Book of Common Prayer
By the Rivers of Babylon
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon,
we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors demanded songs
and our tormentors asked for joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
4 How can we sing a song of Adonai in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I cease to remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my chief joy.
7 Remember, Adonai, the children of Edom,
what they said on the day Jerusalem fell:
“Strip her, strip her to her very foundation!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, the devastated one,
happy is the one who repays you
as you have paid us.
9 Happy is the one who seizes your little ones
and dashes them upon the rock.
Rescue from Battle
Psalm 144
1 Of David.
Blessed be Adonai my Rock—
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
2 He is my lovingkindness, my fortress,
my strong tower, and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues my people under me.
3 Adonai, what is man, that You take note of him?
Or the son of man, that You consider him?[a]
4 Man is like a breath—
his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Adonai, part Your heavens and come down.
Touch the mountains, so they smoke.
6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them.
Send out Your arrows and confuse them.
7 Stretch forth Your hands from on high.
Snatch me, deliver me out of deep waters,
out of the hand of foreigners,
8 whose mouth speaks falsehood,
whose right hand is a right hand of deceit.
9 God, I sing a new song to You, on a ten-string harp
I sing praises to You—
10 who gives salvation to kings,
who rescues Your servant David from the evil sword.
11 Snatch me, deliver me
out of the hand of foreigners,
whose mouth speaks falsehood,
whose right hand is a right hand of deceit.
12 Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth,
our daughters like corner pillars carved for the construction of a palace.
13 Our storehouses are full,
supplying every kind of produce.
Our flocks increase by thousands
and ten thousands in our fields.
14 Our oxen bear a heavy load.
There is no breach,
no going into captivity,
no outcry in our streets.
15 Happy are such a people!
Blessed are the people whose God is Adonai!
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.
21 Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt—a darkness that may be felt.”
22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. 23 They could not see one another, nor could anyone rise from his place for three days. Yet all Bnei-Yisrael had light within their dwellings.
24 Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve Adonai. Only let your flocks and your herds remain. Your little ones may also go with you.”
25 But Moses said, “You must also put sacrifices and burnt offerings into our hand, then we will do it for Adonai our God. 26 Our cattle must also go with us—not a hoof may be left behind. We must take from them to serve Adonai our God. We ourselves will not know how we will serve Adonai until we arrive there.”
27 But Adonai hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was unwilling to let them go. 28 So Pharaoh said to him, “Go away from me! Take heed never to see my face again, because on the day you do, you will die!”
29 “Right!” Moses said. “You said it! May I never see your face again!”
Final Plague: Death
11 Now Adonai had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether from here. 2 Speak now into the ears of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and gold.” 3 Adonai gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Indeed, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and in the eyes of the people.
4 So Moses said, “This is what Adonai says: At around midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, 5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die—from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the maidservant behind the mill, along with all the firstborn cattle. [a] 6 There will be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, the likes of which has never been before nor will ever be again. 7 But not so much as a dog will growl against any of Bnei-Yisrael, neither man nor beast—so that you may know that Adonai makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel. 8 All these servants of yours will come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will go.” Then he went out from Pharaoh hot with anger.
13 But we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.”[a] So we also believe, and therefore we also speak, 14 knowing that the One who raised the Lord Yeshua will raise us also with Yeshua, and will bring us with you into His presence. 15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace that is spreading through more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow—to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. [b] 17 For our trouble, light and momentary, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
Ben-David Heals the Blind
46 Then they came to Jericho. Now as Yeshua was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Yeshua of Natzeret, he began to cry out, “Ben-David, Yeshua! Have mercy on me!” 48 Many were warning him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Ben-David, have mercy on me!”[a]
49 Yeshua stopped and said, “Call him over.”
So they call the blind man, saying, “Take heart! Get up, He’s calling you!” 50 Throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and came to Yeshua.
51 And answering him, Yeshua said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
The blind man said, “Rabboni, I want to see again!”
52 Yeshua said to him, “Go! Your faith has made you well.” Instantly he regained his sight and began following Yeshua down the road.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.