Book of Common Prayer
My Help and My Deliverer
Psalm 70
1 For the music director, of David, for a memorial.
2 O God, come quickly to deliver me,
Adonai, to help me.
3 May they be put to shame and disgrace
who seek my life.
May they be turned back in humiliation
who delight in my hurt.
4 May those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
be turned away because of their shame.
5 But may all who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You.
May those who love Your salvation
always say, “Let God be magnified.”
6 But I am poor and needy—
God, come quickly to me.
You are my help and my deliverer—
Adonai, do not delay.
My Hope When I Am Gray
Psalm 71
1 In You, Adonai, have I taken refuge.
Let me never be ashamed.
2 Deliver me and rescue me in Your justice.
Turn Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a sheltering rock where I may always go.
Give the command to save me—
for You are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the grasp of an evil, ruthless man.
5 For You are my hope, Adonai my Lord—
my trust from my youth.
6 From my birth I have leaned on You.
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise is always about You.
7 I am like an ominous sign to many,
but You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with Your praise
and with Your glory all day.
9 Do not cast me away in the time of old age.
When my strength fails, do not forsake me.
10 For my enemies speak against me.
Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
11 saying: “God has forsaken him—
Pursue and take him, for no one will deliver.”
12 O God, be not far from me!
My God, come quickly to help me.
13 Let the accusers of my soul
be disgraced and destroyed.
Let those who seek to harm me
be covered with scorn and confusion.
14 But I—I will hope continually
and will praise You more and more.
15 My mouth will recount Your justice and Your salvation all day,
though I do not know the sum of them.
16 I come because of the mighty deeds of Adonai my Lord.
I will remember Your righteousness—Yours alone.
17 God, You taught me from my youth,
and I still keep declaring Your wonders.
18 So even until I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
till I tell of Your strong arm to the next generation,
Your might to all who are to come.
19 For Your righteousness, O God,
reaches to high heaven.
You have done great things—O God,
who is like You?
20 You made me see many troubles and evils
—You will revive me again—
from the depths of the earth
You will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and comfort me once again.
22 So I will praise You with the harp for your truth, O my God.
I will sing praises to You with the lyre O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy
—when I sing praises to You—
and my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 Also my tongue will tell of Your righteousness all day.
For those who seek my hurt have been put to shame and confusion.
Intercession for Restoration of Zion
Psalm 74
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Why have You cast us off forever, O God?
Why does Your anger smolder against the flock of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased of old,
redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance,
and Mount Zion, where You dwelt.
3 Lift Your steps toward the perpetual ruins—
an enemy has done all evil to the Sanctuary!
4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place.
They have set up their standards as signs.
5 It seemed like bringing up axes
into a thicket of trees—
6 and now all its carved work
they smash with hatchet and hammers!
7 They set Your Sanctuary on fire,
burning it to the ground.
They defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
8 They said in their hearts: “Let us crush them totally!”
They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs.
No longer is there any prophet—
and no one among us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary mock?
Will the enemy revile Your Name forever?
11 Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?
Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them!
12 Yet God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the land.
13 You split the sea with Your power.
You smashed the monsters’ heads in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan,
giving him as food to the desert dwellers.
15 You opened up spring and brook.
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours.
You provided moon and sun.
17 You set all the borders of earth.
You made summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy mocked, Adonai,
and how foolish people despised Your Name.
19 Do not deliver Your turtledove’s soul to the wild beast.
Do not forget the life of Your afflicted ones forever.
20 Look upon the covenant—for haunts of violence
fill the dark places of earth.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame.
But let the poor and needy praise Your Name.
22 Rise up O God, and defend Your cause.
Remember how the fool mocks You all day.
23 Do not forget the noise of Your foes,
the uproar of those rising up against You,
ascending continually.
Parashat Chayei Sarah
Abraham Purchases Machpelah
23 Now Sarah’s life was 127 years—the years of Sarah’s life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.
3 Then Abraham rose from before his dead one and spoke to the sons of Heth saying, 4 “I am an outsider and a sojourner among you. Give me a gravesite among you so that I may bury my dead from before my presence.”
5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Listen to us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our graves. None among us will withhold his grave from you, to bury your dead one.”
7 Then Abraham got up and bowed down to the people of the land, to the sons of Heth, 8 and spoke with them saying, “If you are of a mind to let me bury my dead from before my presence, listen to me. Plead with Ephron son of Zophar on my behalf, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him, that is at the end of his field. At the full price let him give it to me in your midst for a gravesite.”
10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the sons of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the ears of the sons of Heth, all those who enter the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my lord, listen to me. The field—I hereby give it to you. Also the cave that is in it—I hereby give it to you. In the eyes of the sons of my people, I hereby give it to you. Bury your dead one.”
12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land, 13 and spoke to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land saying, “But if only you would please listen to me. I hereby give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead one there.”
14 So Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me. A land worth 400 shekels of silver—what is that between me and you? Bury your dead one.”
16 Abraham heard Ephron. So Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had spoken of in the ears of the sons of Heth—400 shekels of silver at the merchant’s rate. 17 Now Ephron’s field that is in Machpelah next to Mamre—the field and the cave that is in it, and all the trees that are in the field in all its surrounding territory—was handed over 18 to Abraham as a purchased possession in the eyes of the sons of Heth, before all those who enter the gate of his city.
19 Afterward, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah next to Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave that was in it were handed over to Abraham as a gravesite from the sons of Heth.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets. 33 By faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, and made foreign armies flee.
35 Women received their dead raised back to life; and others were tortured, after not accepting release, so they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others experienced the trial of mocking and scourging—yes, and even chains and prison.
37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were murdered with the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, mistreated. 38 The world was not worthy of them! They wandered around in deserts and mountains, caves and holes in the ground. 39 And all these, though commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised— 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that only with us would they reach perfection.
Running the Race with Discipline
12 Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us, 2 focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Fallout from a Hard Teaching
60 So when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?”
61 But Yeshua knew His disciples were murmuring, so He said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man going back up to the place where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no benefit. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life! 64 Yet some of you do not trust.” Yeshua knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not trust, as well as which one would betray Him.
65 Then He told them, “For this reason I’ve told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by the Father.”
66 From this time, many of His disciples left and quit walking with Him. 67 So Yeshua said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to leave also, do you?”
68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! 69 We have trusted and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Yeshua answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is the adversary!” 71 Now He was speaking of Judah, the son of Simon of Kriot—for he, one of the Twelve, was about to betray Him.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.