Book of Common Prayer
Nations Conspire Against Israel
Psalm 83
1 A song: a psalm of Asaph.
2 God, do not keep silent.
Do not hold Your peace, O God.
Do not be still.
3 For look, Your enemies make an uproar.
Those who hate You lift up their head.
4 They make a shrewd plot against Your people,
conspiring against Your treasured ones.
5 “Come,” they say, “let’s wipe them out as a nation!
Let Israel’s name be remembered no more!”
6 For with one mind they plot together.
Against You do they make a covenant.
7 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
8 Gebal, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre,
9 even Assyria has joined them,
becoming a strong arm for Lot’s sons. Selah
10 Do to them as You did to Midian,
to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River,
11 who perished at En-dor—
they became as dung for the ground.
12 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb—
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
13 who said,
“Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”
14 My God, make them like tumbleweed,
like chaff before the wind.
15 As a fire burns a forest,
and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
16 so pursue them with Your tempest,
and terrify them with Your storm.
17 Cover their faces with shame,
so they may seek Your Name—Adonai.
18 Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever.
Let them be humiliated and perish.
19 Let them know that You alone
—whose Name is Adonai—
are El Elyon over all the earth.
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.
Restore Your People from Captivity
Psalm 85
1 For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 Adonai, will you favor Your land?
Will You restore Jacob from captivity?
3 Will You bear away Your people’s iniquity,
Will You pardon all their sin?[a] Selah
4 Will You withdraw all Your wrath?
Will You turn from Your burning anger?[b]
5 Restore us, O God of our salvation,
and renounce Your indignation with us.
6 Will You be angry with us forever?
Will You prolong Your anger from generation to generation?
7 Will You not revive us again,
so Your people may rejoice in You?
8 Show us Your mercy, Adonai,
and grant us Your salvation.
9 Let me hear what God Adonai will say.
For He will speak shalom to His people, and to His kedoshim—
but let them not turn back to folly.
10 Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,
so that glory may dwell in our land.
11 Lovingkindness and truth meet together.
Righteousness and shalom kiss each other.
12 Truth will spring up from the earth,
and justice will look down from heaven.
13 Yes, Adonai will give what is good,
and our land will yield its produce.
14 Righteousness is going before Him
and prepares a way for His feet.
Slow to Anger, Full of Chesed
Psalm 86
1 A prayer of David.
Turn Your ear, Adonai, and answer me,
for I am weak and needy.
2 Watch over my soul, for I am godly.
You are my God—
save Your servant who trusts in You.
3 Be gracious to me, my Lord,
for to You I cry all day.
4 Gladden the soul of Your servant,
for to You, my Lord, I lift up my soul.
5 For You, my Lord, are good,
and ready to forgive
and full of mercy to all who call upon You.
6 Give ear, Adonai, to my prayer,
listen to the voice of my supplications.
7 In the day of my trouble I call upon You,
for You will answer me.
8 There is none like You among the gods,
my Lord, there are no deeds like Yours.
9 All nations You have made will come
and bow down before You, my Lord,
and they will glorify Your Name.
10 For You are great, and do wonders—
You alone are God.
11 Teach me Your way, Adonai,
that I may walk in Your truth.
Give me an undivided heart to fear Your Name.
12 I praise You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and glorify Your Name forever.
13 For great is Your lovingkindness toward me.
You have delivered my soul from the lowest part of Sheol.
14 God, the proud have risen up against me
and a gang of ruthless people have sought my life,
and have not set You before them.
15 But You, my Lord,
are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, full of love and truth.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me.
Give Your strength to Your servant,
and save the son of Your maidservant.
17 Make me a sign for good,
so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed.
For You, Adonai, have helped me and comforted me.
Jacob Goes to Egypt
46 So Israel set out, along with everything that belonged to him. When he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 In visions of the night God said to Israel, “Jacob, Jacob.”
“Hineni,” he said.
3 “I am God, the God of your father,” He said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will turn you into a great nation there. 4 I Myself will go down with you to Egypt and I Myself will also most certainly bring you up. Joseph will put his hands on your eyes.”
5 Then Jacob arose from Beersheba and Israel’s sons carried Jacob their father, their little children, and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6 They also took their livestock and their possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan and they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him. 7 His sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.
28 Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph to show him the way to Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen, 29 Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as he appeared before him, he fell upon his neck, and wept on his neck for some time.
30 Then Israel said to Joseph, “At this time I am ready to die, after seeing your face in person—for you’re still alive!”
31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I’ll go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds, for they’ve been men who handle livestock, who have brought their flocks and cattle and everything that they possess.’ 33 So when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you must say, ‘Your servants have been men who handle livestock since the time of our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you can live in the land of Goshen, because every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians.”
Servant Leadership Wins Over All
9 Am I not free? Am I not an emissary? Have I not seen Yeshua our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an emissary, at least I am to you—for you are the seal of my office of emissary in the Lord.
3 My defense to those who examine me is this. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other emissaries and the Lord’s brothers and Kefa? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to not work? 7 What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink its milk?
8 I don’t say these things merely as a man, do I? Doesn’t Torah also say these things? 9 For it is written in the Torah of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.”[a] Is it the oxen that concern God, 10 or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because the one plowing ought to plow in hope and the one threshing in hope of a share in the crop. 11 If we sowed spiritual things into you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others have a share in this claim over you, shouldn’t we even more?
Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we put up with all things so that we cause no hindrance to the Good News of Messiah. 13 Don’t you know that those who perform the holy services eat from the Temple, and those who wait on the altar receive a share at the altar? [b] 14 So also the Lord ordered those who proclaim the Good News to get their living from the Good News.
15 But I have used none of these things, and I am not writing these things so it will happen this way in my case—for I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my reason to boast.
Feeding 5000 Families
30 The twelve emissaries gathered together with Yeshua, and they reported to Him all they had done and taught. 31 There were many coming and going, and they had no time even to eat. So He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to an isolated place and rest awhile.” 32 So they left privately by boat to an isolated place. 33 However, the people saw them leaving, and many recognized them. They ran on foot from all the towns to get there ahead of them. 34 As Yeshua came ashore, He saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.[a] So He taught them many things.
35 When it was already late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is isolated, and the hour is already late. 36 Send these people away so they can go into the nearby countryside and the villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat!”
And they said to Him, “Should we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread to give them something to eat?”
38 Then He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 Then Yeshua made them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 And He took the five loaves and the two fish; and looking up to heaven, He offered the bracha. He broke the loaves and kept giving them to the disciples to serve to the people; and He divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and fish. 44 Now there were five thousand men who ate the loaves.
Walking on Water
45 Right away, Yeshua made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. 46 After leaving them, He went up on the hillside to pray.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.