Book of Common Prayer
In God I Trust
Psalm 56
1 For the music director: “A Silent Dove Far Away,” a Michtam of David, when the Philistines had seized him in Gath.
2 Be gracious to me, O God!
For man has crushed me,
fighting all day he oppresses me.
3 My foes trample me all day.
For many are fighting me arrogantly.
4 In a day when I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
5 In God—I keep praising His word—
in God I trust, I will not fear.
What can mere flesh do to me?
6 All day they twist my words.
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
7 They stir up strife; they lie hidden.
They mark my steps, eager to take my soul.
8 In spite of such sin, will they escape?
In fierce anger, O God, cast down such people!
9 You have recorded my wanderings.
You put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
10 Then my enemies will turn back in the day I call.
This I know—that God is for me.
11 In God—I keep praising His word—
in Adonai—I keep praising His word—
12 in God I trust, I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
13 I am under vows to You, O God.
I will present thank offerings to You.
14 For You have delivered my soul from death
and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God in the light of life.
Be Exalted Over All the Earth
Psalm 57
1 For the music director, “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
2 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me,
for in You my soul takes refuge.
In the shadow of Your wings I take refuge,
until destruction passes by.
3 I will cry out to El Elyon,
to God who accomplishes it for me.
4 He will send from heaven and save me.
He rebukes the one trampling on me. Selah
God is sending His mercy and His truth.
5 My soul is in the midst of lions.
I lie among those breathing fire—
sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongue is a sharp sword.
6 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let Your glory be over all the earth!
7 They spread a net for my steps,
my soul is bowed down.
They have dug a pit before me—
they fell into it themselves. Selah
8 My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing, yes, I will make music.
9 Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
10 I will praise You, my Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
11 For Your lovingkindness is great up to the heavens,
and Your truth to the skies.
12 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let Your glory be over all the earth!
God Really Judges
Psalm 58
1 For the music director: “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David.
2 Do you really speak of justice, O “gods”?
Do you judge with fairness, sons of man?
3 No, in heart you devise injustice.
Your hands weigh out violence on earth.
4 The wicked are strangers from the womb.
Speaking lies, they go astray from birth.
5 Their venom is like a serpent’s venom,
like a deaf cobra shutting its ear—
6 not hearing the voice of charmers,
or a cunning spell binder.
7 O God, break their teeth in their mouths.
Tear out the fangs of young lions, Adonai.
8 Let them flow away like water that runs off.
When he bends his bow, let the arrows be cut off.
9 Like a slug melting away as it slithers,
like a woman’s miscarriage,
may they never see the sun.
10 Even before your pots can feel a thorn
—whether alive or ablaze—
He will sweep the wicked away.
11 The righteous one will rejoice
when he beholds vengeance,
when he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked.
12 Then men will say:
“There really is a reward for the righteous.
There really is a God who judges on earth!”
Protect Me from Conspiracies
Psalm 64
1 For the music director, a psalm of David.
2 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint.
Protect my life from terror of the enemy.
3 Hide me from the conspiracy of evildoers,
from the tumult of workers of iniquity,
4 who sharpened their tongue like a sword,
and aimed their arrow—bitter words,
5 to shoot from hiding at the innocent,
shooting suddenly at him, with no fear.
6 They are firming up their evil plan.
They talk about setting secret traps.
They asked, “Who would see them?”
7 They are plotting injustices:
“We have completed a perfect plot!”
A man’s inward part and heart are deep.
8 But God will shoot them with an arrow—
suddenly their wounds will appear.
9 So their tongue will be their downfall.
All who see them will flee away.
10 Then all men will fear.
So they will declare the work of God,
and ponder what He has done.
11 The righteous will be glad in Adonai and take refuge in Him.
Let all the upright in heart give glory!
Praise is Awaitng You in Zion
Psalm 65
1 For the music director, a psalm, a song of David.
2 Praise is awaiting You in Zion, O God,
and to You the vow will be fulfilled.
3 O You who hear prayer,
to You all flesh will come.
4 Records of sins overwhelm me—
You will atone for our transgressions.
5 Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts!
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your House—Your holy Temple.
6 You respond to us in righteousness with awe-inspiring works
—O God of our salvation—
hope of all ends of the earth and farthest seas,
7 who establishes mountains by His power,
being girded with might,
8 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the tumult of the peoples.
9 Those dwelling in the uttermost parts stand in awe of Your signs.
You make morning and evening shout for joy.
10 You visit the land and make it abundant,
greatly enriching it—
the stream of God is full of water.
You prepare their grain,
for so You have prepared the earth.
11 You drench her furrows,
leveling the ridges.
You soften her with showers,
blessing her growth.
12 You crown the year with Your goodness.
Your wagon tracks drip with abundance.
13 Pastures of the wilderness overflow
and hills are robed with joy.
14 Meadows are clothed with flocks
and valleys are covered with grain—
they shout for joy, yes, they sing!
Attempts to Intimidate Nehemiah
6 Now it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and no breach remained in it—even though at that time I had not positioned the doors in the gates. 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.”
But they were scheming to do me harm.
3 So I sent messengers to them saying, “I am doing an important work, so I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
4 They sent me the same message four times, and each time I returned a similar response to them. 5 But the fifth time Sanballat sent his young aide to me in this way, he had an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written:
“It has been heard among the nations—and Geshem substantiates it—that you and the Jews are planning to revolt. That is why you are rebuilding the wall. Furthermore, according to these reports, you are to become their king 7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem saying, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ Now, the king is going to hear about these reports. So come now! Let us confer together.”
8 Then I sent a message to him, saying, “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are devising them from your own heart.”
9 For they were all trying to intimidate us, thinking, “Their hands will become weak from the work and it will not be done.”
So now, strengthen my hands!
10 Then I went to the house of Shemaiah, son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. He said, “Let us meet in the House of God, within the Temple. Let us shut the doors of the Temple, for they are coming to kill you. Indeed, they will come to kill you at night.”
11 But I said, “Should a man like me flee? Who in my position could go into the Temple and live? I will not go in.”
12 I recognized that God had not really sent him, for he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired so that I might become so frightened that I would do this and thereby sin. Then they would give me a bad name in order to discredit me.
14 Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in just 52 days. 16 When all our enemies heard, all the surrounding nations were afraid and fell greatly in their own eyes, because they realized that this work had been accomplished by our God.
17 Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. 18 For many in Judah were under oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. 19 Moreover, they kept telling me about his good deeds and then reporting my words to him. Also Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.
The Angel with a Little Scroll
10 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had in his hand a little scroll that was open. He set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and he cried out with a loud voice, just as a lion roars. When he cried out, the seven thunders spoke.[a]
4 And when the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said. Do not write it down!”[b]
5 Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven 6 and swore[c] by the One who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay.
7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel—when he is about to trumpet—the mystery of God is completed, just as He declared to His servants the prophets. [d] 8 Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land.”
9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. And he tells me, “Take and eat it. It will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.”[e]
10 So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth; but when I had swallowed it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 And they tell me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
36 Then He sent the crowds away and went into the house. His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
37 He answered, “The one sowing the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world. And the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Therefore just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks[a] and those who practice lawlessness. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace[b]; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun[c] in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear!
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.