Book of Common Prayer
Written About Me in the Scroll
Psalm 40
1 For the music director, a psalm of David.
2 I waited patiently for Adonai.
He bent down to me and heard my cry.
3 He brought me up out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.
Then He set my feet on a rock.
He made my steps firm.
4 He put a new song in my mouth—
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and trust in Adonai.
5 Blessed is the one
who put his confidence in Adonai,
who has not turned to the arrogant,
nor to those who fall into falsehood.
6 Many things You have done, Adonai my God
—Your plans for us are wonderful—
there is none to be compared to You!
If I were to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to count!
7 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire
—my ears You have opened—
burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
8 Then I said: “Here I am, I have come—
in the scroll of a book it is written about me.
9 I delight to do Your will, O my God.
Yes, Your Torah is within my being.”
10 I proclaim good news of righteousness in the great assembly.
Behold, I am not shutting my lips—
Adonai, You know!
11 I did not hide Your righteousness within my heart.
Rather I declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation.
I did not conceal Your lovingkindness
and Your truth from the great assembly.
12 Adonai, do not withhold Your compassions from me.
Let Your mercy and Your truth always protect me.
13 For evils beyond number surround me,
my sins have overtaken me
—I cannot see—
they are more than the hairs of my head
—and my heart fails me.
14 Adonai, please deliver me!
Adonai, come quickly to help me!
15 Let those who seek my life to sweep it away
be put to shame and humiliated.
Let those who wish me evil
be turned back in disgrace.
16 Let those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
be appalled over their own shame.
17 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You.
Let those who love Your salvation
continually say: “Adonai be magnified!”
18 But I—I am poor and needy—
yet my Lord is mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer—
O my God, do not delay!
Surely God is My Helper
Psalm 54
1 For the music director, on stringed instruments, a contemplative song of David, 2 when the Ziphites came and said to Saul: “Is not David hiding himself among us?”
3 O God, save me by Your Name,
vindicate me by Your might.
4 O God, hear my prayer,
listen to the words of my mouth.
5 For strangers have risen up against me.
Violent men seek after my soul.
They do not set God before them. Selah
6 Surely God is my helper.
My Lord is the supporter of my soul.
7 Let evil return to my foes.
Silence them with Your truth!
8 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You.
I will praise Your name, Adonai, for it is good.
9 For He has delivered me from all trouble,
and my eye has gazed upon my enemies.
Create in Me a Clean Heart
Psalm 51
1 For the music director: a psalm of David, 2 when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he went to Bathsheba.
3 Be gracious to me, O God,
according to Your mercy.
According to Your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
4 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
5 For I know my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me.
6 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in Your sight,
so that You are just when You speak,
and blameless when You judge.
7 Behold, I was born in iniquity and in sin
when my mother conceived me.
8 Surely You desire truth in the inner being.
Make me know wisdom inwardly.
9 Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.
Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
10 Let me hear joy and gladness,
so the bones You crushed may rejoice.
11 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
12 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
13 Do not cast me from Your presence—
take not Your Ruach ha-Kodesh from me.
14 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
and sustain me with a willing spirit.
15 Then will I teach transgressors Your ways
and sinners will return to You.
16 Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God—
God of my salvation.
Then my tongue will sing for joy of Your righteousness.
17 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
18 For You would not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it,
nor be pleased by burnt offerings.
19 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
A broken and a contrite heart, O God,
You will not despise.
20 In Your favor do good to Zion.
Build up the walls of Jerusalem.
21 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Assyria, the Rod
5 Oy to Assyria, the rod of My anger—
the club in their hand is My indignation!
6 I am sending it against an ungodly nation,
and against the people of My fury I am commissioning it,
to take spoil and plunder,
to trample them down
like mud in the streets.
7 Yet that is not what Assyria intends,
nor is that what he is thinking about.
Rather his heart is to destroy,
and to cut down nations—only a few!
8 For he says: “Aren’t all my princes kings?
9 Isn’t Calno like Carchemish?
Isn’t Hamath like Arpad?
Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached the kingdoms of the idols—
with more graven images than Jerusalem and Samaria—
11 as I’ve done to Samaria and her idols,
won’t I also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12 Therefore it will come to pass, when Adonai finishes all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glorying of his haughty eyes.” 13 For he said:
“By the strength of my own hand I’ve done it,
and my own wisdom,
for I am shrewd!
I abolished the borders of peoples,
and plundered their treasures.
As a mighty one I cast down inhabitants.
14 My hand found the riches of the peoples as a nest—
like gathering forsaken eggs,
I have gathered the entire earth.
Not a wing fluttered,
not a beak opened or chirped!”
15 Should the axe boast against the One who chops with it?
Should the saw magnify itself against the One who wields it?
It would be like a rod waving the One who lifts it,
or like a staff hoisting up the One who is not wood!
16 Therefore will the Lord Adonai-Tzva’ot,
send leanness among his fat ones.
Under its glory He will kindle a burning
like a blazing fire.
17 So the light of Israel will become a fire,
and its Holy One a flame.
He will burn and consume
its thorns and briers in one day.
18 Both the glory of his forest
and his fruitful field,
he will consume, both soul and body.
It will be like a sick man wasting away.
19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few,
a child could record them.
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. The gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for them. [a] 18 For by mouthing grandiosities that amount to nothing, they entice in sensual fleshly passions those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption—for a person is a slave to whatever has overcome him. 20 For if—after escaping the world’s pollutions through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah—they again become entangled in these things and are overcome, the end for them has become worse than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after learning about it, to turn back from the holy commandment passed on to them. [b] 22 What has happened to them confirms the truth of the proverb, “A dog returns to its vomit,”[c] and “A scrubbed pig heads right back into the mud.”
2 Now when John heard in prison about the works of the Messiah, he sent word through his disciples 3 and said to Yeshua, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
4 Yeshua replied, “Go report to John what you hear and see: 5 the blind see and the lame walk, those with tzara’at are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. 6 Blessed is the one who is not led to stumble because of Me.”[a]
A Prophet Without Honor
7 Now as they were leaving, Yeshua began to talk to the crowd concerning John. “What did you go out to the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 No? So what did you go out to see? A man dressed in finery? Look, those who wear finery are in the palaces of kings! 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, even more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written,
‘Behold, I send My messenger before You,
who will prepare Your way before You.’[b]
11 “Amen, I tell you, among those born of women, none has arisen greater than John the Immerser. Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Immerser until now, the kingdom of heaven is treated with violence, and the violent grasp hold of it. 13 For all the prophets and the Torah prophesied until the time of John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears, let him hear!
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.