Book of Common Prayer
5 (0) For the leader. On wind instruments. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Give ear to my words, Adonai,
consider my inmost thoughts.
3 (2) Listen to my cry for help,
my king and my God, for I pray to you.
4 (3) Adonai, in the morning you will hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my needs before you
and wait expectantly.
5 (4) For you are not a God
who takes pleasure in wickedness;
evil cannot remain with you.
6 (5) Those who brag cannot stand before your eyes,
you hate all who do evil,
7 (6) you destroy those who tell lies,
Adonai detests men of blood and deceivers.
8 (7) But I can enter your house
because of your great grace and love;
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in reverence for you.
9 (8) Lead me, Adonai, in your righteousness
because of those lying in wait for me;
make your way straight before me.
10 (9) For in their mouths there is nothing sincere,
within them are calamities,
their throats are open tombs,
they flatter with their tongues.
11 (10) God, declare them guilty!
Let them fall through their own intrigues,
For their many crimes, throw them down;
since they have rebelled against you.
12 (11) But let all who take refuge in you rejoice,
let them forever shout for joy!
Shelter them; and they will be glad,
those who love your name.
13 (12) For you, Adonai, bless the righteous;
you surround them with favor like a shield.
6 (0) For the leader. With stringed instruments. On sh’minit [low-pitched musical instruments?]. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Adonai, don’t rebuke me in your anger,
don’t discipline me in the heat of your fury.
3 (2) Be gracious to me, Adonai,
because I am withering away;
heal me, Adonai,
because my bones are shaking;
4 (3) I am completely terrified;
and you, Adonai — how long?
5 (4) Come back, Adonai, and rescue me!
Save me for the sake of your grace;
6 (5) for in death, no one remembers you;
in Sh’ol, who will praise you?
7 (6) I am worn out with groaning;
all night I drench my bed with tears,
flooding my couch till it swims.
8 (7) My vision is darkened with anger;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
9 (8) Get away from me, all you workers of evil!
For Adonai has heard the sound of my weeping,
10 (9) Adonai has heard my pleading,
Adonai will accept my prayer.
11 (10) All my enemies will be confounded,
completely terrified;
they will turn back
and be suddenly put to shame.
10 Why, Adonai, do you stand at a distance?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in their arrogance hunt down the poor,
who get caught in the schemes they think up.
3 For the wicked boasts about his lusts;
he blesses greed and despises Adonai.
4 Every scheme of the wicked in his arrogance [says],
“There is no God, [so] it won’t be held against me.”
5 His ways prosper at all times.
Your judgments are way up there,
so he takes no notice.
His adversaries? He scoffs at them all.
6 In his heart he thinks, “I will never be shaken;
I won’t meet trouble, not now or ever.”
7 His mouth is full of curses, deceit, oppression;
under his tongue, mischief and injustice.
8 He waits near settlements in ambush
and kills an innocent man in secret;
his eyes are on the hunt for the helpless.
9 Lurking unseen like a lion in his lair,
he lies in wait to pounce on the poor,
then seizes the poor and drags him off in his net.
10 Yes, he stoops, crouches down low;
and the helpless wretch falls into his clutches.
11 He says in his heart, “God forgets,
he hides his face, he will never see.”
12 Arise, Adonai! God, raise your hand!
Don’t forget the humble!
13 Why does the wicked despise God
and say in his heart, “It won’t be held against me”?
14 You have seen; for you look at mischief and grief,
so that you can take the matter in hand.
The helpless commits himself to you;
you help the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked!
As for the evil man,
search out his wickedness
until there is none left.
16 Adonai is king forever and ever!
The nations have vanished from his land.
17 Adonai, you have heard what the humble want;
you encourage them and listen to them,
18 to give justice to the fatherless and oppressed,
so that no one on earth will strike terror again.
11 (0) For the leader. By David:
(1) In Adonai I find refuge.
So how can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to the mountains!
2 See how the wicked are drawing their bows
and setting their arrows on the string,
to shoot from the shadows at honest men.
3 If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
4 Adonai is in his holy temple.
Adonai, his throne is in heaven.
His eyes see and test humankind.
5 Adonai tests the righteous;
but he hates the wicked and the lover of violence.
6 He will rain hot coals down on the wicked,
fire, sulfur and scorching wind
will be what they get to drink.
7 For Adonai is righteous;
he loves righteousness;
the upright will see his face.
15 Then Moshe and the people of Isra’el sang this song to Adonai:
“I will sing to Adonai, for he is highly exalted:
the horse and its rider he threw in the sea.
2 Yah is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.
This is my God: I will glorify him;
my father’s God: I will exalt him.
3 Adonai is a warrior;
Adonai is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
he hurled into the sea.
His elite commanders
were drowned in the Sea of Suf.
5 The deep waters covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, Adonai, is sublimely powerful;
your right hand, Adonai, shatters the foe.
7 By your great majesty you bring down your enemies;
you send out your wrath to consume them like stubble.
8 With a blast from your nostrils the waters piled up —
the waters stood up like a wall,
the depths of the sea became firm ground.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue and overtake,
divide the spoil and gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’
10 You blew with your wind, the sea covered them,
they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like you, Adonai, among the mighty?
Who is like you, sublime in holiness,
awesome in praises, working wonders?
12 You reached out with your right hand:
the earth swallowed them.
13 In your love, you led the people you redeemed;
in your strength, you guided them to your holy abode.
14 The peoples have heard, and they tremble;
anguish takes hold of those living in P’leshet;
15 then the chiefs of Edom are dismayed;
trepidation seizes the heads of Mo’av;
all those living in Kena‘an are melted away.
16 Terror and dread fall on them;
by the might of your arm they are still as stone
until your people pass over, Adonai,
till the people you purchased pass over.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain which is your heritage,
the place, Adonai, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, Adonai, which your hands established.
18 Adonai will reign forever and ever.
19 For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots
and with his cavalry into the sea,
but Adonai brought the sea waters back upon them,
while the people of Isra’el walked on dry land
in the midst of the sea!”
20 Also Miryam the prophet, sister of Aharon, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing, 21 as Miryam sang to them:
“Sing to Adonai, for he is highly exalted!
The horse and its rider he threw in the sea!”
13 Therefore, get your minds ready for work, keep yourselves under control, and fix your hopes fully on the gift you will receive when Yeshua the Messiah is revealed. 14 As people who obey God, do not let yourselves be shaped by the evil desires you used to have when you were still ignorant. 15 On the contrary, following the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life; 16 since the Tanakh says,
“You are to be holy because I am holy.”[a]
17 Also, if you are addressing as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s actions, you should live out your temporary stay on earth in fear. 18 You should be aware that the ransom paid to free you from the worthless way of life which your fathers passed on to you did not consist of anything perishable like silver or gold; 19 on the contrary, it was the costly bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah, as of a lamb without defect or spot. 20 God knew him before the founding of the universe, but revealed him in the acharit-hayamim for your sakes. 21 Through him you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory; so that your trust and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have a sincere love for your brothers, love each other deeply, with all your heart. 23 You have been born again not from some seed that will decay, but from one that cannot decay, through the living Word of God that lasts forever. 24 For
all humanity is like grass,
all its glory is like a wildflower —
the grass withers, and the flower falls off;
25 but the Word of Adonai lasts forever.[b]
Moreover, this Word is the Good News which has been proclaimed to you.
18 I will not leave you orphans — I am coming to you. 19 In just a little while, the world will no longer see me; but you will see me. Because I live, you too will live. 20 When that day comes, you will know that I am united with my Father, and you with me, and I with you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
22 Y’hudah (not the one from K’riot) said to him, “What has happened, Lord, that you are about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Yeshua answered him, “If someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words — and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the Father who sent me.
25 “I have told you these things while I am still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you.
27 “What I am leaving with you is shalom — I am giving you my shalom. I don’t give the way the world gives. Don’t let yourselves be upset or frightened. 28 You heard me tell you, ‘I am leaving, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the Father; because the Father is greater than I.
29 “Also, I have said it to you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you will trust.
30 “I won’t be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me; 31 rather, this is happening so that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded me.
“Get up! Let’s get going!
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.