Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 83
A song of Asaph.
1 O True God, do not be quiet any longer.
Do not stay silent or be still, O God.
2 Look now, Your enemies are causing a commotion;
those who hate You are rising up!
3 They are conniving against Your people,
conspiring against those You cherish.
4 They say, “Join us. Let’s wipe the entire nation off the face of the earth
so no one will remember Israel’s name.”
5 They are all in it together, thinking as one,
and making a pact against You:
6 The people of Edom and Ishmael;
the Moabites and the Hagrites;
7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek;
Philistia with the residents of Tyre.
8 And the powerful Assyrians have joined the alliance
to add their strength and support the descendants of Lot: Moab and Ammon.
[pause][a]
9 Do to these nations what You did to Midian,
to Sisera and Jabin at the raging waters of Kishon.
10 They were destroyed at En-dor;
they became like dung, fertilizer for the ground.
11 Make their rulers like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 Who schemed, “We should own the meadows of the True God,
let’s take them!”
13 O my God, blow them away like a tumbleweed,
scatter them like dust in a whirlwind.
14 As a wildfire charges through the forest
or a flame sprints up the mountainside,
15 Send Your raging winds to chase them, hunt them down,
and terrify them with Your storm.
16 Redden their faces in shame
so that they will turn and seek Your holy name, Eternal One.
17 May they face disappointment and anxiety forever;
may they be ashamed and die.
18 May they know that You and You alone,
whose name is the Eternal,
are the Most High, the Supreme Ruler over all the earth.
Psalm 34
A song of David as he pretended to be insane to escape from Abimelech.
While there is nothing specific to tie this Davidic psalm to the events in 1 Samuel 21:10–15, the superscription recalls a time when David pretended to be insane to protect himself from the Philistines.
1 I will praise the Eternal in every moment through every situation.
Whenever I speak, my words will always praise Him.
2 Everything within me wants to pay tribute to Him.
Whenever the poor and humble hear of His greatness, they will celebrate too!
3 Come and lift up the Eternal with me;
let’s praise His name together!
4 When I needed the Lord, I looked for Him;
I called out to Him, and He heard me and responded.
He came and rescued me from everything that made me so afraid.
5 Look to Him and shine,
so shame will never contort your faces.
6 This poor soul cried, and the Eternal heard me.
He rescued me from my troubles.
7 The messenger of the Eternal God surrounds
everyone who walks with Him and is always there to protect and rescue us.
8 Taste of His goodness; see how wonderful the Eternal truly is.
Anyone who puts trust in Him will be blessed and comforted.
9 Revere the Eternal, you His saints,
for those who worship Him will possess everything important in life.
10 Young lions may grow tired and hungry,
but those intent on knowing the Eternal God will have everything they need.
11 Gather around, children, listen to what I’m saying;
I will teach you how to revere the Eternal.
12 If you love life
and want to live a good, long time,
13 Take care with the things you say.
Don’t lie or spread gossip or talk about improper things.
14 Walk away from the evil things of the world,
and always seek peace and pursue it.
15 For the Eternal watches over the righteous,
and His ears are attuned to their prayers. He is always listening.
16 But He will punish evildoers,
and nothing they do will last. They will soon be forgotten.
17 When the upright need help and cry to the Eternal, He hears their cries
and rescues them from all of their troubles.
18 When someone is hurting or brokenhearted, the Eternal moves in close
and revives him in his pain.
19 Hard times may well be the plight of the righteous—
they may often seem overwhelmed—
but the Eternal rescues the righteous from what oppresses them.
20 He will protect all of their bones;
not even one bone will be broken.
21 Evil moves in and ultimately murders the wicked;
the enemies of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Eternal will liberate His servants;
those who seek refuge in Him will never be condemned.
Psalm 85
For the worship leader. A song of the sons of Korah.
1 O Eternal One, there was a time when You were gracious to Your land;
You returned Jacob’s descendants from their captivity.
2 You forgave the iniquity of Your people,
covered all of their sins.
[pause][a]
3 There was a time when You restrained all of Your fierce wrath,
when You cooled Your hot anger.
4 O God of our salvation, bring us back again—as You did before—
and put away Your anger toward us.
5 Will You be mad at us forever?
Will You continue to be angry with our children and theirs?
6 Will You not bring us back to life once more
so that we, Your people, will find joy and pleasure in You?
7 O Eternal One, show us Your unfailing love;
give us what we truly need: Your salvation.
8 I will hear what the True God—the Eternal—will say,
for He will speak peace over His people,
peace over those who faithfully follow Him, [but do not let them abuse His gift and return to foolish ways].[b]
9 Without a doubt, His salvation is near for those who revere Him
so that He will be with us again and all His glory will fill this land.
10 Unfailing love and truth have met on their way;
righteousness and peace have kissed one another.
11 Truth will spring from the earth like a plant,
and justice will look down from the sky.
12 Yes, the Eternal will plant goodness in the earth,
and our land will yield great abundance.
13 Justice will come before Him,
marking out a path, setting a way for His feet.
Psalm 86
A prayer of David.
1 O Eternal One, lend an ear to my prayer and answer me,
for I am weak and wanting.
2 Safeguard my soul, for I remain loyal to You.
Save me, Your servant, who trusts in You, my God.
3 O Lord, please be merciful to me,
as all day long I cry out to You.
4 Bring joy into the life of Your servant,
for it’s only to You, O Lord, that I offer my soul.
5 O Lord, You are good and ready to forgive;
Your loyal love flows generously over all who cry out to You.
6 O Eternal One, lend an ear and hear my prayer;
listen to my pleading voice.
7 When times of trouble come, I will call to You
because I know You will respond to me.
8 O Lord, You stand alone among the other gods;
nothing they have done compares to Your wonderful works.
9 O Lord, all the peoples of earth—every nation You established—
will come to You, bowing low to worship,
and rightly honor Your great name.
10 For You are great, and Your works are wondrous;
You are the one True God.
11 O Eternal One, guide me along Your path
so that I will live in Your truth.
Unite my divided heart so that I will fear Your great name.
12 O Lord, my God! I praise You with all that I am.
I will rightly honor Your great name forever.
13 For Your loyal love for me is so great it is beyond comparison.
You have rescued my soul from the depths of the grave.
14 O True God, arrogant people are after me.
A violent gang wants to kill me;
they have no interest in You or Your ways.
15 But Lord, You are a God full of compassion, generous in grace,
slow to anger, and boundless in loyal love and truth.
16 Look at me, and grant me Your favor.
Invest Your strength in me, Your servant,
and rescue me, Your handmaiden’s child.
17 Give me a sign so I may know Your goodness rests on me
and so those who hate me will be red with shame at the sight of it.
For You, O Eternal One, have come to my aid and offered me relief.
12 While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron chastised Moses for marrying a foreign woman—a Cushite (and it was true that he did indeed marry such an African).
Miriam and Aaron: 2 Has the Eternal One spoken only through Moses? No, the Eternal has also spoken through us.
Now, the Eternal One heard this. 3 For his part, Moses was a uniquely humble fellow, more humble than anyone in the entire world. 4 All of a sudden, the Eternal called the three siblings together.
Eternal One: Come here, you three—Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Join Me at the congregation tent.
They did. 5 The Eternal One descended in a cloud-column, stood at the tent opening, and summoned just Aaron and Miriam. They came forward.
Eternal One: 6 Listen to Me. When there are prophets in your midst, I, the Eternal One, will show Myself to them in visions, and will sound My voice in their dreams. 7 It’s different with My servant, Moses. I have entrusted him above anyone else in My whole house, 8 and with him I communicate face-to-face. We speak directly and without riddles. He can even see the very form of the Eternal. So why aren’t you nervous about criticizing My servant, Moses?
Moses is described as uniquely close to the Lord. He is singled out as God’s servant, a distinction reserved for a few in the Old Testament, with David being the most notable. His importance is underscored by God’s unique communication with Moses. It is direct, plain, and without trances, visions, or dreams. Literally, the communication is right in God’s face. The idea here is that it is not veiled but intimate; there is a closeness between God and Moses no other person shares. But in the same way that Jesus will be understood only by those who know Him and are known by Him, God’s communication to Moses is different. It is not a riddle that is hard to understand or easy to confuse. God is seen and heard clearly by His servant and friend, Moses.
9 The Eternal left, quite angry with Miriam and Aaron. 10 When the cloud lifted from the congregation tent, you could see that Miriam had been stricken with a disfiguring skin condition. Her skin looked white, like snow. Aaron looked at her, saw this, 11 and immediately turned to Moses.
Aaron: Please, Moses, my lord, don’t punish us for this offense that we so stupidly committed. 12 Don’t leave her in this partial death—like a stillborn baby whose flesh is already half-rotted away!
Moses (pleading to the Lord): 13 O, God, I ask You to please heal her!
Eternal One (to Moses): 14 If her father had been angry with her and made it obvious by, say, spitting in her face, wouldn’t she have to bear her shame for a week? Just so, you must ostracize her from the camp for seven days. After that, she can rejoin the community.
15 So Miriam was shut out of the community for seven days, which also meant that the whole group didn’t travel until Miriam was brought back in, 16 and they set out again. They journeyed from Hazeroth into the Paran Wilderness and set up camp there.
12 If one lives life without knowledge of the law—the teachings of the Torah—he will sin and die apart from the law. If someone else lives life under the law, his sin will be judged by what the law teaches. 13 Here’s my point: just because a person hears the law read or recited does not mean he is right before the one True God; it is following the law that makes one right, not just hearing it. 14-15 For instance, some outsiders who are not required to follow the law often live quite naturally by its teachings. Even though the law wasn’t given to them, in themselves they have the law. Here’s the thing: their lives demonstrate that God has inscribed the law’s teachings on their hearts. On judgment day, their consciences will testify for them, and their thoughts will both accuse and defend them. 16 This good news given to me declares that this affirmation and accusation will take place on that day when God, through Jesus, the Anointed One, judges every person’s life secrets.
17 Listen, if you claim to be a Jew, count on the law, and boast in your relationship with God; 18 if you know His will and can determine what is essential (because you have been instructed in the law); and 19 if you stand convinced that you are chosen to be a guide to the blind, a light to those who live in darkness, 20 a teacher of foolish wanderers and children, and have in the law what is essentially the form of knowledge and truth— 21 then tell me, why don’t you practice what you preach? If you are going to sermonize against stealing, then stop stealing. 22 If you are going to teach others not to commit adultery, then be completely faithful to your spouse. If you hate idolatry, then stop robbing the temples! 23 If you pride yourself in having God’s law, then stop dishonoring God by failing to keep its teaching. 24 Here’s what it says: “Because of you, God’s reputation is slandered by those outside the covenant.”[a]
10 Make sure that you do not look down on the little ones, on those who are further behind you on the path of righteousness. For I tell you: they are watched over by those most beloved messengers who are always in the company of My Father in heaven. [11 The Son of Man has come to save all those who are lost.][a] 12 A shepherd in charge of 100 sheep notices that one of his sheep has gone astray. What do you think he should do? Should the shepherd leave the flock on the hills unguarded to search for the lost sheep? God’s shepherd goes to look for that one lost sheep, 13 and when he finds her, he is happier about her return than he is about the 99 who stayed put. 14 Your Father in heaven does not want a single one of the tripped, waylaid, stumbling little ones to be lost.
The wisdom of the world says the shepherd should forget that one missing sheep and chalk it up as a loss. In God’s economy, each soul has its own value apart from all others. Jesus calls the people of His kingdom to help the weak and the friendless, the small and the frail, the mute and the poor, the ugly and the disfigured.
Jesus: 15 This is what you do if one of your brothers or sisters sins against you: go to him, in private, and tell him just what you perceive the wrong to be. If he listens to you, you’ve won a brother. 16 But sometimes he will not listen. And if he does not listen, go back, taking a friend or two friends with you (for, as we have learned in Deuteronomy, every matter of communal import should be testified to by two or three witnesses).[b] 17 Then, if your brother or sister still refuses to heed, you are to share what you know with the entire church; and if your brother or sister still refuses to listen to the entire church, you are to cast out your unrepentant sibling and consider him no different from outsiders and tax collectors.
What God desires most is not the casting out of an unrepentant member, but loving chastisement for the sake of bringing the sinful back to God.
18 Remember this: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 And this: if two or three of you come together as a community and discern clearly about anything, My Father in heaven will bless that discernment. 20 For when two or three gather together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.