Book of Common Prayer
83 (0) A song. A psalm of Asaf:
2 (1) God, don’t remain silent!
Don’t stay quiet, God, or still;
3 (2) because here are your enemies, causing an uproar;
those who hate you are raising their heads,
4 (3) craftily conspiring against your people,
consulting together against those you treasure.
5 (4) They say, “Come, let’s wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Isra’el be remembered no more!”
6 (5) With one mind they plot their schemes;
the covenant they have made is against you —
7 (6) the tents of Edom and the Yishma‘elim,
Mo’av and the Hagrim,
8 (7) G’val, ‘Amon and ‘Amalek,
P’leshet with those living in Tzor; (Selah)
9 (8) Ashur too is allied with them,
to reinforce the descendants of Lot.
10 (9) Do to them as you did to Midyan,
to Sisra and Yavin at Vadi Kishon —
11 (10) they were destroyed at ‘Ein-Dor
and became manure for the ground.
12 (11) Make their leaders like ‘Orev and Ze’ev,
all their princes like Zevach and Tzalmuna,
13 (12) who said, “Let’s take possession
of God’s meadows for ourselves.”
14 (13) My God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff driven by the wind.
15 (14) Like fire burning up the forest,
like a flame that sets the mountains ablaze,
16 (15) drive them away with your storm,
terrify them with your tempest.
17 (16) Fill their faces with shame,
so that they will seek your name, Adonai.
18 (17) Let them be ashamed and fearful forever;
yes, let them perish in disgrace.
19 (18) Let them know that you alone,
whose name is Adonai,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Book II: Psalms 42–72
42 (0) For the leader. A maskil of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Just as a deer longs for running streams,
God, I long for you.
3 (2) I am thirsty for God, for the living God!
When can I come and appear before God?
4 (3) My tears are my food, day and night,
while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?”
5 (4) I recall, as my feelings well up within me,
how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God,
with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs
observing the festival.
6 (5) My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise him again
for the salvation that comes from his presence.
7 (6) My God, when I feel so downcast,
I remind myself of you
from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon,
from the hill Mizar.
8 (7) Deep is calling to deep
at the thunder of your waterfalls;
all your surging rapids and waves
are sweeping over me.
9 (8) By day Adonai commands his grace,
and at night his song is with me
as a prayer to the God of my life.
10 (9) I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
under pressure by the enemy?
11 (10) My adversaries’ taunts make me feel
as if my bones were crushed,
as they ask me all day long,
‘Where is your God?’ ”
12 (11) My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise him again
for being my Savior and God.
43 Judge me, God, and plead my cause
against a faithless nation.
Rescue me from those who deceive
and from those who are unjust.
2 For you are the God of my strength;
why have you thrust me aside?
Why must I go about mourning,
under pressure by the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them be my guide;
let them lead me to your holy mountain,
to the places where you live.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and delight;
I will praise you on the lyre,
God, my God.
5 My soul, why are you so downcast?
Why are you groaning inside me?
Hope in God, since I will praise him again
for being my Savior and God.
85 (0) For the leader. A psalm of the sons of Korach:
2 (1) Adonai, you have shown favor to your land;
you have restored the fortunes of Ya‘akov,
3 (2) taken away the guilt of your people,
pardoned all their sin, (Selah)
4 (3) withdrawn all your wrath,
turned from your fierce anger.
5 (4) Restore us, God of our salvation,
renounce your displeasure with us.
6 (5) Are you to stay angry with us forever?
Will your fury last through all generations?
7 (6) Won’t you revive us again,
so your people can rejoice in you?
8 (7) Show us your grace, Adonai;
grant us your salvation.
9 (8) I am listening. What will God, Adonai, say?
For he will speak peace to his people,
to his holy ones —
but only if they don’t relapse into folly.
10 (9) His salvation is near for those who fear him,
so that glory will be in our land.
11 (10) Grace and truth have met together;
justice and peace have kissed each other.
12 (11) Truth springs up from the earth,
and justice looks down from heaven.
13 (12) Adonai will also grant prosperity;
our land will yield its harvest.
14 (13) Justice will walk before him
and make his footsteps a path.
86 (0) A prayer of David:
(1) Listen, Adonai, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am faithful;
save your servant,
who puts his trust in you
because you are my God.
3 Take pity on me, Adonai,
for I cry to you all day.
4 Fill your servant’s heart with joy,
for to you, Adonai, I lift my heart.
5 Adonai, you are kind and forgiving,
full of grace toward all who call on you.
6 Listen, Adonai, to my prayer;
pay attention to my pleading cry.
7 On the day of my trouble I am calling on you,
for you will answer me.
8 There is none like you among the gods, Adonai;
no deeds compare with yours.
9 All the nations you have made
will come and bow before you, Adonai;
they will honor your name.
10 For you are great, and you do wonders;
you alone are God.
11 Adonai, teach me your way,
so that I can live by your truth;
make me single-hearted,
so that I can fear your name.
12 I will thank you, Adonai my God,
with my whole heart;
and I will glorify your name forever.
13 For your grace toward me is so great!
You have rescued me from the lowest part of Sh’ol.
14 God, arrogant men are rising against me,
a gang of brutes is seeking my life,
and to you they pay no attention.
15 But you, Adonai,
are a merciful, compassionate God,
slow to anger
and rich in grace and truth.
16 Turn to me, and show me your favor;
strengthen your servant, save your slave-girl’s son.
17 Give me a sign of your favor,
so that those who hate me
will see it and be ashamed,
because you, Adonai,
have helped and comforted me.
11 “This is what you must say to them:
‘The gods that did not make heaven and earth
will perish from earth and from under heaven.’”
12 God made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom
spread out the sky by his understanding.
13 When he thunders, the waters in heaven roar,
he raises clouds from the ends of the earth,
he makes the lightning flash in the rain
and brings the wind out from his storehouses.
14 At this, everyone is proved stupid, ignorant,
every goldsmith put to shame by his idol!
The figures he casts are a fraud;
there is no breath in them;
15 they are nothings, ridiculous objects;
when the day for their punishment comes, they will perish.
16 Ya‘akov’s portion is not like these,
for he is the one who formed all things.
Isra’el is the tribe he claims as his heritage;
Adonai-Tzva’ot is his name.
17 You who are living under the siege,
gather your belongings off the ground,
18 for here is what Adonai says:
“At this time I am slinging away
the inhabitants of the land;
I will distress them,
so that they will feel it.”
19 Woe to me because of my wound!
My injury is incurable!
I used to say, “It’s only an illness,
and I can bear it.”
20 But now my tent is ruined,
all its cords are severed;
my children have left me and are no more;
there is no one to set up my tent again,
no one to raise its curtains.
21 The shepherds have become stupid,
they have not consulted Adonai.
This is why they have not prospered,
and all their flocks are scattered.
22 Listen! A noise! It’s coming closer!
A great uproar from the land to the north,
to make the cities of Y’hudah desolate,
a place for jackals to live.
23 Adonai, I know that the way of humans
is not in their control,
humans are not able
to direct their steps as they walk.
24 Adonai, correct me, but in moderation,
not in your anger, or you’ll reduce me to nothing.
12 Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned. 13 Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah. 14 Nevertheless death ruled from Adam until Moshe, even over those whose sinning was not exactly like Adam’s violation of a direct command. In this, Adam prefigured the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the offence. For if, because of one man’s offence, many died, then how much more has God’s grace, that is, the gracious gift of one man, Yeshua the Messiah, overflowed to many! 16 No, the free gift is not like what resulted from one man’s sinning; for from one sinner came judgment that brought condemnation; but the free gift came after many offences and brought acquittal. 17 For if, because of the offence of one man, death ruled through that one man; how much more will those receiving the overflowing grace, that is, the gift of being considered righteous, rule in life through the one man Yeshua the Messiah!
18 In other words, just as it was through one offence that all people came under condemnation, so also it is through one righteous act that all people come to be considered righteous. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the other man, many will be made righteous. 20 And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more. 21 All this happened so that just as sin ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.
21 Again he told them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin — where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 The Judeans said, “Is he going to commit suicide? Is that what he means when he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 Yeshua said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 This is why I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not trust that I AM [who I say I am], you will die in your sins.”
25 At this, they said to him, “You? Who are you?” Yeshua answered, “Just what I’ve been telling you from the start. 26 There are many things I could say about you, and many judgments I could make. However, the One who sent me is true; so I say in the world only what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father. 28 So Yeshua said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM [who I say I am], and that of myself I do nothing, but say only what the Father has taught me. 29 Also, the One who sent me is still with me; he did not leave me to myself, because I always do what pleases him.”
30 Many people who heard him say these things trusted in him. 31 So Yeshua said to the Judeans who had trusted him, “If you obey what I say, then you are really my talmidim, 32 you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.