Book of Common Prayer
MEM מ
97 O how I love Your Torah!
It is my meditation all day.
98 Your mitzvot make me wiser than my enemies
—for they are mine forever.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I have gained more understanding than all my elders,
for I have kept Your precepts.
101 I kept my feet from every evil way,
in order to follow Your word.
102 I do not turn away from Your rulings,
for You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet is Your word to my taste—
yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get discernment,
therefore I hate every false way.
NUN נ
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.[a]
106 I have sworn and confirmed
to observe Your righteous rulings.
107 I am severely afflicted.
Keep me alive, Adonai, according to Your word.
108 Please accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, Adonai,
and teach me Your rulings.
109 My soul is continually in danger,
yet I have not forgotten Your Torah.
110 The wicked have set a snare for me,
yet I did not stray from Your precepts.
111 Your testimonies I have as a heritage
forever, for they are my heart’s joy.
112 I turned my heart to do Your decrees,
forever, to the very end.
SAMECH ס
113 I hate double-minded ones,
but Your Torah I love.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield
—in Your word I hope.
115 Away from me, evildoers,
so I may keep the mitzvot of my God!
116 Sustain me according to Your word, so I may live,
and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
117 Support me and I will be saved,
and study Your decrees continually.
118 You despise all who wander from Your decrees,
for their deceitfulness is in vain.
119 All the wicked of the earth You remove like dross.
Therefore I love Your testimonies.
120 My flesh shudders for fear of You,
and I am in awe of Your judgments.
Hear O Israel
Psalm 81
1 For the music director, on the Gittite lyre, of Asaph.
2 Sing for joy to God our strength,
shout to the God of Jacob!
3 Lift up a song and sound a tambourine,
a sweet lyre with a harp.
4 Blow the shofar at the New Moon,
at the full moon for the day of our festival.
5 For it is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
6 He set it up as a testimony in Joseph,
when He went throughout the land of Egypt,
I heard a language I did not understand.
7 “I relieved his shoulder of the burden,
his hands were set free from the basket.
8 You called out in trouble, and I rescued you.
I answered you from the hiding place of thunder.
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
9 Hear, My people, I will admonish you—
if you would listen to Me, O Israel!
10 Let there be no foreign god among you,
and you shall not worship any alien god.
11 I am Adonai your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
12 But My people did not listen to My voice.
Israel was not willing to be Mine.
13 So I gave them over
to the stubbornness of their heart,
to walk in their own counsels.
14 Oh that My people would listen to Me,
that Israel would walk in My ways!
15 I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn My hand against their foes.
16 Those who hate Adonai would cringe before Him—
their time of doom would be forever.
17 But you would be fed with the finest wheat,
with honey out of a rock would I satisfy you.”
A Rebuke for Unjust Judges
Psalm 82
1 A psalm of Asaph.
God takes His stand in the assembly of God.
He judges among the ‘gods’:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the poor and fatherless.
Be just to the afflicted and destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and needy.
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know nothing;
they understand nothing—
they walk about in darkness.
All of earth’s foundations are shaken.
6 I said: ‘You are ‘gods’,
and you are all sons of Elyon,[a]
7 yet you will die like men,
and will fall like any of the princes.’”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth!
For You possess all the nations.
Covenant Loyalty to Mephibosheth
9 Then David inquired, “Is there anyone still left from the house of Saul, so that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Now there was a servant from Saul’s house whose name was Ziba, so they summoned him to David. The king asked him, “Are you Ziba?”
“Your servant,” he said.
3 The king asked him, “Is there still anyone from the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?”
“There is still a son of Jonathan,” Ziba said to the king, “with crippled legs.”
4 “Where is he?” the king said to him.
Ziba said to the king, “He’s there, in the house of Machir son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar.” 5 So King David sent word and brought him from the house of Machir son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar.
6 Then Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan son of Saul, came to David, fell on his face and prostrated himself. “Mephibosheth!” David said.
“Behold your servant!” he answered.
“Don’t be afraid,” 7 David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat bread at my table.”
8 Then he bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should turn to look at such a dead dog like me?”
9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his household I have given to your master’s son. 10 So you, you and your sons and your servants will till the land for him, and you will bring in the yield so that your master’s son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s son will always eat bread at my table.” Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. 11 Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.” Thus Mephibosheth used to eat at the table just like one of the king’s sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. All the members of Ziba’s household were servants to Mephibosheth. 13 But Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate at the king’s table regularly, though he was crippled in both his legs.
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul traveled through the upper region and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples 2 and said to them, “Did you receive the Ruach ha-Kodesh when you believed?”
They replied to him, “No, we’ve never even heard that there is a Ruach ha-Kodesh.
3 He said, “Into what were you immersed?”
They said, “Into John’s immersion.”
4 Paul said, “John immersed with an immersion of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One coming after him—that is, in Yeshua.”
5 When they heard this, they were immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua. 6 And when Paul laid hands upon them, the Ruach ha-Kodesh came upon them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 In all, there were about twelve men.
God’s Power Displayed in Ephesus
8 Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, debating and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when they were hardening and refusing to believe, speaking evil of the Way before the whole group, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, debating daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia[a] heard the word of the Lord—Jewish as well as Greek people.
34 Then He called the crowd, along with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and keep following Me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 For what could a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels!”
9 Yeshua was telling them, “Amen, I tell you, there are some standing here who will never taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.