Book of Common Prayer
95 Come, let’s sing to Adonai!
Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
3 For Adonai is a great God,
a great king greater than all gods.
4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;
the mountain peaks too belong to him.
5 The sea is his — he made it —
and his hands shaped the dry land.
6 Come, let’s bow down and worship;
let’s kneel before Adonai who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people
in his pasture, the sheep in his care.
If only today you would listen to his voice:
8 “Don’t harden your hearts, as you did at M’rivah,
as you did on that day at Massah in the desert,
9 when your fathers put me to the test;
they challenged me, even though they saw my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation;
I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray,
they don’t understand how I do things.’
11 Therefore I swore in my anger
that they would not enter my rest.”
102 (0) Prayer of a sufferer overcome by weakness and pouring out his complaint before Adonai:
2 (1) Adonai, hear my prayer!
Let my cry for help reach you!
3 (2) Don’t hide your face from me
when I am in such distress!
Turn your ear toward me;
when I call, be quick to reply!
4 (3) For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones are burning like a furnace.
5 (4) I am stricken and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
6 (5) Because of my loud groaning,
I am just skin and bones.
7 (6) I am like a great owl in the desert,
I’ve become like an owl in the ruins.
8 (7) I lie awake and become
like a bird alone on the roof.
9 (8) My enemies taunt me all day long;
mad with rage, they make my name a curse.
10 (9) For I have been eating ashes like bread
and mingling tears with my drink
11 (10) because of your furious anger,
since you picked me up just to toss me aside.
12 (11) My days decline like an evening shadow;
I am drying up like grass.
13 (12) But you, Adonai, are enthroned forever;
your renown will endure through all generations.
14 (13) You will arise and take pity on Tziyon,
for the time has come to have mercy on her;
the time determined has come.
15 (14) For your servants love her very stones;
they take pity even on her dust.
16 (15) The nations will fear the name of Adonai
and all the kings on earth your glory,
17 (16) when Adonai has rebuilt Tziyon,
and shows himself in his glory,
18 (17) when he has heeded the plea of the poor
and not despised their prayer.
19 (18) May this be put on record for a future generation;
may a people yet to be created praise Adonai.
20 (19) For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
from heaven Adonai surveys the earth
21 (20) to listen to the sighing of the prisoner,
to set free those who are sentenced to death,
22 (21) to proclaim the name of Adonai in Tziyon
and his praise in Yerushalayim
23 (22) when peoples and kingdoms have been gathered together
to serve Adonai.
24 (23) He has broken my strength in midcourse,
he has cut short my days.
25 (24) I plead, “God, your years last through all generations;
so don’t take me away when my life is half over!
26 (25) In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth;
heaven is the work of your hands.
27 (26) They will vanish, but you will remain;
like clothing, they will all grow old;
yes, you will change them like clothing,
and they will pass away.
28 (27) But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
29 (28) The children of your servants will live securely
and their descendants be established in your presence.”
Book V: Psalms 107–150
107 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
2 Let those redeemed by Adonai say it,
those he redeemed from the power of the foe.
3 He gathered them from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the sea.
4 They wandered in the desert, on paths through the wastes,
without finding any inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
their life was ebbing away.
6 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
7 He led them by a direct path
to a city where they could live.
8 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
9 For he has satisfied the hungry,
filled the starving with good.
10 Some lived in darkness, in death-dark gloom,
bound in misery and iron chains,
11 because they defied God’s word,
scorned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he humbled their hearts by hard labor;
when they stumbled, no one came to their aid.
13 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
14 He led them from darkness, from death-dark gloom,
shattering their chains.
15 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
16 For he shattered bronze doors
and cut through iron bars.
17 There were foolish people who suffered affliction
because of their crimes and sins;
18 they couldn’t stand to eat anything;
they were near the gates of death.
19 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress;
20 he sent his word and healed them,
he delivered them from destruction.
21 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
22 Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and proclaim his great deeds with songs of joy.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
plying their trade on the great ocean,
24 saw the works of Adonai,
his wonders in the deep.
25 For at his word the storm-wind arose,
lifting up towering waves.
26 The sailors were raised up to the sky,
then plunged into the depths.
At the danger, their courage failed them,
27 they reeled and staggered like drunk men,
and all their skill was swallowed up.
28 In their trouble they cried to Adonai,
and he rescued them from their distress.
29 He silenced the storm and stilled its waves,
30 and they rejoiced as the sea grew calm.
Then he brought them safely
to their desired port.
31 Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace,
for his wonders bestowed on humanity!
32 Let them extol him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the leaders’ council.
23 “Oh no! The shepherds are destroying and scattering the sheep in my pasture!” says Adonai. 2 Therefore this is what Adonai, the God of Isra’el, says against the shepherds who shepherd my people: “You have scattered my flock, driven them away and not taken care of them. So I will ‘take care of’ you because of your evil deeds,” says Adonai. 3 “I myself will gather what remains of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their homes, and they will be fruitful and increase their numbers. 4 I will appoint shepherds over them who will shepherd them; then they will no longer be afraid or disgraced; and none will be missing,” says Adonai.
5 “The days are coming,” says Adonai
when I will raise a righteous Branch for David.
He will reign as king and succeed,
he will do what is just and right in the land.
6 In his days Y’hudah will be saved,
Isra’el will live in safety,
and the name given to him will be
Adonai Tzidkenu [Adonai our righteousness].
7 “Therefore,” says Adonai, “the day will come when people no longer swear, ‘As Adonai lives, who brought the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘As Adonai lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Isra’el up from the land to the north’ and from all the countries where I drove them. Then they will live in their own land.”
28 Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with his purpose; 29 because those whom he knew in advance, he also determined in advance would be conformed to the pattern of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; 30 and those whom he thus determined in advance, he also called; and those whom he called, he also caused to be considered righteous; and those whom he caused to be considered righteous he also glorified!
31 What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all — is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too? 33 So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God — he is the one who causes them to be considered righteous! 34 Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and — more than that — has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf! 35 Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War? 36 As the Tanakh puts it,
“For your sake we are being put to death all day long,
we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, 39 neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.
52 At this, the Judeans disputed with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Then Yeshua said to them, “Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life — that is, I will raise him up on the Last Day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live through the Father, so also whoever eats me will live through me. 58 So this is the bread that has come down from heaven — it is not like the bread the fathers ate; they’re dead, but whoever eats this bread will live forever!” 59 He said these things as he was teaching in a synagogue in K’far-Nachum.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.