Book of Common Prayer
A Burden Too Heavy for Me
Psalm 38
1 A psalm of David, for a memorial.
2 Adonai, do not rebuke me in Your anger
or discipline me in Your wrath.
3 For Your arrows have sunk deep into me
and Your hand has pressed down on me.
4 There is no health in my flesh because of Your indignation.
There is no wholeness in my bones because of my sin.
5 For my iniquities are on my head—
like a burden too heavy for me.
6 My wounds are foul and festering
because of my foolishness.
7 I am bent over, bowed down greatly.
All day I walk about in mourning.
8 For my heart is filled with burning pain,
and there is no health in my body.
9 I am numb and utterly crushed.
I groan because of anguish in my heart.
10 My Lord, all my longing is before You,
and my sighing is not hidden from You.
11 My heart pounds, my strength fails me.
The light of my eyes—also, not with me.
12 My friends and my companions stay away from my wound,
and my kinsmen stand far off.
13 They who seek my life set traps.
Those who seek my hurt threaten destruction, uttering lies all day.
14 But I, like someone deaf, hear nothing,
like a mute, not opening his mouth.
15 Yes, I am like one who cannot hear,
whose mouth has no arguments.
16 But I wait for You, Adonai—
You will answer, O Lord my God.
17 For I said: “Don’t let them gloat over me
or exalt themselves over me, when my foot slips.”
18 For I am about to fall,
and my pain is before me constantly.
19 So I confess my guilt.
I am troubled because of my sin.
20 My lively enemies are numerous.
Many hate me wrongfully.
21 Those who repay evil for good oppose me
because I pursue what is good.
22 Do not forsake me, Adonai.
O my God, be not far from me.
23 Hurry to my aid, my Lord, my salvation.
DALET ד
25 My soul clings to the dust.
Revive me according to Your word!
26 I told of my ways and You answered me.
Teach me Your statutes.
27 Help me discern the way of Your precepts,
so I may meditate on Your wonders.
28 My soul weeps with grief.
Make me stand firm with Your word.
29 Turn me away from the deceitful way,
and be gracious to me with Your Torah.
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness.
I have set my heart on Your judgments.
31 I cling to Your testimonies.
Adonai, do not put me to shame!
32 I run the course of Your mitzvot,
for You open wide my heart.
HEY ה
33 Teach me the way of Your decrees, Adonai,
and I will follow them to the end.
34 Give me understanding,
that I may keep Your Torah
and observe it with all my heart.
35 Help me walk in the path of Your mitzvot—
for I delight in it.
36 Turn my heart to Your testimonies
and not to dishonest gain.
37 Turn my eyes away from gazing at vanity
but revive me in Your ways.
38 Fulfill Your word to Your servant,
which leads to reverence for You.
39 Make the disgrace I dread pass away,
for Your judgments are good.
40 Behold, I long for Your precepts.
Revive me by Your righteousness.
VAV ו
41 May Your lovingkindnesses come to me, Adonai—
Your salvation according to Your word—
42 so I may answer the one taunting me,
for I trust in Your word.
43 Never snatch out of my mouth a word of truth,
for I hope in Your judgments.
44 So I may always keep Your Torah,
forever and ever,
45 and walk about in freedom.
For I have sought Your precepts.
46 I will speak of Your testimonies
before kings, and never be ashamed.
47 I delight in Your mitzvot,
which I love.
48 I reach out my hands for Your mitzvot,
which I love,
and meditate on Your decrees.
8 Adonai resolved to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line.
He did not withdraw His hand from destroying.
He caused rampart and wall to lament—
together they languished away.
9 Her gates sank into the ground.
Her bars He destroyed and shattered.
Her king and princes are among nations.
There is no more Torah.
Also her prophets find
no vision from Adonai.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
sit upon the ground in silence.
They threw dust on their heads
and girded themselves with sackcloth.
The maidens of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are filled with tears.
My stomach is in torment.
My heart[a] is poured out on the ground
over the destruction of the daughter of my people—
as young children and infants
languish in the city squares.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded soldier
in the city squares,
as their lives ebb away
in their mothers’ bosom.
13 How can I admonish you?
To what can I compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, so that I might console you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your wound is as deep as the sea!
Who can heal you?
14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and worthless visions.
They did not expose your iniquity,
so as to restore your captivity.
Rather, they have seen for you
false and worthless oracles.
15 All who pass your way
clap their hands at you.
They hiss and shake their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem.
“Is this the city of which they said,
‘The perfection of beauty,’
‘the joy of the whole earth’?”
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last shofar.[a]
For the shofar will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we will be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this corruptible will have put on incorruptibility
and this mortal will have put on immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”[b]
55 “Where, O Death, is your victory?
Where, O Death, is your sting?”[c]
56 Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Torah. 57 But thanks be to God, who keeps giving us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah! 58 Therefore, my dearly loved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord—because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
The Lord of Shabbat
12 At that time Yeshua went through the grain fields on Shabbat. His disciples became hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and eat them. 2 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not permitted on Shabbat.”
3 But He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he became hungry, and those with him? 4 How he entered into the house of God, and they ate the showbread, which was not permitted for him to eat, nor for those with him, but only for the kohanim? [a] 5 Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the kohanim in the Temple break Shabbat and yet are innocent? 6 But I tell you that something greater than the Temple is here. 7 If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[b] you wouldn’t have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat.”
9 Leaving from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 A man with a withered hand was there. And so that they might accuse Him, they questioned Yeshua, saying, “Is it permitted to heal on Shabbat?”
11 He said to them, “What man among you will not grab his sheep and lift it out, if it falls into a pit on Shabbat? 12 How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is permitted to do good on Shabbat.”
13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out and it was restored, as healthy as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.