Book of Common Prayer
Learn Torah Letter by Letter
Psalm 119
ALEPH א
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the Torah of Adonai.
2 Happy are those who keep His testimonies,
who seek Him with a whole heart,
3 who also do no injustice, but walk in His ways.
4 You have commanded that Your precepts
be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways were steadfast
to observe Your decrees!
6 Then I would not be ashamed,
when I consider all Your mitzvot.
7 I will praise You with an upright heart
as I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I will observe Your statutes.
Never abandon me utterly!
BET ב
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart have I sought You
—let me not stray from Your mitzvot.
11 I have treasured Your word in my heart,
so I might not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, Adonai.
Teach me Your statutes.
13 With my lips I rehearse
all the rulings of Your mouth.
14 I rejoice in the way of Your testimonies
above all wealth.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts,
and regard Your ways.
16 I will delight in Your decrees.
I will never forget Your word.
GIMEL ג
17 Do good to Your servant
that I may live and keep Your word.
18 Open my eyes, so I may behold
wonders from Your Torah.
19 I am a temporary dweller on earth—
do not hide Your mitzvot from me.
20 My soul is crushed with longing
for Your judgments at all times.
21 You rebuke the proud, who are cursed,
who wander from Your mitzvot.
22 Take scorn and contempt away from me,
for I have kept Your testimonies.
23 Though princes sit and talk against me,
Your servant meditates on Your decrees.
24 For Your testimonies are my delight—
they are also my counselors.
Silence the Flattering Lips
Psalm 12
1 For the music director, on the eight-string lyre, a psalm of David.
2 Help, Adonai! For no one godly exists.
For the faithful have vanished from the children of men.
3 Everyone tells a lie to his neighbor,
talking with flattering lips and a divided heart.
4 May Adonai cut off all flattering lips—
a tongue bragging big things.
5 They say: “With our tongue we’ll prevail.
We own our lips—who can master us?”
6 “Because of the oppression of the poor,
because of the groaning of the needy,
now will I arise,” says Adonai.
“I will put him in the safe place—he pants for it.”
7 The words of Adonai are pure words—
like silver refined in an earthly crucible,
purified seven times.
8 You will keep us safe, Adonai.
You will protect us from this generation forever.
9 The wicked strut all around,
while vileness is exalted by mankind.
Trust in His Chesed
Psalm 13
1 For the music director, a psalm of David.
2 How long, Adonai? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
3 How long must I have cares in my soul
and daily sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
4 Look at me and answer, Adonai my God.
Light up my eyes, or I will sleep in death.
5 Or else my enemy will say: “I have overcome him!”
and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
6 But I trust in Your lovingkindness,
my heart rejoices in Your salvation.
I will sing to Adonai,
because He has been good to me.
There Is No God?
Psalm 14
1 For the music director, of David.
The fool said in his heart:
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt; their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.[a]
2 Adonai looked down from heaven on the children of men,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They all turned aside, became corrupt.
There is no one who does good
—not even one.
4 “Will evildoers never understand—
those who consume My people as they eat bread—
and never call on Adonai?”
5 There they are, in great dread.
For God is with the righteous generation.
6 You would frustrate the plan of the lowly.
Surely Adonai is his refuge!
7 O may He give Israel’s salvation out of Zion!
When Adonai restores His captive people,
Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad!
3 Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “Pray now to Adonai our God for us.”
4 Now Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not put him into prison. 5 Meanwhile Pharaoh’s army had set out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem.
6 Then came the word of Adonai to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 7 thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, thus will you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Now, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land. 8 The Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. Then they will capture it and burn it with fire.”
9 Thus says Adonai: “Do not deceive yourselves, saying: ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us’—for they will not depart. 10 For even if you had struck down the entire Chaldean army fighting against you, and there were left among them only wounded men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city down with fire.”
11 So it came to pass, when the army of the Chaldeans went up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, 12 that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people. 13 But when he was at the Benjamin Gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah, who arrested the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”
14 But Jeremiah said, “That’s a lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him, but arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 The officials were angry with Jeremiah, had him beaten, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.
16 For Jeremiah went into a vaulted cell in the dungeon pit, and Jeremiah remained there many days. 17 Then King Zedekiah sent for him and received him in his palace secretly, and the king asked him: “Is there any word from Adonai?”
“There is,” Jeremiah said, and he also said, “You shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18 Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah: “How have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 19 Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying: ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?’ 20 So now please listen, my lord the king! Please let my petition come before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so I will not die there.”
21 Then Zedekiah the king gave a command, and they committed Jeremiah into the courtyard of the guard. They gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street daily, until all the bread in the city was spent. So Jeremiah stayed in the guard’s courtyard.
13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What is it then? I will pray in my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing praises with my spirit, and I will also sing praises with my mind. 16 Otherwise if you give thanks and praise in the spirit, how will one filling the place of the ungifted say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he has no idea what you’re saying? 17 For you certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 However, in Messiah’s community I would rather speak five words with my mind, so I may also instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers and sisters, stop being children in your thinking—rather, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 21 In the Prophets[a] it is written,
“By those with strange tongues
and by the lips of strangers
I will speak to this people.
And not even then will they listen to me,” says Adonai.
22 Therefore tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers—but prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 So if Messiah’s whole community comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and uninstructed or unbelieving people come in, won’t they say that you are crazy? 24 But if all are prophesying and some unbelieving or ungifted person comes in, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. 25 The secrets of his heart become known, and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring, “God really is among you!”[b]
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
26 “So do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed and nothing hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in your ear, proclaim from the housetops! 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.[a]
29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?[b] Yet not one of them shall fall to the ground apart from your Father’s consent. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So do not fear; you are worth more than many sparrows.
32 “Therefore whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.