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.”
Saul Tries to Kill David
19 Now Saul told his son Jonathan and all his courtiers to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan delighted much in David. 2 So Jonathan informed David saying, “My father Saul is seeking to kill you. So now, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you will be, and I will speak with my father about you. If I notice anything, I will tell you.” 4 So Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “May the king not sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial for you; 5 For he put his life in his hand and killed the Philistine, and Adonai won a great victory for all Israel—you saw it and rejoiced. So why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David without a cause?”
6 Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As Adonai lives, he will not be put to death.” 7 So Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul and in his presence as before.
8 Once again war broke out, and David marched out and fought the Philistines, and inflicted a great slaughter on them and they fled before him. 9 Yet once again an evil spirit from Adonai came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, as David was playing music with his hand. 10 Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s face, so that he drove the spear into the wall. That night David fled and got away.
11 Then Saul sent agents to David’s house to watch him, in order to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him saying, “If you don’t escape for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” 12 So Michal lowered David down through the window, and thus he went, fled and escaped. 13 Then Michal took a household idol, laid it in the bed, put a quilt of goats’ hair at the head and covered it with a cloth. 14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”
15 So Saul sent the agents back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed so I may put him to death.” 16 When the messengers came in, behold, the household idol was in the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head. 17 Saul then said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy get away, so that he escaped?”
Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go or I’ll kill you!’”
18 So David fled and escaped, went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
Persecution and Deliverance
12 Now at that time Herod the king seized some from Messiah’s community to do them harm. 2 He had Jacob, John’s brother, put to death with the sword. 3 Seeing it pleased the Judean leaders, he proceeded to capture Peter as well. This was during the Days of Matzah. 4 After seizing him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads with four soldiers each to guard him. He was intending to bring him before the people after Passover. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being offered fervently to God by Messiah’s community.
6 Now that very night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping—bound with two chains between two soldiers, while guards before the gate were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He poked Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up! Quick!” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals,” and he did so. Then he tells him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9 Peter went out and kept following him—he didn’t know that what was happening with the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they passed a first guard and a second, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself. They went out and walked along a narrow street. Suddenly the angel left him.
11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for real that the Lord has sent His angel[a] and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Judean people were expecting.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Miriam, the mother of John (also called Mark), where many were assembled together and praying. 13 When he knocked on the door of the entrance gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Although she recognized Peter’s voice, out of joy she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, “You’re crazy!” But she kept insisting it was so. But they were saying, “It is his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking. When they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed! 17 But he motioned with his hand for them to be silent, and he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, “Go tell these things to Jacob and the brothers.” Then he left and went to another place.
Power to Pardon the Paralyzed
2 When He returned to Capernaum after some days, it was heard that He was at the house. 2 So many were gathered that there was no longer room for them even outside the door. He kept proclaiming the word to them.
3 Some people came bringing to Him a paralyzed man, carried by four men. 4 When they couldn’t get near Yeshua because of the crowd, they removed the roof where He was. After digging through, they lowered the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying. 5 Yeshua, seeing their faith, said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the Torah scholars were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this fellow speak like this? He blasphemes! Who can pardon sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Yeshua, knowing in His spirit that they were raising questions this way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you questioning these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and take your mat and walk’? 10 But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority to pardon sins on earth. . ..” He tells the paralyzed man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home!”
12 At once the man got up, took his mat, and walked before them all. They were all astonished and glorified God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”[a]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.