Book of Common Prayer
26 (0) By David:
(1) Vindicate me, Adonai,
for I have lived a blameless life;
unwaveringly I trust in Adonai.
2 Examine me, Adonai, test me,
search my mind and heart.
3 For your grace is there before my eyes,
and I live my life by your truth.
4 I have not sat with worthless folks,
I won’t consort with hypocrites,
5 I hate the company of evildoers,
I will not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence
and walk around your altar, Adonai,
7 lifting my voice in thanks
and proclaiming all your wonders.
8 Adonai, I love the house where you live,
the place where your glory abides.
9 Don’t include me with sinners
or my life with the bloodthirsty.
10 In their hands are evil schemes;
their right hands are full of bribes.
11 As for me, I will live a blameless life.
Redeem me and show me favor.
12 My feet are planted on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless Adonai.
28 (0) By David:
(1) Adonai, I am calling to you;
my Rock, don’t be deaf to my cry.
For if you answer me with silence,
I will be like those who fall in a pit.
2 Hear the sound of my prayers
when I cry to you,
when I lift my hands
toward your holy sanctuary.
3 Don’t drag me off with the wicked,
with those whose deeds are evil;
they speak words of peace to their fellowmen,
but evil is in their hearts.
4 Pay them back for their deeds,
as befits their evil acts;
repay them for what they have done,
give them what they deserve.
5 For they don’t understand the deeds of Adonai
or what he has done.
He will break them down;
he will not build them up.
6 Blessed be Adonai,
for he heard my voice as I prayed for mercy.
7 Adonai is my strength and shield;
in him my heart trusted, and I have been helped.
Therefore my heart is filled with joy,
and I will sing praises to him.
8 Adonai is strength for [his people],
a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
9 Save your people! Bless your heritage!
Shepherd them, and carry them forever!
36 (0) For the leader. By David, the servant of Adonai:
2 (1) Crime speaks to the wicked.
I perceive this in my heart;
before his eyes there is no fear
of God.
3 (2) For, the way he sees it,
crime makes his life easy —
that is, until his wrongs are discovered;
then, he is hated.
4 (3) His words are wrong and deceitful;
he has stopped being wise and doing good.
5 (4) He devises trouble as he lies in bed;
so set is he on his own bad way
that he doesn’t hate evil.
6 (5) Adonai, in the heavens is your grace;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
7 (6) Your righteousness is like the mountains of God,
your judgments are like the great deep.
You save man and beast, Adonai.
8 (7) How precious, God, is your grace!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings,
9 (8) they feast on the rich bounty of your house,
and you have them drink from the stream of your delights.
10 (9) For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
11 (10) Continue your grace to those who know you
and your righteousness to the upright in heart.
12 (11) Don’t let the foot of the proud tread on me
or the hands of the wicked drive me away.
13 (12) There they lie fallen, those evildoers,
flung down and unable to rise.
39 (0) For the leader. Set in the style of Y’dutun. A psalm of David:
2 (1) I said, “I will watch how I behave,
so that I won’t sin with my tongue;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
whenever the wicked confront me.”
3 (2) I was silent, said nothing, not even good;
but my pain kept being stirred up.
4 (3) My heart grew hot within me;
whenever I thought of it, the fire burned.
Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:
5 (4) “Make me grasp, Adonai, what my end must be,
what it means that my days are numbered;
let me know what a transient creature I am.
6 (5) You have made my days like handbreadths;
for you, the length of my life is like nothing.”
Yes, everyone, no matter how firmly he stands,
is merely a puff of wind. (Selah)
7 (6) Humans go about like shadows;
their turmoil is all for nothing.
They accumulate wealth, not knowing
who will enjoy its benefits.
8 (7) Now, Adonai, what am I waiting for?
You are my only hope.
9 (8) Rescue me from all my transgressions;
don’t make me the butt of fools.
10 (9) I am silent, I keep my mouth shut,
because it is you who have done it.
11 (10) Stop raining blows on me;
the pounding of your fist is wearing me down.
12 (11) With rebukes you discipline people for their guilt;
like a moth, you destroy what makes them attractive;
yes, everyone is merely a puff of wind. (Selah)
13 (12) Hear my prayer, Adonai, listen to my cry,
don’t be deaf to my weeping;
for with you, I am just a traveler
passing through, like all my ancestors.
14 (13) Turn your gaze from me, so I can smile again
before I depart and cease to exist.
10 Then Amatzyah the priest of Beit-El sent this message to Yarov‘am king of Isra’el, “‘Amos is conspiring against you there among the people of Isra’el, and the land can’t bear all that he’s saying. 11 For ‘Amos says: ‘Yarov‘am will die by the sword, and Isra’el will be led away from their land into exile.’” 12 Amatzyah also said to ‘Amos, “Go away, seer! Go back to the land of Y’hudah! Earn your living there; and prophesy there; 13 but don’t prophesy any more at Beit-El; for this is the king’s sanctuary, a royal temple.”
14 ‘Amos gave this answer to Amatzyah: “I am not trained as a prophet, and I’m not one of the guild prophets — I own sheep and grow figs. 15 But Adonai took me away from following the flock, and Adonai said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Isra’el.’ 16 So now, hear what Adonai says: ‘You say, “Don’t prophesy against Isra’el, don’t lecture the people of Yitz’chak.”’ 17 Therefore Adonai says this:
‘Your wife will become a whore in the city,
your sons and daughters will die by the sword,
your land will be parcelled out with a measuring line,
you yourself will die in an unclean land,
and Isra’el will certainly be exiled from their land.’”
9 I, Yochanan, am a brother of yours and a fellow-sharer in the suffering, kingship and perseverance that come from being united with Yeshua. I had been exiled to the island called Patmos for having proclaimed the message of God and borne witness to Yeshua. 10 I came to be, in the Spirit, on the Day of the Lord; and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write down what you see on a scroll, and send it to the seven Messianic communities — Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea!” 12 I turned around to see who was speaking to me; and when I had turned, I saw seven gold menorahs; 13 and among the menorahs was someone like a Son of Man, wearing a robe down to his feet and a gold band around his chest.[a] 14 His head and hair were as white as snow-white wool, his eyes like a fiery flame, 15 his feet like burnished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of rushing waters.[b] 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp double-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
34 but when the P’rushim learned that he had silenced the Tz’dukim, they got together, 35 and one of them who was a Torah expert asked a sh’eilah to trap him: 36 “Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?” 37 He told him, “‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’[a] 38 This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. 39 And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot.”
41 Then, turning to the assembled P’rushim, Yeshua put a sh’eilah to them: 42 “Tell me your view concerning the Messiah: whose son is he?” They said to him, “David’s.” 43 “Then how is it,” he asked them, “that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord,’ when he says,
44 ‘Adonai said to my Lord,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?[c]
45 If David thus calls him ‘Lord,’ how is he his son?” 46 No one could think of anything to say in reply; and from that day on, no one dared put to him another sh’eilah.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.