Book of Common Prayer
Humanity is God’s Splendor
Psalm 8
1 For the music director, upon the Gittite lyre: a psalm of David.
2 Adonai our Lord,
how excellent is Your Name over all the earth!
You set Your splendor above the heavens.
3 Out of the mouths of babies and toddlers
You established power,[a] because of Your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
4 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which You established—
5 what is man, that You are mindful of him?
And the son of man, that You care for him?[b]
6 Yet You made him a little lower than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and majesty!
7 You gave him dominion over the works of Your hands.
You put all things under their feet:[c]
8 all sheep and oxen,
and also beasts of the field,
9 birds in the air, and fish in the ocean—
all passing through the paths of the seas.
10 Adonai our Lord, how excellent is Your Name over all the earth!
Your Right Hand Delivers Me
Psalm 138
1 Of David.
I praise You with all my heart.
In the presence of the mighty I will sing praises to You.
2 I bow down toward Your holy Temple
and praise Your Name for Your love and Your faithfulness.
For You—magnified above all Your Name and Your word.
3 On the day I called, You answered me.
You made me bold with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth will praise You, Adonai,
when they hear Your mouth’s speech.
5 So they will sing of the ways of Adonai,
for great is the glory of Adonai.
6 For though Adonai is exalted,
yet He looks upon the lowly,
but the haughty He knows from afar.
7 Though I walk amid trouble,
You revive me.
You stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and Your right hand delivers me.
8 Adonai will fulfill His purpose for me.
Your lovingkindness, Adonai, endures forever.
Do not abandon the work of Your hands.
3 But the serpent was shrewder than any animal of the field that Adonai Elohim made. So it said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees, we may eat. 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat of it and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die! 5 For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 Now the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a thing of lust for the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for imparting wisdom. So she took of its fruit and she ate. She also gave to her husband who was with her and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loin-coverings. 8 And they heard the sound of Adonai Elohim going to and fro in the garden in the wind of the day. So the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai Elohim in the midst of the Tree of the garden.
9 Then Adonai Elohim called to the man and He said to him, “Where are you?”
10 Then he said, “Your sound—I heard it in the garden and I was afraid. Because I am naked, I hid myself.”
11 Then He said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the Tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me—she gave me of the Tree, and I ate.”
13 Adonai Elohim said to the woman, “What did you do?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”
14 Adonai Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you did this,
Cursed are you above all the livestock
and above every animal of the field.
On your belly will you go,
and dust will you eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put animosity
between you and the woman—
between your seed and her seed.
He will crush your head,
and you will crush his heel.[a]
Yet Sin Reigns through Death
12 So then, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, in the same way death spread to all men because all sinned. 13 For up until the Torah, sin was in the world; but sin does not count as sin when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in a manner similar to the violation of Adam, who is a pattern of the One to come.
15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if many died because of the transgression of one man, how much more did the grace of God overflow to many through the gift of one Man—Yeshua the Messiah. 16 Moreover, the gift is not like what happened through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment from one violation resulted in condemnation; but on the other hand, the gracious gift following many transgressions resulted in justification. [a] 17 For if by the one man’s transgression, death reigned through the one,[b] how much more shall those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Messiah Yeshua.
18 So then, through the transgression of one, condemnation came to all men; likewise, through the righteousness of one came righteousness of life to all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man, many will be set right forever.[c]
20 Now the Torah came in so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace overflowed even more— 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness, to eternal life through Messiah Yeshua our Lord.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.