Book of Common Prayer
Exalted Above All Gods
Psalm 97
1 Adonai reigns, let the earth rejoice,
let the many islands be glad.
2 Clouds and darkness are all around Him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 Fire goes before Him
and burns up His adversaries on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world—
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax
at the presence of Adonai,
at the presence of the Lord of all earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness,
and all the peoples have seen His glory.
7 Let all who serve graven images be ashamed—who boast in idols.
Bow down before Him, all you gods!
8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of Your judgments, Adonai.
9 For You, Adonai, are Elyon above all the earth.
You are exalted far above all gods.
10 You who love Adonai, hate evil!
He watches over the souls of His godly ones.
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in Adonai, you righteous ones,
and praise His holy Name.
Worship at His Holy Hill
Psalm 99
1 Adonai reigns, let the peoples tremble.
He is enthroned upon the cheruvim—let the earth shake!
2 Adonai is great in Zion
and He is exalted above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise Your great
and awesome Name: holy is He.
4 The might of a king loves justice.
You have established fairness.
You executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt Adonai our God
and worship at His footstool: holy is He.
6 Moses and Aaron were among His kohanim—
also Samuel among those calling on His Name.
They called on Adonai and He answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud.
They kept His testimonies, and the decree that He gave them.
8 Adonai our God, You answered them.
A forgiving God You were to them, though You avenged their misdeeds.
9 Exalt Adonai our God,
and worship at His holy hill,
for holy is Adonai our God.
Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving
Psalm 100
1 A psalm of thanksgiving.
Shout joyfully to Adonai, all the earth!
2 Serve Adonai with gladness.
Come before His presence with joyful singing.
3 Know that Adonai, He is God.
It is He who has made us, and we are His.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise!
Praise Him, bless His Name.
5 For Adonai is good.
His lovingkindness endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
He Will Not Abandon His People
Psalm 94
1 God of vengeance, Adonai,
God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth!
Pay back to the proud what they deserve.
3 How long will the wicked, Adonai,
how long will the wicked gloat?
4 They gush out, they speak arrogance—
all the evildoers keep boasting.
5 They crush Your people, Adonai,
and afflict Your heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the outsider,
and murder the fatherless.
7 So they say: “Adonai does not see—
the God of Jacob pays no attention.”
8 Pay attention, stupid among the people!
Fools, when will you comprehend?
9 He who planted the ear, does He not hear?
He who formed the eye, does He not see?
10 He who chastens nations, will He not rebuke—
One who teaches humanity knowledge?
11 Adonai knows human thoughts—
they are but a breath.
12 Blessed is the one You discipline, Adonai,
and teach him from Your Torah,
13 to give him rest from days of trouble
—until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For Adonai will not forsake His people.
He will never abandon His inheritance.[a]
15 For rightness will be restored to justice,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
17 Unless Adonai had been my help,
my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.
18 If I say: “My foot has slipped,”
Your mercy, Adonai, will hold me up.
19 When my troubling thoughts multiply within me,
Your consolations comfort my soul.
20 Can a throne of corruption be aligned
with You—planning distress by decree?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn innocent blood.[b]
22 But Adonai has been my fortress
and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will repay them for their wickedness,
and will annihilate them in their evil.
Adonai our God will annihilate them.
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.[c]
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.’”
Habakkuk’s Confidence in Adonai
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, as a passionate song.
2 Adonai, I have heard the report about You
and I have come to fear.
Adonai, revive Your work throughout the years,
throughout the years make it known,
In wrath remember compassion.
3 God comes from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His majesty covers the heavens,
and His praise fills the earth.
4 With brilliance like light,
rays emanate from His hand.
There His power was hidden.
5 Pestilence goes before Him,
a fiery bolt goes forth at His feet.
6 He stood, and the earth shook.
He looked, and startled nations.
Ancient mountains were shattered,
hills of antiquity sank down.
His ways are everlasting.
7 I saw tents of Cushan under calamity.
The curtains of the land of Midian are trembling.
8 Adonai, is your wrath against rivers?
Or Your anger at the rivers?
Or is Your fury with the sea?
For You ride on Your horses,
Your chariots of salvation!
9 Your bow is laid bare.
Sworn are rods—a decree. Selah
You cleave the land with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and writhe.
A downpour of water overflows.
The deep gives its voice—
it lifts up hands high.
11 Sun and moon, stand in lofty abode.
At the flash of Your arrows they go,
at the radiance of the lightning of Your spear.
12 With indignation You pace the land.
With anger You thresh nations.
13 You went out for the salvation of Your people—
for the deliverance of Your anointed one.[a]
You shatter the head of the house of the wicked—
to lay it bare from foundation up to the top. Selah
14 You have pierced his chief rulers with his own staff—
They stormed in to scatter me.
Their exultation is like devouring the weak in secret.
15 You marched forth,
Your horses in the sea—much water foaming.
16 I heard, and my belly trembled.
My lips quivered at the sound.
Decay comes into my bones.
I tremble where I stand,
since I must wait quietly for a day of distress
to come up against the people who will invade us.
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and there is no yield on the vines,
Though the olive crop fail,
and the fields produce no food,
the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no cattle in the stalls.
18 Yet will I triumph in Adonai,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation![b]
Dangerous Tongue
3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, since you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If someone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3 And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole body as well. 4 See also the ships—though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member—yet it boasts of great things.[a] See how so small a fire sets a blaze so great a forest! 6 And the tongue is a fire.[b] The tongue is a world of evil placed among our body parts. It pollutes the whole body and sets on fire the course of life—and is set on fire by Gehenna.
7 For every species of beasts and birds, reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. [c] 9 With it we bless our Adonai and Father, and with it we curse people, who are made in the image of God. [d] 10 From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be. 11 A spring doesn’t pour out fresh and bitter water from the same opening, does it? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh water.
Back to Teaching His Own
17 Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “Stumbling blocks are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom they come! 2 It would be better for him to have a millstone put around his neck and to be hurled into the sea, than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
3 “Keep yourselves alert! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times a day, and seven times returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
5 Then the emissaries said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 Then the Lord said, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7 But if you have a slave who is plowing or tending sheep, who among you will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come right in, and recline at table’? 8 But won’t he instead say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat! Dress yourself and wait on me while I eat and drink; and afterward, you may eat and drink’? 9 He doesn’t thank the slave because he did what he was commanded, does he? 10 So you too, when you’ve done everything you are commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves. We have done only what we were supposed to do.’”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.