Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 70[a]
For the choir director; by David; to be kept in mind.
1 Come quickly to rescue me, O Elohim!
Come quickly to help me, O Yahweh!
2 Let those who seek my life
be confused and put to shame.
Let those who want my downfall
be turned back and disgraced.
3 Let those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
be turned back because of their own shame.
4 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad because of you.
Let those who love your salvation continually say,
“Elohim is great!”
5 But I am oppressed and needy.
O Elohim, come to me quickly.
You are my help and my savior.
O Yahweh, do not delay!
Psalm 71
1 I have taken refuge in you, O Yahweh.
Never let me be put to shame.
2 Rescue me and free me because of your righteousness.
Turn your ear toward me, and save me.
3 Be a rock on which I may live,
a Maon where I may always go.
You gave the order to save me!
Indeed, you are my rock and my Metsuda.
4 My Elohim, free me from the hands of a wicked person,
from the grasp of one who is cruel and unjust.
5 You are my hope, O Adonay Yahweh.
You have been my confidence ever since I was young.
6 I depended on you before I was born.
You took me from my mother’s womb.
My songs of praise constantly speak about you.
7 I have become an example to many people,
but you are my strong Machseh.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
with your glory all day long.
9 Do not reject me when I am old
or abandon me when I lose my strength.
10 My enemies talk about me.
They watch me as they plot to take my life.
11 They say, “Elohim has abandoned him.
Pursue him and grab him because there is no one to rescue him.”
12 O Elohim, do not be so distant from me.
O my Elohim, come quickly to help me.
13 Let those who accuse me come to a shameful end.
Let those who want my downfall be covered
with disgrace and humiliation.
14 But I will always have hope.
I will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness,
about your salvation all day long.
Even then, it is more than I can understand.
16 I will come with the mighty deeds of Adonay Yahweh.
I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O Elohim, you have taught me ever since I was young,
and I still talk about the miracles you have done.
18 Even when I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O Elohim.
Let me live to tell the people of this age
what your strength has accomplished,
to tell about your power to all who will come.
19 Your righteousness reaches to the heavens, O Elohim.
You have done great things.
O Elohim, who is like you?
20 You have made me endure many terrible troubles.
You restore me to life again.
You bring me back from the depths of the earth.
21 You comfort me and make me greater than ever.
22 Because of your faithfulness, O my Elohim,
even I will give thanks to you as I play on a lyre.
I will make music with a harp to praise you, O Qedosh Yisrael.
23 My lips will sing with joy when I make music to praise you.
My soul, which you have rescued, also will sing joyfully.
24 My tongue will tell about your righteousness all day long,
because those who wanted my downfall
have been disgraced and put to shame.
Psalm 74
A maskil[a] by Asaph.
1 Why, O Elohim, have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger
smolder against the sheep in your care?
2 Remember your congregation.
Long ago you made it your own.
You bought this tribe to be your possession.
This tribe is Mount Zion, where you have made your home.
3 Turn your steps toward[b] these pathetic ruins.
The enemy has destroyed everything in the holy temple.
4 Your opponents have roared inside your meeting place.
They have set up their own emblems as symbols.
5 Starting from its entrance, they hacked away
like a woodcutter in a forest.[c]
6 They smashed all its carved paneling with axes and hatchets.
7 They burned your holy place to the ground.
They dishonored the place where you live among us.
8 They said to themselves, “We will crush them.”
They burned every meeting place of El in the land.
9 We no longer see miraculous signs.
There are no prophets anymore.
No one knows how long this will last.
10 How long, O Elohim, will the enemy insult us?
Will the enemy despise you forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, especially your right hand?
Take your hands out of your pockets.
Destroy your enemies![d]
12 And yet, from long ago Elohim has been my Melek,
the one who has been victorious throughout the earth.
13 You stirred up the sea with your own strength.
You smashed the heads of sea monsters in the water.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan[e]
and gave them to the creatures of the desert for food.
15 You opened the springs and brooks.
You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day and the night are yours.
You set the moon and the sun in their places.
17 You determined all the boundaries of the earth.
You created summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy insulted you, O Yahweh.
Remember how an entire nation of godless fools despised your name.
19 Do not hand over the soul of your dove to wild animals.
Do not forget the life of your oppressed people forever.
20 Consider your promise[f]
because every dark corner of the land is filled with violence.
21 Do not let oppressed people come back in disgrace.
Let weak and needy people praise your name.
22 Arise, O Elohim!
Fight for your own cause!
Remember how godless fools insult you all day long.
23 Do not forget the shouting of your opponents.
Do not forget the uproar made by those who attack you.
The Lord’s Word Will Accomplish Its Task
55 “Listen! Whoever is thirsty, come to the water!
Whoever has no money can come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk. You don’t have to pay; it’s free!
2 Why do you spend money on what cannot nourish you
and your wages on what does not satisfy you?
Listen carefully to me:
Eat what is good, and enjoy the best foods.
3 Open your ears, and come to me!
Listen so that you may live!
I will make an everlasting promise[a] to you—
the blessings I promised to David.
4 I made him a witness to people,
a leader and a commander for people.
5 You will summon a nation that you don’t know,
and a nation that doesn’t know you will run to you
because of Yahweh your Elohim,
because of Qedosh Yisrael.
He has honored you.”
6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found.
Call on him while he is near.
7 Let wicked people abandon their ways.
Let evil people abandon their thoughts.
Let them return to Yahweh,
and he will show compassion to them.
Let them return to our Elohim,
because he will freely forgive them.
8 “My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and my ways are not your ways,” declares Yahweh.
9 “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”
10 “Rain and snow come down from the sky.
They do not go back again until they water the earth.
They make it sprout and grow
so that it produces seed for farmers
and food for people to eat.
11 My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow.
It will not come back to me without results.
It will accomplish whatever I want
and achieve whatever I send it to do.”
12 You will go out with joy and be led out in peace.
The mountains and the hills
will break into songs of joy in your presence,
and all the trees will clap their hands.
13 Cypress trees will grow where thornbushes grew.
Myrtle trees will grow where briars grew.
This will be a reminder of Yahweh’s name
and an everlasting sign that will never be destroyed.
Live in the Freedom That Christ Gives You
5 Christ has freed us so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. Therefore, be firm in this freedom, and don’t become slaves again.
2 I, Paul, can guarantee that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 Again, I insist that everyone who allows himself to be circumcised must realize that he obligates himself to do everything Moses’ Teachings demand. 4 Those of you who try to earn God’s approval by obeying his laws have been cut off from Christ. You have fallen out of God’s favor.[a] 5 However, in our spiritual nature, faith causes us to wait eagerly for the confidence that comes with God’s approval. 6 As far as our relationship to Christ Yeshua is concerned, it doesn’t matter whether we are circumcised or not. But what matters is a faith that expresses itself through love.
7 You were doing so well. Who stopped you from being influenced by the truth? 8 The arguments of the person who is influencing you do not come from the one who is calling you. 9 A little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough. 10 The Lord gives me confidence that you will not disagree with this. However, the one who is confusing you will suffer God’s judgment regardless of who he is. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the cross wouldn’t be offensive anymore. 12 I wish those troublemakers would castrate themselves.
13 You were indeed called to be free, brothers and sisters. Don’t turn this freedom into an excuse for your corrupt nature to express itself. Rather, serve each other through love. 14 All of Moses’ Teachings are summarized in a single statement, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” 15 But if you criticize and attack each other, be careful that you don’t destroy each other.
Peter Declares His Belief about Jesus(A)
27 Then Yeshua and his disciples went to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?”
28 They answered him, “Some say you are John the Baptizer, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.”
29 He asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah!”
30 He ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus Foretells That He Will Die and Come Back to Life(B)
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man would have to suffer a lot. He taught them that he would be rejected by the leaders, the chief priests, and the experts in Moses’ Teachings. He would be killed, but after three days he would come back to life. 32 He told them very clearly what he meant.
Peter took him aside and objected to this. 33 Yeshua turned, looked at his disciples, and objected to what Peter said. Yeshua said, “Get out of my way, Satan! You aren’t thinking the way God thinks but the way humans think.”
What It Means to Follow Jesus(C)
34 Then Yeshua called the crowd to himself along with his disciples. He said to them, “Those who want to follow me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses, and follow me. 35 Those who want to save their lives will lose them. But those who lose their lives for me and for the Good News will save them. 36 What good does it do for people to win the whole world yet lose their lives? 37 Or what should a person give in exchange for life? 38 If people are ashamed of me and what I say in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of those people when he comes with the holy angels in his Father’s glory.”
9 He said to them, “I can guarantee this truth: Some people who are standing here will not die until they see the kingdom of God arrive with power.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.