Book of Common Prayer
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.[a]
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.’”
Cry of Desperation
Psalm 88
1 A song, a psalm of the sons of Korah, for the music director, for singing Mahalath, a contemplative song[a] of Heman the Ezrahite.
2 Adonai, God of my salvation,
day and night I cried out before You.
3 Let my prayer come before You.
Turn Your ear to my cry.
4 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
5 I am counted with those who go down into the Pit.
I have become as one with no strength—
6 abandoned among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
whom You remember no more—
cut off from Your hand.
7 You have laid me in the lowest places,
in dark places, in the depths.
8 Your wrath lies heavily on me.
You afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah
9 You have put my companions far from me.
You have made me repulsive to them.
I am shut in and I cannot go out.
10 My eye fails from affliction.
I call upon You every day, Adonai.
I spread out my hands to You.
11 Will You work wonders for the dead?
Or will the departed spirits rise up praising You? Selah
12 Will Your love be declared in the grave?
Or Your faithfulness in the place of ruin?
13 Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?
Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
14 But I—I cried out to You, Adonai,
and in the morning my prayer meets You.
15 Adonai, why do You spurn me?
Why do You hide Your face from me?
16 From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death.
I suffer Your terrors—I am desperate!
17 Your fury has swept over me.
Your terrors have cut me off.
18 Like water they surge around me all day.
They close in on me together.
19 Friend and loved one You took far from me.
Darkness has become my companion.
Dwell in the Shelter of Elyon
Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of Elyon,
will abide in the shadow of Shaddai.
2 I will say of Adonai,
“He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.
3 For He will rescue you from the hunter’s trap
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with His feathers,
and under His wings you will find refuge.
His faithfulness is body armor and shield.
5 You will not fear the terror by night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the plague that stalks in darkness,
nor the scourge that lays waste at noon.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look on with your eyes
and see the wicked paid back.
9 For you have made Elyon your dwelling,
even Adonai, who is my refuge,
10 so no evil will befall you
nor any plague come near your tent.
11 For He will give His angels charge over you,
to guard you in all your ways.
12 Upon their hands they will lift you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.[a]
13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
trample the young lion and serpent.
14 “Because he has devoted his love to Me,
I will deliver him.
I will set him securely on high,
because he knows My Name.
15 When he calls on Me, I will answer him.
I will be with him in trouble, rescue him, and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him My salvation.”
It Is Good to Praise
Psalm 92
1 A psalm, a song for the Shabbat.
2 It is good to praise Adonai
and to make music to Your Name, Elyon,
3 to declare Your love in the morning
and Your faithfulness at night,
4 with a ten-string harp,
with resounding music on the lyre.
5 For You made me glad, Adonai, by Your deeds.
I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
6 How great are Your works, Adonai!
How profound are Your thoughts!
7 A brutish man does not know,
nor does a fool understand.
8 Though the wicked spring up like grass,
and all evildoers flourish,
it is only to be ruined forever.
9 But You, Adonai, are exalted forever.
10 For behold, Your enemies, Adonai
—behold Your enemies perish—
all evildoers are scattered.
11 But You exalted my horn like that of a wild ox.
I am anointed with fresh oil.
12 My eye can gaze on those lying in wait for me.
My ears hear about evildoers rising up against me.
13 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree.
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
14 Planted in the House of Adonai,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
15 They will still yield fruit in old age.
They will be full of sap and freshness.
16 They declare, “Adonai is upright, my Rock
—there is no injustice in Him.”
Jacob Blesses Pharaoh
47 Then Joseph came and informed Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers and their flocks and their cattle and everything that belongs to them have come from the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.”
2 From among his brothers he took five men and presented them before Pharaoh. 3 Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?”
So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.” 4 Then they said to Pharaoh, “We came to dwell temporarily in the land, since there is no pasture for the flocks that belong to your servants, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”
5 Pharaoh said to Joseph saying, “Your father and your brothers came to you. 6 The land of Egypt is before you—settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any capable men among them, make them overseers of the livestock—over those that are mine.”
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How many days are the years of your life?”
9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourn are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. Moreover, the days of the years of my life have not attained the days of the years of the lives of my fathers, in the days of their sojourn.”
10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from Pharaoh’s presence. 11 Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them property in the land of Egypt, in the best part of the land, in the land of Rameses, just as Pharaoh commanded. 12 And Joseph supported his father and his brothers and his father’s entire household with food for the mouths of the little ones.
Joseph’s Leadership in the Famine
13 Now there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe. Both the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain that they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. 15 Then the money of the land of Egypt and of the land of Canaan ran out and all of Egypt came to Joseph saying, “Give us food. Why should we die in front of you because the money is gone?”
16 Joseph said, “Give your livestock and I’ll give it to you for your livestock, if the money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph and Joseph gave them food in exchange for horses, for flocks of sheep, for herds of cattle and for donkeys. He provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. 18 When that year came to an end, they came to him in the second year and said to him, “We won’t hide from my lord that the money has run out and the livestock and the domestic animals are my lord’s. There is nothing left in my lord’s sight except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we die before your eyes—both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food—we and our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Provide seed so that we may live and not die, and the land won’t be deserted.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh because the Egyptians, each one, sold his field, for the famine overcame them. Thus the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 He made the people slaves from one end of Egypt’s border to the other. 22 Only he did not buy the land belonging to the priests, because the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they ate their allotment that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land.
23 Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you, so that you can sow the land. 24 During the harvest you must give a fifth part to Pharaoh and four-fifths will be for you, for seed for the field and for your food, and for those in your houses, and for food for your little ones.”
25 “You’ve saved our lives,” they said. “We find favor in the eyes of my lord, and we’ll be Pharaoh’s slaves.” 26 So Joseph set it as a statute until this very day concerning the land of Egypt: a fifth-part goes to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land did not become Pharaoh’s.
16 For if I proclaim the Good News, I have no reason to boast—for pressure is put on me and woe to me if I don’t proclaim the Good News! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have been entrusted with a commission. 18 What then is my reward? That when I preach, I may present the Good News free of charge, not making use of my right[a] in the Good News.
19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win over more of them. 20 To the Jewish people I identified[b] as a Jew, so that I might win over the Jewish people. To those under Torah I became like one under Torah (though not myself being under Torah), so that I might win over those under Torah; 21 to those outside Torah, like one outside Torah (though not being outside God’s Torah but in Messiah’s Torah), so that I might win over those outside Torah. 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win over the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that by all means possible I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the Good News, so that I might be a fellow partaker of it.
24 Don’t you know that in a stadium the runners all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win! 25 Every competitor exercises self-control in all respects. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we do it to receive an imperishable one. 26 So I run in this way—not aimlessly. So I box in this way—not beating the air. 27 Rather, I punish my body and bring it into submission, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
47 And when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and He was alone on the land. 48 He saw the disciples struggling to row, for the wind was against them. Around the fourth watch in the night,[a] Yeshua comes to them, walking on the sea; and He wanted to pass by them. 49 But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought He was a ghost and cried out— 50 for they all saw Him and were terrified.
But immediately, He spoke to them. He said, “Take courage! I am. Do not be afraid.” 51 Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped. They were utterly dumbfounded, 52 for they still hadn’t understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.
Miracles Multiply
53 After they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and set anchor there. 54 As they got out of the boat, immediately people recognized Yeshua. 55 They ran about the region and began to carry around on their mats all those who were in bad shape, to wherever they heard He was. 56 And wherever He entered villages, towns, or countryside, people were placing the sick in the marketplaces and begging Him to let them touch even the tzitzit of His garment—and all who touched it were being healed.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.