Book of Common Prayer
Exalted Above All Gods
Psalm 97
1 Adonai reigns, let the earth rejoice,
let the many islands be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness are all around Him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 Fire goes before Him
and burns up His adversaries on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world—
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax
at the presence of Adonai,
at the presence of the Lord of all earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness,
and all the peoples have seen His glory.
7 Let all who serve graven images be ashamed—who boast in idols.
Bow down before Him, all you gods!
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of Your judgments, Adonai.
9 For You, Adonai, are Elyon above all the earth.
You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love Adonai, hate evil!
He watches over the souls of His godly ones.
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in Adonai, you righteous ones,
and praise His holy Name.
Worship at His Holy Hill
Psalm 99
1 Adonai reigns, let the peoples tremble.
He is enthroned upon the cheruvim—let the earth shake!
2 Adonai is great in Zion
and He is exalted above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise Your great
and awesome Name: holy is He.
4 The might of a king loves justice.
You have established fairness.
You executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt Adonai our God
and worship at His footstool: holy is He.
6 Moses and Aaron were among His kohanim—
also Samuel among those calling on His Name.
They called on Adonai and He answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud.
They kept His testimonies, and the decree that He gave them.
8 Adonai our God, You answered them.
A forgiving God You were to them, though You avenged their misdeeds.
9 Exalt Adonai our God,
and worship at His holy hill,
for holy is Adonai our God.
Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving
Psalm 100
1 A psalm of thanksgiving.
Shout joyfully to Adonai, all the earth!
2 Serve Adonai with gladness.
Come before His presence with joyful singing.
3 Know that Adonai, He is God.
It is He who has made us, and we are His.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise!
Praise Him, bless His Name.
5 For Adonai is good.
His lovingkindness endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
He Will Not Abandon His People
Psalm 94
1 God of vengeance, Adonai,
God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth!
Pay back to the proud what they deserve.
3 How long will the wicked, Adonai,
how long will the wicked gloat?
4 They gush out, they speak arrogance—
all the evildoers keep boasting.
5 They crush Your people, Adonai,
and afflict Your heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the outsider,
and murder the fatherless.
7 So they say: “Adonai does not see—
the God of Jacob pays no attention.”
8 Pay attention, stupid among the people!
Fools, when will you comprehend?
9 He who planted the ear, does He not hear?
He who formed the eye, does He not see?
10 He who chastens nations, will He not rebuke—
One who teaches humanity knowledge?
11 Adonai knows human thoughts—
they are but a breath.
12 Blessed is the one You discipline, Adonai,
and teach him from Your Torah,
13 to give him rest from days of trouble
—until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For Adonai will not forsake His people.
He will never abandon His inheritance.[a]
15 For rightness will be restored to justice,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
17 Unless Adonai had been my help,
my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.
18 If I say: “My foot has slipped,”
Your mercy, Adonai, will hold me up.
19 When my troubling thoughts multiply within me,
Your consolations comfort my soul.
20 Can a throne of corruption be aligned
with You—planning distress by decree?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn innocent blood.[b]
22 But Adonai has been my fortress
and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will repay them for their wickedness,
and will annihilate them in their evil.
Adonai our God will annihilate them.
Today, Hear His Voice
Psalm 95
1 O come, let us sing for joy to Adonai.
Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.
Let us shout joyfully to Him with songs.
3 For Adonai is a great God
and a great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the depths of the earth,
the mountain peaks are His also.
5 The sea is His—He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before Adonai our Maker.[c]
7 For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture,
the flock of His hand.
Today, if you hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your heart as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tested Me,
they challenged Me, even though they had seen My work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation.
So I said: ‘It is a people whose heart goes astray,
who do not know My ways.’
11 Therefore I swore in My anger,
‘They shall never enter into My rest.’”
Jacob Secretly Leaves Laban
31 Now Jacob heard the words Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belongs to our father, and from what belongs to our father he has made all these riches.” 2 Then Jacob saw Laban’s face, and he noticed that his expression wasn’t the same as it was just a day or two before. 3 Then Adonai said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent and called for Rachel and Leah to come to the field, to his flock. 5 He said to them, “I can see by your father’s face that his expression isn’t the same as it was just a day or two ago. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 Now you yourselves know that I’ve served your father with all my strength. 7 Yet your father has fooled around with me and has changed my salary ten times—but God hasn’t allowed him to harm me. 8 If he would say, ‘the spotted ones will be your salary,’ then the flocks would give birth to spotted ones. Or if he would say, ‘the striped ones will be your salary,’ then all the flocks would give birth to striped ones. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me. 10 Now it happened when the flocks were in heat that I lifted up my eyes and saw, in a dream, behold, the males going up to the flocks were striped, spotted and speckled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Hineni.’ 12 He said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see that all the males going up to the flocks are striped, spotted and speckled. For I have seen everything Laban has done to you. 13 I am the God of Beth-El where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me. Get up now and leave this land, and return to the land of your relatives.’”
14 Then Rachel answered along with Leah and they said to him, “Is there still a portion and inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15 Aren’t we considered foreigners to him? For he has sold us and has also completely used up our bridal price. 16 For all the riches that God has taken away from our father is for us and for our children. So now, everything God said to you, do it!”
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and wives on camels. 18 He drove away all his livestock and all his possessions that he had acquired—the livestock in his possession that he acquired in Paddan-aram—to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan.
19 But while Laban went to shear his flocks, Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father, 20 while Jacob stole the heart from Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. 21 He himself fled with everything that belonged to him, and he got up and crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Laban Confronts Jacob and Makes Covenant
22 When Laban was told on the third day after Jacob had fled, 23 he took his relatives with him and pursued him a seven days’ journey. Then he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. 24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.”
Yeshua Atoned for Our Sin
2 My children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Intercessor with the Father—the righteous Messiah Yeshua. 2 He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.[a]
Loving God Means Obedience
3 Now we know that we have come to know Him by this—if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God is truly made perfect. We know that we are in Him by this— 6 whoever claims to abide in Him must walk just as He walked.
Haters Stumble in Darkness
7 Loved ones, I am not writing a new commandment for you, but an old commandment—one you had from the beginning. This old commandment is the word you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing a new commandment for you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining.
9 The one who says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 The one who loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother[b] is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has made his eyes blind.
18 So the Judean leaders didn’t believe that he had been blind and received his sight until they called his parents. 19 They questioned them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he see now?”
20 Then his parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 We don’t know how he now sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him—he’s old enough. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Judean leaders. For the Judean leaders had already agreed that anyone who professed Yeshua to be Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue. 23 That’s why his parents said, “He’s old enough—ask him.”
24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner!”
25 The man replied, “I don’t know whether He’s a sinner. One thing I do know is that I was blind, but now I see!”
26 So they asked him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”
27 “I told you already and you didn’t listen!” the man responded. “What, do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become His disciples too, do you?”
28 They railed at him and said, “You’re a disciple of that One, but we’re disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses; but as for this fellow, we don’t know where He is from.”
30 The man replied to them, “That’s amazing! You don’t know where He is from, yet He opened my eyes! 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners; but if anyone fears Him and does His will, He hears this one. 32 Since the beginning of the world, no one has ever heard that anyone has opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He couldn’t do anything.”
34 They replied to him, “You were born completely in sin, and you’re teaching us?” And they threw him out.
Is Seeing Believing?
35 Yeshua heard that they had thrown him out. Finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”[a]
36 The man answered, “Who is He, Sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in Him!”
37 Yeshua said, “You have seen Him—He is the One speaking with you.”
38 He said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
39 Yeshua said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who don’t see may see, and the ones who do see may become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard Him say this and asked, “We’re not blind too, are we?”
41 Yeshua said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, ‘We see.’ So your sin remains.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.