Book of Common Prayer
A Sacrifice of Thanks
Psalm 50
1 A psalm of Asaph.
God, Elohim Adonai has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent.
A fire is devouring before Him,
and it storms around Him mightily.
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, to judge His people:
5 “Gather My kedoshim to Me,
who cut a covenant with Me with a sacrifice.”
6 The heavens declare His righteousness,
for God Himself is Judge. Selah
7 “Hear, My people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you:
I am God, your God.
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are continually before Me.
9 I have no need of a bull from your house
nor goats from your pens.
10 For every beast of the forest is Mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird of the mountains.
Everything moving in the field is Mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you—
for the world is Mine and all it contains!
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer God a sacrifice of thank offerings,
then fulfill your vows to Elyon.
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble.
When I rescue you, you will honor Me.”
16 But to the wicked, God says:
“What are you doing, reciting My laws
and taking My covenant in your mouth?
17 For you hate discipline,
and you cast My words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
and your portion is with adulterers.
19 You have unleashed your mouth for evil
and harnessed your tongue for deceit.
20 You sit, speaking against your brother,
slandering your own mother’s son.
21 These things you have done—Should I keep silent?
You thought I was just like you—but I reprove you,
and set the case before your eyes.
22 Now consider this, you who forget God.
Or else I will tear you in pieces with no one to rescue you.
23 A sacrifice of praise honors Me,
and to the one who orders his way,
I will show the salvation of God.”
God Is My Strong Tower
Psalm 59
1 For the music director: “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David, when Saul sent men to watch the house to kill him.
2 Deliver me from my enemies, my God!
Set me on high,
away from those who rise up against me.
3 Deliver me from workers of iniquity.
Rescue me from bloodthirsty men.
4 For behold, they lie in wait for me.
Defiant men stir up strife against me—
not for my transgression or sin, Adonai.
5 For no guilt of mine, they run and set things up.
Awake! Help me! Look!
6 For You are Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel!
Rouse Yourself to punish all the nations.
Show no mercy to any iniquitous traitors. Selah
7 They return at evening, snarling like a dog,
prowling about the city.
8 See, they are spewing with their mouth
—swords in their lips—
“After all, who is listening?”
9 But You, Adonai, are laughing at them.
You scoff at all the nations.
10 O my strength, I watch for You—
for God is my strong tower.
11 My God in His lovingkindness will go before me.
God will let me look down on my foes.
12 Do not slay them, lest my people forget.
With Your power shake them
and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
13 The sin of their mouth is the words of their lips.
So let them be caught in their pride,
and for uttering a curse and a lie.
14 Consume them in wrath,
consume them till they are no more.
Let them know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah
15 They return at evening, snarling like a dog,
prowling about the city.
16 They wander around for food.
If they are not full, they stay up all night.
17 But I—I sing of Your strength!
Yes, in the morning I sing aloud of Your lovingkindness.
For You have been my fortress,
a refuge in the day of my trouble.
18 O my strength, to You I sing praises.
For God is my strong tower—
my God of lovingkindness.
Song of Victory Over Edom
Psalm 60
1 For the music director, on the “Lily of the Covenant,” a Michtam of David, for teaching, 2 when he fought with Aram-Naharaim and with Aram-Zobah, and Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
3 O God, You have spurned us.
You have broken out against us.
You have been angry. Turn back to us!
4 You made earth shake; You split it open.
Heal its fractures—for it shudders.
5 You made Your people see hardship.
You made us drink wine of staggering.
6 To those who fear You,
You gave a banner, to be unfurled before the archers. Selah
7 Save with Your right hand and answer us,
so that Your beloved may be delivered.
8 God has spoken in His holiness:
“I will exult!
I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the valley of Succoth.
9 Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine,
Ephraim is a helmet for my head,
Judah is my scepter.
10 Moab is my washbasin,
On Edom I toss my sandal,
Philistia, cry aloud because of me!”
11 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
12 Should it not be You, O God—
who spurned us and no longer goes out with our armies?
13 Give us aid against the adversary,
for the help of man is worthless.
14 With God we will do mighty things,
and He will trample our foes.
Passover Song
Psalm 114
1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob’s house from a people foreign-speaking,
2 Judah became His Sanctuary,
Israel His dominion.
3 The sea saw and fled,
the Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled?
O Jordan, that you turned back?
6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.
Bless the Maker of Heaven and Earth
Psalm 115
1 Not to us, Adonai, not to us,
but to Your Name be the glory—
because of Your love and Your faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations say:
“Where is their God now?”
3 Our God is in the heavens—
He does whatever pleases Him!
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak;
eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears, but cannot hear;
noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands, but cannot feel;
feet, but cannot walk,
nor utter a sound with their throat.
8 Those making them will become like them
—everyone trusting in them.
9 O Israel, trust in Adonai—
He is their help and their shield!
10 O house of Aaron, trust in Adonai—
He is their help and their shield!
11 O you who fear Adonai, trust in Adonai—
He is their help and their shield!
12 Adonai has been mindful of us,
He will bless:
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron;
13 He will bless those who fear Adonai,
the small together with the great.
14 May Adonai increase you more and more
—you and your children.
15 May you be blessed by Adonai,
Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the heavens of Adonai,
but the earth He gave to the children of men.
17 The dead do not praise Adonai,
nor do any who go down into silence.
18 But we—we will bless Adonai
both now and forever. Halleluyah!
8 See that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men and the basic principles of the world rather than Messiah. 9 For all the fullness of Deity lives bodily in Him, 10 and in Him you have been filled to fullness. He is the head over every ruler and authority.
11 In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision done not by hand, in the stripping away of the body of the flesh through the circumcision of Messiah. 12 You were buried along with Him in immersion, through which you also were raised with Him by trusting in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions. 14 He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 After disarming the principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.[a]
The Danger of False Wisdom
16 Therefore, do not let anyone pass judgment on you in matters of food or drink, or in respect to a festival or new moon or Shabbat. [b] 17 These are a foreshadowing of things to come, but the reality is Messiah. [c] 18 Let no one disqualify you by insisting on false humility and worship of angels—going into detail about what he has seen, puffed up without cause by his fleshly mind. 19 He is not holding fast to the Head. It is from Him that the whole body, nourished and held together by its joints and tendons, grows with a godly increase. 20 If you died with Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why—as though living in the world—do you subject yourselves to their rules? 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!” 22 These all lead to decay with use, based as they are on man-made commands and teachings. [d] 23 Indeed, these are matters that have an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and self-denial of the body—yet none are of any value for stopping indulgence of the flesh.
39 He also spoke this parable to them: “The blind cannot show the way to the blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
41 “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly the speck in your brother’s eye, to take it out.”
43 “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again does a rotten tree produce good fruit. 44 Each tree comes to be known by its own fruit. For figs are not gleaned out of briars; neither are bunches of grapes gathered from thorn bushes.
45 “Out of the good treasure of his heart the good man brings forth good, and out of evil the evil man brings forth evil. For from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.”
46 “Why do you call Me ‘Master, Master’ and do not do what I say? 47 Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood came, the torrent burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.
49 “But the one who hears yet does not do is like a man who built a house upon land without a foundation. When the torrent burst against it, immediately it collapsed—and the destruction of that house was great!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.