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.
20 At that time the remaining few Israelites,
the survivors of Jacob’s descendants
will no longer depend on the one who struck them.
They will only depend on Yahweh, Qedosh Yisrael.
21 A few, the remaining few of Jacob, will return to the mighty God.
22 Although your people Israel may be
as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore,
only a few will return.
Destruction will be complete and fair.
23 Adonay Yahweh Tsebaoth will carry out this destruction
throughout the world as he has determined.
24 Adonay Yahweh Tsebaoth says:
My people who live in Zion,
don’t be afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with a rod
or when they raise their staff against you
as the Egyptians did.
25 Very soon I will unleash my fury,
and my anger will destroy them.
26 Then Yahweh Tsebaoth will raise his whip against them.
As he struck down Midian at the Rock of Oreb
and raised his staff over the water,
so he will lift it as he did in Egypt.
27 At that time their burden will be removed from your shoulders.
Their yoke[a] will be removed from your neck.
The yoke will be torn away because you have grown fat.
17 Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Yeshua Christ told you to expect: 18 “In the last times people who ridicule God will appear. They will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who cause divisions. They are concerned about physical things, not spiritual things.
Final Advice
20 Dear friends, use your most holy faith to grow. Pray with the Holy Spirit’s help. 21 Remain in God’s love as you look for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua Christ to give you eternal life.
22 Show mercy to those who have doubts. 23 Save others by snatching them from the fire of hell. Show mercy to others, even though you are afraid that you might be stained by their sinful lives.
24 God can guard you so that you don’t fall and so that you can be full of joy as you stand in his glorious presence without fault. 25 Before time began, now, and for eternity glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to the only God, our Savior, through Yeshua Christ our Lord. Amen.
John Prepares the Way(A)
3 It was the fifteenth year in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. Herod ruled Galilee, and his brother Philip ruled Iturea and Trachonitis. Lysanias was the ruler of Abilene. 2 It was at the time when Annas and Caiaphas were chief priests that God spoke to John, son of Zechariah, in the desert. 3 John traveled throughout the region around the Jordan River. He told people about a baptism of repentance[a] for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As the prophet Isaiah wrote in his book,
“A voice cries out in the desert:
‘Prepare the way for the Lord!
Make his paths straight!
5 Every valley will be filled.
Every mountain and hill will be leveled.
The crooked ways will be made straight.
The rough roads will be made smooth.
6 All people will see the salvation that God gives.’”
7 Crowds of people were coming to be baptized by John. He would say to them, “You poisonous snakes! Who showed you how to flee from God’s coming anger? 8 Do those things that prove that you have turned to God and have changed the way you think and act. Don’t say, ‘Abraham is our ancestor.’ I guarantee that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones. 9 The ax is now ready to cut the roots of the trees. Any tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into a fire.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.