Book of Common Prayer
Adonai lives! Blessed Be My Rock
Psalm 18
1 For the music director: a psalm of David the servant of Adonai. He chanted the words of this song to Adonai on the day Adonai delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
2 He said, I love You, Adonai my strength!
3 Adonai is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.
My God is my rock, in Him I take refuge,
my shield, my horn of salvation, my stronghold.
4 I called upon Adonai, worthy of praise,
and I was rescued from my enemies.
5 Cords of death entangled me.
Torrents of Belial overwhelmed me.
6 Cords of Sheol coiled around me.
Snares of death came before me.
7 In my distress I called on Adonai,
and cried to my God for help.
From His Temple He heard my voice,
my cry before Him came into His ears.
8 Then the earth rocked and quaked.
The foundations of mountains trembled.
They reeled because He was angry.
9 Smoke rose from His nostrils
and consuming fire from His mouth.
Coals blazed from Him.
10 He parted the heavens and came down,
with thick darkness under His feet.
11 He rode upon a cheruv and flew.
He soared on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness His cover,
His sukkah all around Him—
dark waters, thick clouds.
13 Out of the brilliance before Him
passed His thick clouds, hail and fiery coals.
14 Adonai also thundered in the heavens,
and Elyon gave forth His voice, hail and fiery coals.
15 He shot His arrows and scattered them,
hurled lightning bolts and routed them.
16 Then ravines of water appeared.
The foundations of earth were exposed,
at Your rebuke, Adonai,
at a blast of breath from Your nostrils.
17 He reached down from on high
and took hold of me.
He drew me out of mighty waters.
18 He saved me from my powerful enemy,
from those who hated me—
for they were much stronger than me.
19 They came against me in my day of calamity,
but Adonai was my support.
20 He brought me out to a wide-open place.
He rescued me since He delighted in me.
21 Adonai rewarded me for my righteousness.
For the cleanness of my hands He repaid me.
22 For I kept the ways of Adonai,
and did not turn wickedly from my God.
23 For all His judgments are before me.
I do not put His rulings away from me.
24 I also had integrity with Him,
and kept myself from my sin.
25 So Adonai rewarded me for my righteousness,
for the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.
26 With the loyal You deal loyally.
With the blameless You are blameless.
27 With the pure You are pure,
and with the crooked You are shrewd.
28 For You save lowly people,
but haughty eyes You humble.
29 For You light up my lamp.
Adonai my God shines in my darkness.
30 For with You I rush on a troop,
with my God I scale a wall.
31 As for God, His way is perfect.
The word of Adonai is pure.
He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
32 For who is God, except Adonai?
And who is a Rock, except our God?
33 God girds me with strength
and makes my way straight.
34 He makes my feet like those of deer
and makes me stand on my heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle,
so my arms can bend a bronze bow.
36 You gave me the shield of Your salvation.
Your right hand upholds me,
Your gentleness makes me great.
37 You broaden my steps beneath me,
so my ankles have not slipped.
38 I pursue my enemies and overtake them,
and will not return till they are wiped out.
39 I will crush them till they cannot rise,
till they fall beneath my feet.
40 For You girded me with strength for battle.
You made those who rose up against me bow down before me.
41 You also made my enemies turn their backs to me.
I cut off those who hate me.
42 They cry out, but there is none to save
—even to Adonai, but He did not answer them.
43 Then I beat them as fine as dust before the wind.
I pour them out like mud in the streets.
44 You free me from strifes of the people.
You set me as head of the nations—
people I did not know are serving me.
45 As soon as they hear, they obey me.
Children of foreigners cringe before me.
46 Children of foreigners lose heart
and come trembling from their hideouts.
47 Adonai lives! And blessed be my Rock!
Exalted be God my salvation!
48 God—He gives me vengeance
and subdues peoples under me.
49 He delivers me from my enemies.
Indeed You lift me up above those who rise up against me.
You deliver me from the violent man.
50 Therefore I praise You among the nations,
Adonai, and sing praises to Your Name.[a]
51 Great victories He gives to His king.
He shows loyal love to His anointed—
to David and his seed, forever.
The Statue of Four Kingdoms
31 “You looked, O king, and behold, there before you stood a huge statue—an enormous and dazzling image, whose appearance was awesome. 32 The head of that statue was of pure gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, and its feet partly iron and partly clay. 34 While you were watching, a stone was cut out, but not by hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from summer threshing-floors that the wind blows away. Not a trace of them could be found. Then the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, might and glory. 38 Wherever mankind, beasts of the field, and fowls of the heaven dwell, He has given them into your hand, and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
39 “Now after you another kingdom will arise, one inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over all the earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron shatters and breaks everything—and just as iron smashes everything, so will it shatter and crush all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly potter’s clay and partly iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. It will have some of the strength of the iron, for you saw the iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 Just as you saw iron mixed with clay, people will mix with one another, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
44 “Now in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will this kingdom be left to another people. It will crush and bring to an end all of these kingdoms. But it will endure forever. [a] 45 For just as you saw a stone cut out of a mountain, yet not by hands, crush the iron, bronze, clay, silver and gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen in the future. Now the dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel and gave orders that an offering and incense be provided for him. 47 In response the king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings,[b] and the revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this secret!”
48 Then the king promoted Daniel and lavished on him many marvelous gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained at the royal court.
Anointed People Cling to the Anointed One
18 Children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that the anti-messiah is coming, even now many anti-messiahs have come—by this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They left us, but they didn’t really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left us so it became clear that none of them belongs to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 21 I have not written you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
Father and Son Come as One
22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? This one is the anti-messiah—the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; the one who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.
Live in the Anointed One
24 As for you, let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will continue to live in the Son and in the Father. 25 Now this is the promise that He Himself has promised us—eternal life. 26 I have written you these things about those who are trying to mislead you. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things—and it is true and not a lie—and just as it has taught you, abide in Him. 28 And now, children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we will have confidence and not be ashamed in His presence at His coming.
Righteous Children Treasure His Purity
29 If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who does what is right is born of Him.
John the Immerser at the Jordan
3 It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of the Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. 2 During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. 3 And he came into all the surrounding region of the Jordan, proclaiming an immersion of repentance for the removal of sins. 4 As it is written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way of Adonai,
and make His paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled up
and every mountain and hill brought low.
The crooked shall be made straight
and the rough ways made smooth,
6 and all humanity shall see the salvation of God.’”[a]
7 Therefore John was saying to the crowds that came out to be immersed by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance; and don’t even begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’! For I tell you that from these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees, so every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!”
10 The crowds were asking him, “What should we do?”
11 He answered them, saying, “Whoever has two coats, let him give to the one who has none; and whoever has food, let him do the same.”[b]
12 Tax collectors also came to him to be immersed. “Teacher,” they said to him, “what should we do?”
13 He said to them, “Do not take more than you are supposed to.”
14 Also soldiers asked him, saying, “And what should we do?”
He said to them, “Do not take things from anyone by force, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be content with your wages.”[c]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.