Book of Common Prayer
Adonai Still Faithful to Israel
Psalm 106
1 Halleluyah!
Praise Adonai, for He is good,
for His lovingkindness endures forever.
2 Who can speak of Adonai’s mighty acts
or declare His praise?
3 Blessed are those who maintain justice,
who do what is right at all times.
4 Remember me, Adonai,
when You show favor to Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation,
5 so I may behold the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
exult in the joy of Your nation,
and give praise with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,
we have committed iniquity,
we have acted wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not ponder Your wonders.
Nor did they remember Your abundant lovingkindness,
but rebelled by the sea—at the Sea of Reeds.
8 Yet He saved them for His Name’s sake,
to make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Sea of Reeds
and it dried up,
and He led them through the depths as through a wilderness.
10 So He saved them from the hand of those who hated them,
redeemed them from the enemy’s hand.
11 The waters covered their adversaries—
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed His words.
They were singing His praise.
13 How quickly they forgot His works,
and would not wait for His counsel!
14 In the wilderness they craved ravenously,
in the desert they tested God.
15 So He gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
16 Then they envied Moses in the camp,
and also Aaron, the holy one of Adonai.
17 The earth opened up, swallowed Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
18 Also a fire blazed in their company,
a flame consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb
and worshipped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a grass-eating ox.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt—
22 miracles in the land of Ham,
awesome things by the Sea of Reeds.
23 So He commanded their extermination,
had not Moses, His chosen one,
stood in the breach before Him,
to turn His wrath from destroying them.
24 Then they scorned the pleasing land—
they did not trust in His word.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents.
They would not listen to Adonai’s voice.
26 Therefore He swore to them
that He would make them fall in the desert,
27 and disperse their offspring among the nations,
and scatter them through the lands.
28 Then they yoked themselves to Baal of Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of dead things.
29 So they provoked Him with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
so the plague was stopped.
31 It was credited to him as righteousness,
from generation to generation forever.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered Him,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
33 For they embittered his spirit
and he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples,
as Adonai had commanded them.
35 Instead they mingled with the nations
and learned their practices.
36 They worshipped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and their daughters,
sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was desecrated with blood.
39 So they defiled themselves by their deeds,
and prostituted themselves by their practices.
40 Therefore the anger of Adonai was kindled against His people,
and He abhorred His inheritance.
41 He handed them to the nations—
those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so they were subdued under their hand.
43 Many times He delivered them,
but they kept rebelling deliberately,
and so sank low into their iniquity.
44 Yet He saw their distress,
when He heard their cry,
45 remembered His covenant to them,[a]
and relented in the greatness of His mercy.
46 He caused them to be pitied
in the presence of all their captors.
47 Save us, Adonai our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so we may praise Your holy Name
and triumph in Your praise.
48 Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting even to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Halleluyah!
Salvation Like Dew for Israel
14 Samaria will bear her guilt,[a]
for she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their infants dashed to pieces,
their pregnant women ripped open.
2 Return O Israel, to Adonai your God,
for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
3 Take words with you and return to Adonai.
Say to Him: “Take away all iniquity,
and accept what is good,
so we may repay with offerings[b] of our lips:
4 ‘Assyria will not save us.
We will not ride on horses,
and we will never again say, “Our god,”
to the work of our hands,
for with You, orphans find mercy.’”
5 “I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
for My anger will turn away from him.
6 I will be like dew for Israel.
He will blossom like a lily,
and thrust out his roots like Lebanon.
7 His tender shoots will spread out.
His beauty will be like an olive tree
and his fragrance will be like Lebanon.
8 Those dwelling in his shadow will return.
They will grow grain and bud like a vine.
His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
9 Ephraim: “What more are idols to me?
I have responded and observed Him.
I will be like a luxuriant cypress tree.
From me will be found Your fruit.”
10 Who is wise? Let him discern these things.
Who is intelligent? Let him know them.[c]
For the ways of Adonai are straight,
and the just walk in them,
but the wicked stumble in them.
Delivered to the Council
30 But on the next day, desiring to know exactly why Paul had been accused by the Judeans, he released him and commanded the ruling kohanim and all the Sanhedrin to meet together. And he brought Paul and set him before them.
23 Paul, looking intently at the Sanhedrin, said, “Brothers, I have lived my life in all good conscience for God up to this day.” 2 But the kohen gadol Ananias ordered those standing by him to strike him on the mouth.
3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you on the mouth, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit judging me according to the Torah, and yet in violation of the Torah you order me to be struck?”[a]
4 Those standing nearby said, “Do you insult God’s kohen gadol?”
5 Paul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he is the kohen gadol. For it has been written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”[b]
6 But recognizing that one group was Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees! I am on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!”
7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection or angel or spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all. 9 Then there was a great uproar. Some of the Torah scholars of the Pharisees’ party stood up and protested sharply, “We find nothing wrong with this man! What if a spirit or angel has spoken to him?”
10 As a big dispute was developing, the commander was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. So he ordered the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and to bring him into headquarters.
11 The following night the Lord stood beside Paul and said, “Take courage! For just as you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome!”
39 He also spoke this parable to them: “The blind cannot show the way to the blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
41 “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly the speck in your brother’s eye, to take it out.”
43 “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again does a rotten tree produce good fruit. 44 Each tree comes to be known by its own fruit. For figs are not gleaned out of briars; neither are bunches of grapes gathered from thorn bushes.
45 “Out of the good treasure of his heart the good man brings forth good, and out of evil the evil man brings forth evil. For from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.”
46 “Why do you call Me ‘Master, Master’ and do not do what I say? 47 Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood came, the torrent burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.
49 “But the one who hears yet does not do is like a man who built a house upon land without a foundation. When the torrent burst against it, immediately it collapsed—and the destruction of that house was great!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.