says Adonai,
or what is the place of My rest?
50 Did not My Hand make all these things?’[b]
51 “O you stiff-necked people! You uncircumcised of heart and ears! You always resist the Ruach ha-Kodesh; just as your fathers did, you do as well. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed the ones who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. Now you have become His betrayers and murderers— 53 you who received the Torah by direction of angels and did not keep it!”
54 When they heard these things, they became enraged and began gnashing their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Ruach ha-Kodesh, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God—and Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 But they covered their ears; and crying out with a loud voice, they rushed at him with one impulse. 58 Driving him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out, “Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit!” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” After he said this, he died.[c]
Saul Persecutes Messiah’s Community
8 Now Saul was in agreement with Stephen’s execution. On that day a great persecution arose against Messiah’s community in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the emissaries.
52 Then Yeshua said to the ruling kohanim, officers of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come against Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a revolutionary? 53 Every day I was with you in the Temple, yet you did not lay a finger on Me. But this is yours—the hour and the power of darkness.” 54 Then they seized Yeshua and led Him away and brought Him into the house of the kohen gadol. But Peter was following from a distance.
Denied Three Times
55 Now they had lit a fire in the center of the courtyard and sat down together, and Peter was sitting among them. 56 Then a servant girl saw him sitting at the fire. She looked straight at him and said, “This one was with Him too!”
57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I don’t know Him!”
58 A little later, another saw him and said, “You too are one of them.”
But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
59 And about an hour later, another began to insist, saying, “Certainly this fellow was with Him, for he too is a Galilean!”
60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” And immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’
62 And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.