Book of Common Prayer
Even My Close Friend
Psalm 41
1 For the music director: a psalm of David.
2 Blessed is the one who considers the wretched—
Adonai will deliver him in the evil day.
3 Adonai will protect him and keep him alive.
He will be made blessed in the land.
You will not give him over to the desire of his foes.
4 Adonai will strengthen him on his sickbed.
May You restore him completely from his bed.
5 I said: “Adonai, have mercy on me.
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
6 My enemies speak evil about me:
“When will he die and his name perish?”
7 And if someone of them comes to see me, he speaks falsely.
He stores up evil in his heart,
then he goes out and chatters.
8 All who hate me whisper together about me
They imagine the worst about me:
9 “Something evil was poured into him—
he will not get up again from the place where he lies.”
10 Even my own close friend,
whom I trusted, who ate my bread,
has lifted up his heel against me.[a]
11 But You, Adonai, have mercy on me,
and raise me up, so I may repay them.
12 By this I know that You delight in me:
that my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.
13 You uphold me in my integrity
and set me before Your face forever.
14 Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen!
Treacherous Tongue!
Psalm 52
1 For the music director: a contemplative song of David, 2 when Doeg the Edomite came and reported to Saul telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”
3 Why do you brag about evil, mighty man?
God’s lovingkindness is every day.
4 Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, working deceit.
5 You love evil instead of good,
lying rather than speaking right. Selah
6 You love only devouring words—
treacherous tongue!
7 God will pull you down forever,
and snatch you, rip you out of your tent,
and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
8 Then the righteous will see and fear,
and laugh at him:
9 “Here is the man who did not make God his stronghold.
Instead he trusted in his great riches—
and was strong in his evil desire.”
10 But I—I am like an olive tree flourishing in the House of God.
I trust in God’s lovingkindness forever and ever.
11 I will praise You forever for what You have done.
I will hope in Your Name, for it is good,
in the presence of Your kedoshim.
Arise, O God of Our Fathers
Psalm 44
1 For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song.
2 We have heard with our ears, O God
—our fathers have told us—
of a work You did in their days, in days of old.
3 With Your hand You displaced nations, but You planted them.
You afflicted peoples, and You drove them out.
4 For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,
nor did their own arm save them.
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—
for You favored them.
5 You are my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
6 Through You we push back our foes.
Through Your Name we trample those rising up against us.
7 For I do not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
8 For You saved us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hated us.
9 In God we make our boast all day
and Your Name we praise forever. Selah
10 Yet You have spurned and humiliated us,
and no longer go out with our armies.
11 You make us retreat before the enemy.
Those who hate us have plundered us.
12 You gave us to be devoured like sheep[a]
and have scattered us among the nations.
13 You are selling Your people cheaply—
not even getting a great price for them.
14 You made us a taunt for our neighbors,
a scorn and ridicule for those around us.
15 You have made us a byword among the nations,
head-wagging among the peoples.
16 All day my disgrace is before me,
and my face is covered with shame—
17 because of the sound of taunting and reviling
from the face of a vengeful enemy.
18 All this came upon us, though we did not forget You,
nor were we false to Your covenant.
19 Our heart did not turn back,
nor did our steps stray from Your path.
20 Yet You crushed us in a place of jackals,
covered us with the shadow of death.
21 If we had forgotten the Name of our God
or stretched our hands to a foreign god,
22 would God not have discovered it?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
23 But for Your sake we are slain all day.
We are counted as sheep for slaughter.[b]
24 Awake! Why do you sleep, my Lord?
Wake up! Do not cast us off forever.
25 Why do You hide Your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
26 For our soul sinks down to the dust.
Our belly cleaves to the earth.
27 Arise, be our help,
and redeem us
for Your mercy’s sake.
16 Bind up the testimony,
seal the instruction with My disciples.
17 I will wait for Adonai,
who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob,
and I will look eagerly for Him.
18 Here I am with the children that Adonai has given me as signs and wonders in Israel, from Adonai-Tzva’ot who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When they say to you: “Consult the mediums and necromancers who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people seek their God? Should a people consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To Torah and to the testimony!
If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light. 21 They will pass this way that are hard-pressed and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse their king and their God. Whether they turn their faces upward 22 or look to the earth, behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be driven into darkness.
A Great Light in Galilee
23 But there is no gloom to her[a]
who was in anguish, as in time past.
He treated lightly the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali,
but in the future He will bring glory—
by the way of the sea,
beyond the Jordan—
Galilee of the Gentiles.
9 The people walking in darkness
will see a great light.
Upon those dwelling in the land of the shadow of death,
light will shine.[b]
Greetings
1 Simon Peter, a slave and emissary of Messiah Yeshua,
To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Messiah Yeshua:
2 May grace and shalom be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Yeshua our Lord.
Qualities for Living Forever
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue. 4 Through these things He has given us His precious and magnificent promises,[a] so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, since you have escaped the corruption that evil desires have brought into the world. 5 Now for this very reason, making every effort, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly love; and to brotherly love, love. [b] 8 For if these qualities are in you and increasing, they keep you from becoming idle and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 9 But anyone who lacks these qualities is blind—nearsighted because he has forgotten his cleansing from past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make all the more effort to make your calling and election certain—for if you keep doing these things, you will never stumble. 11 For in this way entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Messiah Yeshua, will be richly provided for you.
Yeshua Prays at the Mount of Olives
39 And Yeshua came out and went as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. 40 When he reached the place, He said to them, “Pray that you will not enter into temptation.” 41 And He pulled back about a stone’s throw from them, got on His knees, and began to pray, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. 44 And in His anguish, He was praying fervently; and His sweat was like drops of blood falling down on the ground. 45 When He rose up from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them asleep, exhausted from grief. 46 And He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation.”
Betrayed!
47 While Yeshua was speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judah, one of the Twelve, approached Yeshua to kiss Him. 48 But Yeshua said to him, “Judah, with a kiss you betray the Son of Man?”[a]
49 When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, “Master, shall we strike with the sword?” 50 And one of them struck the servant of the kohen gadol and cut off his right ear.
51 But Yeshua answered and said, “Stop this now!” And He touched the man’s ear and healed him.
52 Then Yeshua said to the ruling kohanim, officers of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come against Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a revolutionary? 53 Every day I was with you in the Temple, yet you did not lay a finger on Me. But this is yours—the hour and the power of darkness.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.