Book of Common Prayer
You Are My God
Psalm 63
1 A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
2 O God, You are my God,
earnestly I seek You.
My soul thirsts for You.
My flesh longs for You
in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.
3 So, I looked for You in the Sanctuary,
to see Your power and Your glory.
4 Since Your lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips will praise You.
5 So I will bless You as long as I live.
In Your name I lift up my hands.[a]
6 My soul is satisfied as with fat and oil,
so my mouth praises You with joyful lips.
7 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You through the night watches.
8 For You have been my help,
and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
9 My soul clings to You—
Your right hand upholds me.
10 But those who seek my soul to destroy it
will go down to the depths of the earth.
11 They will be gutted by the sword,
and become a prey for jackals.
12 But the king will rejoice in God.
All who swear by Him will boast,
when the mouth speaking lies is shut.
As a Father Has Compassion
Psalm 103
1 Of David.
Bless Adonai, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless His holy Name.
2 Bless Adonai, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits:
3 He forgives all your iniquity.
He heals all your diseases.
4 He redeems your life from the Pit.
He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassions.
5 He satisfies your years with good things,
so that your youth is renewed like an eagle.
6 Adonai executes justice—
judgments for all who are oppressed.
7 He made His ways known to Moses,
His deeds to the children of Israel.
8 Adonai is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, and plentiful in mercy.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not treated us according to our sins,
or repaid us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His mercy for those who fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so Adonai has compassion on those who fear Him.
14 For He knows our frame.
He remembers that we are but dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass—
he flourishes like a flower of the field,
16 but when the wind blows over it, it is gone,
and its place is no longer known.
17 But the mercy of Adonai is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who revere Him,
His righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep His covenant,
who remember to observe His instructions.
19 Adonai has set up His throne in the heavens,
and His kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless Adonai, you angels of His:
mighty in strength, performing His word,
upon hearing the utterance of His word.
21 Bless Adonai, all you His armies,
His servants who do His will.
22 Bless Adonai, all His works everywhere in His dominion.
Bless Adonai, O my soul!
21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah as well as the tribe of Benjamin—180,000 select soldiers, to fight against the house of Israel in order to restore the kingship back to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying: 23 “Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people saying, 24 Thus says Adonai: you are not to go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Turn back every man to his own house, for this matter is from Me.”
So they heeded the word of Adonai. They turned and went back, according to the word of Adonai.
25 Then Jeroboam rebuilt Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and resided there. From there he went out and built Penuel.[a]
Jeroboam Resorts to Idolatry
26 But Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. 27 If this people keep going up to offer sacrifices in the House of Adonai at Jerusalem, then the heart of these people will turn back to their lord—to King Rehoboam of Judah. Then they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” 28 So the king sought counsel and made two golden calves. He said to them, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 Then he set up one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even up in Dan.
31 He also made shrines on the high places and appointed priests from among the people, who were not sons of Levi. 32 Then Jeroboam instituted a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, imitating the Festival that is in Judah. He went up to the altar that he built in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves that he had made. He installed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he made. 33 Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month—in the month that he had made up from his own heart—and made up a festival for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.
18 So they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Yeshua. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. 20 For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
21 After threatening them again, they let them go—finding no way they could punish them on account of the people, because they all were glorifying God for what had happened. 22 For the man in whom this miracle of healing had happened was more than forty years old.
Prayer for Courage
23 As soon as they were released, Peter and John went to their own people and reported all that the ruling kohanim and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “O Sovereign Master, ‘You made heaven and earth and the sea, and everything in them.’ [a] 25 You said by the Ruach ha-Kodesh, through the mouth of our father David Your servant,
‘Why did the nations rage
and the peoples plot foolish things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand
and the rulers were gathered together
against Adonai and against His
Anointed One.’[b]
27 “For truly both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together in this city against Your holy Servant Yeshua, whom You anointed. 28 They did whatever Your hand and Your purpose predetermined to happen. 29 And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant Your servants to speak Your word with utmost courage— 30 while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy Servant Yeshua.”
31 When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. And they were all filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
31 Again the Judean leaders picked up stones to stone Him. 32 Yeshua answered them, “I’ve shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone Me?”
33 The Judean leaders answered, “We aren’t stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy. Though You are a man, You make Yourself God!”
34 Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Writings,[a] ‘I have said you are gods’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the Word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him, the One the Father set apart and sent into the world, ‘You speak blasphemy,’ because I said, ‘I am Ben-Elohim’?
37 “If I don’t do the works of My Father, don’t believe Me! 38 But if I do, even if you don’t trust Me, trust the deeds. Then you may come to know and continue to understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.” 39 Therefore they tried to capture Him again, but He escaped from their hand.
40 Again He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first started immersing, and He stayed there. 41 Many people came to Him and were saying, “John performed no sign, but all John said about this man was true.” 42 And many trusted in Him there.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.