Book of Common Prayer
Cry of Desperation
Psalm 88
1 A song, a psalm of the sons of Korah, for the music director, for singing Mahalath, a contemplative song[a] of Heman the Ezrahite.
2 Adonai, God of my salvation,
day and night I cried out before You.
3 Let my prayer come before You.
Turn Your ear to my cry.
4 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
5 I am counted with those who go down into the Pit.
I have become as one with no strength—
6 abandoned among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
whom You remember no more—
cut off from Your hand.
7 You have laid me in the lowest places,
in dark places, in the depths.
8 Your wrath lies heavily on me.
You afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah
9 You have put my companions far from me.
You have made me repulsive to them.
I am shut in and I cannot go out.
10 My eye fails from affliction.
I call upon You every day, Adonai.
I spread out my hands to You.
11 Will You work wonders for the dead?
Or will the departed spirits rise up praising You? Selah
12 Will Your love be declared in the grave?
Or Your faithfulness in the place of ruin?
13 Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?
Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
14 But I—I cried out to You, Adonai,
and in the morning my prayer meets You.
15 Adonai, why do You spurn me?
Why do You hide Your face from me?
16 From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death.
I suffer Your terrors—I am desperate!
17 Your fury has swept over me.
Your terrors have cut me off.
18 Like water they surge around me all day.
They close in on me together.
19 Friend and loved one You took far from me.
Darkness has become my companion.
Dwell in the Shelter of Elyon
Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of Elyon,
will abide in the shadow of Shaddai.
2 I will say of Adonai,
“He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.
3 For He will rescue you from the hunter’s trap
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with His feathers,
and under His wings you will find refuge.
His faithfulness is body armor and shield.
5 You will not fear the terror by night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the plague that stalks in darkness,
nor the scourge that lays waste at noon.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look on with your eyes
and see the wicked paid back.
9 For you have made Elyon your dwelling,
even Adonai, who is my refuge,
10 so no evil will befall you
nor any plague come near your tent.
11 For He will give His angels charge over you,
to guard you in all your ways.
12 Upon their hands they will lift you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.[a]
13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
trample the young lion and serpent.
14 “Because he has devoted his love to Me,
I will deliver him.
I will set him securely on high,
because he knows My Name.
15 When he calls on Me, I will answer him.
I will be with him in trouble, rescue him, and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him My salvation.”
It Is Good to Praise
Psalm 92
1 A psalm, a song for the Shabbat.
2 It is good to praise Adonai
and to make music to Your Name, Elyon,
3 to declare Your love in the morning
and Your faithfulness at night,
4 with a ten-string harp,
with resounding music on the lyre.
5 For You made me glad, Adonai, by Your deeds.
I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
6 How great are Your works, Adonai!
How profound are Your thoughts!
7 A brutish man does not know,
nor does a fool understand.
8 Though the wicked spring up like grass,
and all evildoers flourish,
it is only to be ruined forever.
9 But You, Adonai, are exalted forever.
10 For behold, Your enemies, Adonai
—behold Your enemies perish—
all evildoers are scattered.
11 But You exalted my horn like that of a wild ox.
I am anointed with fresh oil.
12 My eye can gaze on those lying in wait for me.
My ears hear about evildoers rising up against me.
13 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree.
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
14 Planted in the House of Adonai,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
15 They will still yield fruit in old age.
They will be full of sap and freshness.
16 They declare, “Adonai is upright, my Rock
—there is no injustice in Him.”
17 Now the watchman stationed on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troop approaching and said, “I am seeing a troop.”
Then Joram said, “Take a horseman and dispatch him to meet them, and let him ask: ‘Is it peace?’” 18 So the horse rider went to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Is it peace?’” But Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.”
So the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but didn’t come back.” 19 Then he dispatched out another horseman, who went to them and said, “Thus says the king: ‘Is it peace?’” But Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.”
20 So the watchman reported, saying, “He reached them, but didn’t come back—and the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he is driving on like a maniac!”
21 Then Joram ordered, “Hitch up the chariot!” So he hitched up his chariot. Then King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah went out each in his chariot to meet Jehu, and found him at the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. 22 Now when Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Is it peace, Jehu?”
So he answered, “What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?”
23 So Joram turned his horses around and fled, crying out to Ahaziah, “Treason, Ahaziah!”
24 But Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his arms, and the arrow went out through his heart, and he collapsed in his chariot. 25 Then he said to Bidkar his aide, “Pick him up and throw him on the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together behind Ahab his father, when Adonai took up this burden against him: 26 ‘As surely as I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday—it is a declaration of Adonai—I will repay you on this property—it is a declaration of Adonai.’ So now pick him up and throw him onto the property, just as in the word of Adonai.”
27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. But Jehu pursued him, and said, “Shoot him too!” They shot him in the chariot at Gur Pass near Ibleam. Then he fled to Megiddo, but he died there. 28 Then his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David. 29 (Ahaziah had become king over Judah in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab.)
30 Now when Jehu arrived at Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it. So she painted her eyes and dressed her hair, and looked out the window. 31 As Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, your master’s assassin?” 32 Then he lifted up his face to the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked down toward him. 33 Then he said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down—then her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her.
34 Then he went inside, ate and drank. Then he said, “Attend now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.” 35 But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36 So they came back and told him. He said, “This is the word of Adonai, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying: ‘In the field of Jezreel will the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel, 37 and the carcass of Jezebel will be as dung upon the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so that they will not say, “This was Jezebel.” ’”
Counsel About Marriage
7 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 But because of much immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband fulfill his obligation to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have the rights to her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband does not have the rights to his own body, but the wife. 5 Do not deprive one another—except by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.[a] Then come together again, so that satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 But this I say as a concession, not as a command. 7 Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this way and another that.
8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them to remain as I am. 9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
7 And when you are praying, do not babble on and on like the pagans; for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
9 “Therefore, pray in this way:
‘Our Father in heaven,
sanctified be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’[a]
14 “For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.