Book of Common Prayer
Joy Comes in the Morning
Psalm 30
1 A psalm, a song for the dedication of the Temple, of David.
2 I will exalt You, Adonai,
for You have lifted me up,
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
3 Adonai my God, I cried to You for help,
and You healed me.
4 Adonai, You brought my soul up from Sheol.
You kept me alive, so I would not go down to the Pit.
5 Sing praise to Adonai, His faithful ones,
and praise His holy name.
6 For His anger lasts for only a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may stay for the night,
but joy comes in the morning.
7 When I felt secure, I said:
“I will never be shaken.”
8 Adonai, in Your favor
You made my mountain stand strong.
When You hid Your face,
I was terrified.
9 To You, Adonai, I called,
and to my Lord I made my plea:
10 “What gain is there in my blood,
in my going down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?
11 Hear, Adonai, and be gracious to me.
Adonai, be my help.”
12 You turned my mourning into dancing.
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.
13 So my glory will sing to You and not be silent.
Adonai my God, I will praise You forever.
Confess, Return and Learn
Psalm 32
1 Of David, a contemplative song.
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is pardoned.
2 Blessed is the one whose guilt Adonai does not count,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.[a]
3 When I kept silent,
my bones became brittle
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me.
My strength was drained as in the droughts of summer.
Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to You
and did not hide my iniquity. I said:
“I confess my transgressions to Adonai,”
and You forgave the guilt of my sin.[b]
Selah
6 So let everyone who is godly pray to You
in a time when You may be found.
When great floodwaters rise,
they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place—
You will protect me from distress.
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
8 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
I will give counsel—My eye is on you.
9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding,
and must be held in with bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.”
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but lovingkindness surrounds the one who trusts in Adonai.
11 Be glad in Adonai and rejoice,
you righteous, and shout for joy,
all who are upright in heart.
My Soul Thirsts for God
Psalm 42
1 For the music director, a contemplative song of the sons of Korah.
2 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for You, O God.
3 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
4 My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all day: “Where is your God?”
5 These things I remember as I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng,
walking with them to the House of God, with a voice of joy and praise,
a multitude keeping a festival.
6 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
for the salvation of His presence.
7 My God, my soul is downcast within me!
Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan
and from the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mitzar.
8 Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls.
All Your waves and breakers have swept over me.
9 By day Adonai commands His love,
and at night His song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
10 I will say to God my Rock:
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go about mourning, under the oppression of the enemy?”
11 As with a crushing in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
by saying to me all day, “Where is your God?”
12 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
the salvation of my countenance and my God.
Send Forth Your Light
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God,
and champion
my cause against an ungodly nation.
From a deceitful and unjust man, deliver me!
2 For You are my God, my stronghold.
Why have You spurned me?
Why do I go about gloomy because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send forth Your light and Your truth—
let them guide me.
Let them bring me to Your holy mountain
and to Your dwelling places.
4 Then I will come to the altar of God,
to the God of my exceeding joy,
and praise You upon the harp
—O God, my God.
5 Why are You downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
the salvation of my countenance.
Flight to a Cave and to Moab
22 So David walked from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard about it, they went down there to him. 2 Anyone who was in distress, anyone in debt, and anyone embittered rallied around him, and he became their leader. There were about 400 men with him.
3 Then David left from there to Mizpah of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, “Please, let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” 4 Then he brought them to the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
5 But the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go to the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.
6 Then Saul heard that David and the men with him were located. Saul was in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree on the height, spear in his hand, and all his courtiers were attending him. 7 Saul said to his courtiers standing about him, “Listen now, Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? 8 Yet all of you have conspired against me, and there was nobody disclosing to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse! None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush—as is the case today?”
9 Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing among Saul’s courtiers, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob—to Ahimelech son of Ahitub— 10 and he inquired of Adonai for him, gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
11 Then the king sent word to summon the kohen Ahimelech son of Ahitub and all the kohanim of his father’s house who were in Nob. So they all came to the king. 12 “Listen now, son of Ahitub,” Saul said.
“Here I am, my lord,” he said.
13 Then Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me—you and the son of Jesse—by giving him bread and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him, that he should rise against me by lying in ambush, as is the case today?”
14 Then Ahimelech answered the king saying, “Who among all your servants is as trusted as David, the king’s son-in-law, a captain of the royal guard, and honored in your house? 15 Just today I began to inquire of God for him? Far be it from the king to accuse his servant or to anyone of my father’s house. For your servant knows nothing of all this, whether little or much.”
16 But the king said, “You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” 17 Then the king ordered the guards attending him, “Turn around and kill the kohanim of Adonai, for they are in cahoots with David, for they knew that he was running away but did not inform me.” But the servants of the king were not willing to raise their hand to assault the kohanim of Adonai. 18 So the king said to Doeg, “You, turn around and kill the kohanim!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the kohanim and on that day killed 85 men who wore the linen ephod. 19 Nob, the town of the kohanim, he struck with the edge of the sword: men and women, children and infants, oxen, asses, and sheep with the edge of the sword.
20 Yet one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David. 21 Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Adonai’s kohanim. 22 Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have brought about the death of all the people of your father’s house. 23 Stay with me, and fear not; for the one who is seeking my life is seeking your life too—but with me you will be safe.”
26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who are God-fearers, it is to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers—not recognizing Him or the sayings of the Prophets that are read every Shabbat—fulfilled these words by condemning Him. 28 Though they found no charge worthy of a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that had been written about Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But God raised Him from the dead! 31 For many days He appeared to those who had come up from the Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses to the people.
32 “And we proclaim to you Good News—the promise to the fathers has arrived! 33 For God has fulfilled this promise to the children—to us—by raising up Yeshua, as it is also written in the second psalm:
‘You are My Son.
Today I have become Your Father.’[a]
34 “But since He raised Him up from the dead, never to return to decay, He has spoken in this way, ‘I will give you the holy and sure mercies of David.’ [b] 35 Therefore He also says in another psalm, ‘You will not permit Your Holy One to see decay.’ [c] 36 For after David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he went to sleep and was laid with his fathers and saw decay. 37 But the One whom God raised up did not see decay.
38 “Therefore, let it be known to you, brothers, that through this One is proclaimed to you the removal of sins, including all those from which you could not be set right by the Torah of Moses. 39 Through this One everyone who keeps trusting is made righteous.
40 “Be careful, then, so that what is said in the Prophets may not come upon you:
41 ‘Look, you scoffers,
be amazed and vanish away.
For I am doing a work in your days—
a work you will never believe,
even if someone tells it to you in detail.’[d]”
42 As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging them to speak these things to them the next Shabbat. 43 When the synagogue meeting broke up, many of the Jewish people and God-fearing inquirers followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and trying to persuade them to continue in the grace of God.
[a] 19 and Judah from Kriot, who also betrayed Him.
Binding the Strong Man
20 Then He comes into a house, and again a crowd gathers so they couldn’t even eat. 21 When His family heard about this, they went out to take hold of Him; for they were saying, “He’s out of His mind!”
22 The Torah scholars who came down from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by beelzebul,” and, “By the ruler of demons He drives out demons.”
23 He called them and began speaking to them in parables: “How can satan drive out satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but his end has come.
27 “But no one can enter a strong man’s house to ransack his property, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he will thoroughly plunder his house. 28 Amen, I tell you, all things will be forgiven the sons of men, the sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever slanders[b] the Ruach ha-Kodesh never has release, but is guilty of an eternal sin!” 30 For they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
A Spiritual Family Begins
31 Then His mother and brothers come. Standing outside, they sent word to Him, summoning Him. 32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they tell Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” 33 Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34 Looking at those sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.