Book of Common Prayer
5 (0) For the leader. On wind instruments. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Give ear to my words, Adonai,
consider my inmost thoughts.
3 (2) Listen to my cry for help,
my king and my God, for I pray to you.
4 (3) Adonai, in the morning you will hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my needs before you
and wait expectantly.
5 (4) For you are not a God
who takes pleasure in wickedness;
evil cannot remain with you.
6 (5) Those who brag cannot stand before your eyes,
you hate all who do evil,
7 (6) you destroy those who tell lies,
Adonai detests men of blood and deceivers.
8 (7) But I can enter your house
because of your great grace and love;
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in reverence for you.
9 (8) Lead me, Adonai, in your righteousness
because of those lying in wait for me;
make your way straight before me.
10 (9) For in their mouths there is nothing sincere,
within them are calamities,
their throats are open tombs,
they flatter with their tongues.
11 (10) God, declare them guilty!
Let them fall through their own intrigues,
For their many crimes, throw them down;
since they have rebelled against you.
12 (11) But let all who take refuge in you rejoice,
let them forever shout for joy!
Shelter them; and they will be glad,
those who love your name.
13 (12) For you, Adonai, bless the righteous;
you surround them with favor like a shield.
6 (0) For the leader. With stringed instruments. On sh’minit [low-pitched musical instruments?]. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Adonai, don’t rebuke me in your anger,
don’t discipline me in the heat of your fury.
3 (2) Be gracious to me, Adonai,
because I am withering away;
heal me, Adonai,
because my bones are shaking;
4 (3) I am completely terrified;
and you, Adonai — how long?
5 (4) Come back, Adonai, and rescue me!
Save me for the sake of your grace;
6 (5) for in death, no one remembers you;
in Sh’ol, who will praise you?
7 (6) I am worn out with groaning;
all night I drench my bed with tears,
flooding my couch till it swims.
8 (7) My vision is darkened with anger;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
9 (8) Get away from me, all you workers of evil!
For Adonai has heard the sound of my weeping,
10 (9) Adonai has heard my pleading,
Adonai will accept my prayer.
11 (10) All my enemies will be confounded,
completely terrified;
they will turn back
and be suddenly put to shame.
10 Why, Adonai, do you stand at a distance?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in their arrogance hunt down the poor,
who get caught in the schemes they think up.
3 For the wicked boasts about his lusts;
he blesses greed and despises Adonai.
4 Every scheme of the wicked in his arrogance [says],
“There is no God, [so] it won’t be held against me.”
5 His ways prosper at all times.
Your judgments are way up there,
so he takes no notice.
His adversaries? He scoffs at them all.
6 In his heart he thinks, “I will never be shaken;
I won’t meet trouble, not now or ever.”
7 His mouth is full of curses, deceit, oppression;
under his tongue, mischief and injustice.
8 He waits near settlements in ambush
and kills an innocent man in secret;
his eyes are on the hunt for the helpless.
9 Lurking unseen like a lion in his lair,
he lies in wait to pounce on the poor,
then seizes the poor and drags him off in his net.
10 Yes, he stoops, crouches down low;
and the helpless wretch falls into his clutches.
11 He says in his heart, “God forgets,
he hides his face, he will never see.”
12 Arise, Adonai! God, raise your hand!
Don’t forget the humble!
13 Why does the wicked despise God
and say in his heart, “It won’t be held against me”?
14 You have seen; for you look at mischief and grief,
so that you can take the matter in hand.
The helpless commits himself to you;
you help the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked!
As for the evil man,
search out his wickedness
until there is none left.
16 Adonai is king forever and ever!
The nations have vanished from his land.
17 Adonai, you have heard what the humble want;
you encourage them and listen to them,
18 to give justice to the fatherless and oppressed,
so that no one on earth will strike terror again.
11 (0) For the leader. By David:
(1) In Adonai I find refuge.
So how can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to the mountains!
2 See how the wicked are drawing their bows
and setting their arrows on the string,
to shoot from the shadows at honest men.
3 If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
4 Adonai is in his holy temple.
Adonai, his throne is in heaven.
His eyes see and test humankind.
5 Adonai tests the righteous;
but he hates the wicked and the lover of violence.
6 He will rain hot coals down on the wicked,
fire, sulfur and scorching wind
will be what they get to drink.
7 For Adonai is righteous;
he loves righteousness;
the upright will see his face.
25 “With whom, then, will you compare me?
With whom am I equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Turn your eyes to the heavens!
See who created these?
He brings out the army of them in sequence,
summoning each by name.
Through his great might and his massive strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Ya‘akov;
why do you say, Isra’el,
“My way is hidden from Adonai,
my rights are ignored by my God”?
28 Haven’t you known, haven’t you heard
that the everlasting God, Adonai,
the Creator of the ends of the earth,
does not grow tired or weary?
His understanding cannot be fathomed.
29 He invigorates the exhausted,
he gives strength to the powerless.
30 Young men may grow tired and weary,
even the fittest may stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in Adonai will renew their strength,
they will soar aloft as with eagles’ wings;
when they are running they won’t grow weary,
when they are walking they won’t get tired.
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your trust in the Lord Yeshua and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you. In my prayers I keep asking 17 the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you will have full knowledge of him. 18 I pray that he will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which he has called you, what rich glories there are in the inheritance he has promised his people, 19 and how surpassingly great is his power working in us who trust him. It works with the same mighty strength he used 20 when he worked in the Messiah to raise him from the dead and seat him at his right hand in heaven, 21 far above every ruler, authority, power, dominion or any other name that can be named either in the ‘olam hazeh or in the ‘olam haba. 22 Also, he has put all things under his feet[a] and made him head over everything for the Messianic Community, 23 which is his body, the full expression of him who fills all creation.
14 After Yochanan had been arrested, Yeshua came into the Galil proclaiming the Good News from God:
15 “The time has come,
God’s Kingdom is near!
Turn to God from your sins
and believe the Good News!”
16 As he walked beside Lake Kinneret, he saw Shim‘on and Andrew, Shim‘on’s brother, casting a net into the lake; for they were fishermen. 17 Yeshua said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you into fishers for men!” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 Going on a little farther, he saw Ya‘akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan, his brother, in their boat, repairing their nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zavdai in the boat with the hired men and went after Yeshua.
21 They entered K’far-Nachum, and on Shabbat Yeshua went into the synagogue and began teaching. 22 They were amazed at the way he taught, for he did not instruct them like the Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.
23 In their synagogue just then was a man with an unclean spirit in him, who shouted, 24 “What do you want with us, Yeshua from Natzeret? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” 25 But Yeshua rebuked the unclean spirit, “Be quiet and come out of him!” 26 Throwing the man into a convulsion, it gave a loud shriek and came out of him. 27 They were all so astounded that they began asking each other, “What is this? A new teaching, one with authority behind it! He gives orders even to the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28 And the news about him spread quickly through the whole region of the Galil.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.