Book of Common Prayer
Covenant with David’s Seed
Psalm 89
1 A contemplative song of Ethan the Ezrahite.
2 I will sing of the love of Adonai forever.
To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth.
3 For I said, “Let your lovingkindness be built up forever!
The heavens—let Your faithfulness be made firm there!”
4 “I have made a covenant with My chosen one.
I have sworn to David My servant:
5 ‘Forever I will establish your seed,
and will build your throne from generation to generation.’”[a] Selah
6 The heavens praise Your wonders, Adonai
—Your faithfulness, too—
in the assembly of the kedoshim.
7 For who in the skies can compare to Adonai?
Who is like Adonai among the sons of gods?
8 God is greatly feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all around Him.
9 Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, who is like You, mighty Adonai,
with Your faithfulness all around You?
10 You rule over the swelling of the sea.
When its waves mount up, You still them.
11 You crushed Rahab like a slain one.
You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
12 The heavens are Yours, also Yours the earth
—the world and its fullness—
You have founded them.
13 You created the north and the south.
Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at Your Name.
14 Your arm is mighty,
Your hand is strong,
exalted is Your right hand.[b]
15 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne.
Lovingkindness and truth go before You.
16 Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout,[c]
They walk in the light of Your presence, Adonai.
17 They rejoice in Your Name all day,
and by Your righteousness they are exalted.
18 For You are the glory of their strength,
and by Your favor our horn is exalted.
19 For our shield belongs to Adonai,
and our king to the Holy One of Israel.
20 Then You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, and said:
“I have bestowed help on a warrior.
I have exalted one chosen from among the people.
21 I have found David My servant.
With My holy oil I have anointed him.
22 With him My hand will be established.
Surely My arm will strengthen him.
23 No enemy will exact tribute from him,
no son of wickedness will oppress him.
24 I will crush his adversaries before him,
and strike down those who hate him.
25 My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him,
and by My Name his horn will be exalted.
26 I will also set his hand over the sea,
his right hand over the rivers.
27 He will call to Me: ‘You are my Father,[d]
my God and the rock of my salvation.’
28 I also will set him as firstborn—[e]
the highest of the kings of earth.[f][g]
29 I will maintain My love for him forever,
and My covenant with him will be firm.
30 His seed I will establish forever,
and his throne as the days of heaven.
31 If his sons forsake My Torah,
and do not walk in My judgments,
32 if they violate My decrees,
and do not keep My mitzvot,
33 then I will punish their transgression with the rod,
and their iniquity with flogging.
34 But I will not withdraw My lovingkindness from him,
nor will I betray My faithfulness.
35 I will not violate My covenant,
nor alter what My lips have uttered.
36 Once for all I have sworn by My holiness
—surely I will not lie to David—
37 his descendants will endure forever,
and his throne as the sun before Me,
38 and as the moon, established forever,
and a trustworthy witness in the sky.” Selah
39 But You have cast off and spurned,
You have become furious with Your anointed one.
40 You have renounced the covenant of Your servant.
You have defiled his crown even to the ground.
41 You have broken down all his walls.
You reduced his strongholds to ruin.
42 All who pass by have plundered him.
He has become a taunt to his neighbors.
43 You exalted the right hand of his foes
and made all his enemies rejoice.
44 You turned back the edge of his sword
and have not supported him in battle.
45 You brought his splendor to an end,
and cast his throne down to the ground.
46 You cut short the days of his youth.
You covered him with shame. Selah
47 How long, Adonai, will You hide Yourself?
Forever?
Will Your fury keep burning like fire?
48 Remember how short my life span is!
For what futility have You created all the children of men?
49 What man can live and not see death?
Can he deliver himself from the clutches of Sheol? Selah
50 Where is Your former lovingkindness, my Lord,
which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?[h]
51 Remember, my Lord, the mockery against Your servants
that I bear in my heart from so many peoples.
52 How Your enemies have mocked, Adonai,
how they have mocked
the footsteps of Your Anointed One![i]
53 Blessed be Adonai forever.
Amen and Amen.
Jacob Speaks Over His Sons
49 Jacob called his sons and said to them:
Gather together so that I can tell you
what will happen to you in the last days.
2 Be assembled and listen, sons of Jacob,
and listen to Israel your father.
3 Reuben, my firstborn are you,
my vigor and firstborn of my power,
endowed with extra dignity,
endowed with extra strength—
4 like water boiling over
you will not have extra,
for you got up into your father’s bed,
when you defiled a maid’s couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers,
instruments of violence are their knives.
6 In their secret counsel
may my soul not enter.
In their contingent may my honor
never be united.
For in their anger they slew men,
and in their self-will they maimed oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger for it was strong
and their rage for it was cruel—
I will disperse them in Jacob,
I will scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, so you are—
your brothers will praise you:
Your hand will be on your enemies’ neck.
Your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 A lion’s cub is Judah—
from the prey, my son,
you have gone up.
He crouches, lies down like a lion,
or like a lioness—
who would rouse him?[a]
10 The scepter will not pass from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[b]
until he to whom it belongs will come.
To him will be the obedience of the peoples.[c]
11 Binding his foal to the vine,
his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,[d]
he washes his garments in wine,
and in the blood of grapes his robe.[e]
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
and teeth that are whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun will dwell by the seashore,
and be by a harbor for ships—
his distant border reaches Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong-boned donkey,
lying down between two saddlebags.
15 He saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant.
He leaned his shoulder to bear a burden,
and became a forced laborer.
16 Dan will judge his people,
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Let Dan be a serpent beside a road,
a viper beside a path,
who strikes a horse’s heels,
so that its rider falls backward.
18 For your salvation I wait, Adonai!
19 Gad—attackers will attack him,
but he will attack their heels.
20 Asher—rich is his food—
he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21 Naphtali is a doe let loose,
who offers words of beauty.
22 A fruitful son is Joseph,
a fruitful son beside a spring—
daughters walk along a wall.
23 The archers were bitter and shot arrows
and were hostile towards him.
24 Yet his bow was always filled,
and his arms quick-moving—
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.
From there a Shepherd,
the Stone of Israel,[f]
25 from the God of your father
who helps you,
and Shaddai who blesses you,
with blessings of heavens above,
blessings of the deep that lies below,
blessings of breasts and womb.
26 The blessings of your father surpassed
the blessings of the ancient mountains,
the desire of the everlasting hills.
May they be upon Joseph’s head,
upon the crown of the one set apart from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a ravening wolf—
in the morning he devours spoils,
and in the evening divides plunder.
28 These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this is what their father spoke to them. He blessed them, each one he blessed with a suitable blessing.
Feast with the Lord—Not with Idols
14 Therefore, my dearly loved ones, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to sensible people—judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless—isn’t it a sharing of Messiah’s blood? The bread which we break—isn’t it a sharing of Messiah’s body? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body—for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider physical Israel. Those who eat the sacrifices—aren’t they partners in the altar?[a]
19 What am I saying then—that an idol sacrifice is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I’m saying that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God, and I don’t want you to become partners with demons. [b] 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?[c] We are not stronger than He, are we?
23 “Everything is permitted”—but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything builds up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, without raising questions of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” [d] 27 If an unbeliever invites you over and you want to go, eat whatever is set before you, without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, “This is from an idol sacrifice,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— 29 not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I give thanks for?
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense either to Jewish or Greek people or to God’s community— 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.
11 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Messiah.
Miracles Touch Gentile Lives
24 Yeshua got up and left from there to the region of Tyre. When He had entered a house, He didn’t want anyone to know; but He couldn’t escape notice. 25 A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him. She came immediately and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, from Syrophoenicia. And she kept begging Yeshua to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 He was telling her, “First let the children get their fill, for it’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
28 “Yes, Master,” she said to Him, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “Because of this word, go your way! The demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31 Again He left the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 32 They bring Him a deaf man who had a speech impediment, and they beg Him to lay His hand on him. 33 Yeshua took him aside from the crowd to a private place, and He put His fingers in the man’s ears. After spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, He says to the man, “Ephphatha,”[a] which means “Be opened!”
35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly. 36 Yeshua ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more they continued proclaiming it. 37 People were completely astounded, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.