Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 55
For the choir director; on stringed instruments; a maskil by David.
1 Open your ears to my prayer, O Elohim.
Do not hide from my plea for mercy.
2 Pay attention to me, and answer me.
My thoughts are restless, and I am confused
3 because my enemy shouts at me
and a wicked person persecutes me.
They bring misery crashing down on me,
and they attack me out of anger.
4 My heart is in turmoil.
The terrors of death have seized me.
5 Fear and trembling have overcome me.
Horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “If only I had wings like a dove—
I would fly away and find rest.
7 Indeed, I would run far away.
I would stay in the desert. Selah
8 I would hurry to find shelter
from the raging wind and storm.”
9 Completely confuse their language, O Adonay,
because I see violence and conflict in the city.
10 Day and night they go around on top of the city walls.
Trouble and misery are everywhere.
11 Destruction is everywhere.
Oppression and fraud never leave the streets.[a]
12 If an enemy had insulted me,
then I could bear it.
If someone who hated me had attacked me,
then I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, my equal,
my best friend,
one I knew so well!
14 We used to talk to each other in complete confidence
and walk into Elohim’s house with the festival crowds.
15 Let death suddenly take wicked people!
Let them go into the grave while they are still alive,
because evil lives in their homes as well as in their hearts.
16 But I call on Elohim,
and Yahweh saves me.
17 Morning, noon, and night I complain and groan,
and he listens to my voice.
18 With his peace, he will rescue my soul
from the war waged against me,
because there are many soldiers fighting against me.
19 El will listen.
The one who has sat enthroned from the beginning
will deal with them. Selah
They never change. They never fear Elohim.
20 My best friend has betrayed his friends.
He has broken his solemn promise.
21 His speech is smoother than butter,
but there is war in his heart.
His words are more soothing than oil,
but they are like swords ready to attack.
22 Turn your burdens over to Yahweh,
and he will take care of you.
He will never let the righteous person stumble.
23 But you, O Elohim, will throw wicked people into the deepest pit.
Bloodthirsty and deceitful people will not live out half their days.
But I will trust you.
Psalm 138
By David.
1 I will give thanks to you with all my heart.
I will make music to praise you in front of the false gods.
2 I will bow toward your holy temple.
I will give thanks to your name because of your mercy and truth.
You have made your name and your promise greater than everything.
3 When I called, you answered me.
You made me bold by strengthening my soul.[a]
4 All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, O Yahweh,
because they have heard the promises you spoke.
5 They will sing this about the ways of Yahweh:
“Yahweh’s honor is great!”
6 Even though Yahweh is high above, he sees humble people close up,
and he recognizes arrogant people from a distance.
7 Even though I walk into the middle of trouble,
you guard my life against the anger of my enemies.
You stretch out your hand,
and your right hand saves me.
8 Yahweh will do everything for me.
O Yahweh, your mercy endures forever.
Do not let go of what your hands have made.
Psalm 139
For the choir director; a psalm by David.
1 O Yahweh, you have examined me, and you know me.
2 You alone know when I sit down and when I get up.
You read my thoughts from far away.
3 You watch me when I travel and when I rest.
You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a single word on my tongue,
you know all about it, Yahweh.
5 You are all around me—in front of me and in back of me.
You lay your hand on me.
6 Such knowledge is beyond my grasp.
It is so high I cannot reach it.
7 Where can I go to get away from your Ruach?
Where can I run to get away from you?
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell, you are there.
9 If I climb upward on the rays of the morning sun
or land on the most distant shore of the sea where the sun sets,
10 even there your hand would guide me
and your right hand would hold on to me.
11 If I say, “Let the darkness hide me
and let the light around me turn into night,”
12 even the darkness is not too dark for you.
Night is as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You alone created my inner being.
You knitted me together inside my mother.
14 I will give thanks to you
because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made.
Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
when I was being skillfully woven in an underground workshop.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was only a fetus.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book
before one of them had taken place.
17 How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O El!
How vast in number they are!
18 If I try to count them,
there would be more of them than there are grains of sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.
19 I wish that you would kill wicked people, O Eloah,
and that bloodthirsty people would leave me alone.
20 They say wicked things about you.
Your enemies misuse your name.
21 Shouldn’t I hate those who hate you, O Yahweh?
Shouldn’t I be disgusted with those who attack you?
22 I hate them with all my heart.
They have become my enemies.
23 Examine me, O El, and know my mind.
Test me, and know my thoughts.
The Lord Will Save His People
51 Listen to me, you people who pursue what is right and seek Yahweh.
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham, your ancestor,
and to Sarah, from whom you are descended.
When I called Abraham, he was childless.
I blessed him and gave him many descendants.
3 So Yahweh will comfort Zion.
He will comfort all those who live among its ruins.
He will make its desert like Eden.
He will make its wilderness like the garden of Yahweh.
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
4 Pay attention to me, my people.
Open your ears to hear me, my nation.
My teachings will go out from me.
My justice will become a light for the people.
5 My righteousness is near.
My salvation is on the way.
I will bring justice to people.
The coastlands put their hope in me,
and they wait eagerly for me.
6 Look at the sky.
Look at the earth below.
The sky will vanish like smoke.
The earth will wear out like clothing,
and those who live there will die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
and my righteousness will never fail.
7 Listen to me, you people who know righteousness,
you people who have my teachings in your hearts.
Don’t be afraid of being insulted by people.
Don’t be discouraged by their ridicule.
8 Moths will eat them like clothing.
Worms will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
and my salvation will last throughout every generation.
23 We were kept under control by Moses’ laws until this faith came. We were under their control until this faith which was about to come would be revealed.
24 Before Christ came, Moses’ laws served as our guardian. Christ came so that we could receive God’s approval by faith. 25 But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the control of a guardian. 26 You are all God’s children by believing in Christ Yeshua. 27 Clearly, all of you who were baptized in Christ’s name have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There are neither Jews nor Greeks, slaves nor free people, males nor females. You are all the same in Christ Yeshua. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs, as God promised.
Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ Traditions(A)
7 The Pharisees and some experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Yeshua. 2 They saw that some of his disciples were unclean[a] because they ate without washing their hands.
3 (The Pharisees, like all other Jewish people, don’t eat unless they have properly washed their hands. They follow the traditions of their ancestors. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they have washed first. They have been taught to follow many other rules. For example, they must also wash their cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.[b])
5 The Pharisees and the experts in Moses’ Teachings asked Yeshua, “Why don’t your disciples follow the traditions taught by our ancestors? They are unclean because they don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
6 Yeshua told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship of me is pointless,
because their teachings are rules made by humans.’
8 “You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions.” 9 He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! 10 For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), 12 he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ 13 Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand! 15 Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 16 Let the person who has ears listen!”[c]
17 When he had left the people and gone home, his disciples asked him about this illustration.
18 Yeshua said to them, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? 19 It doesn’t go into his thoughts but into his stomach and then into a toilet.” (By saying this, Yeshua declared all foods acceptable.) 20 He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 21 Evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, cursing, arrogance, and foolishness come from within a person. 23 All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.