Book of Common Prayer
78 (0) A maskil of Asaf:
(1) Listen, my people, to my teaching;
turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2 I will speak to you in parables
and explain mysteries from days of old.
3 The things which we have heard and known,
and which our fathers told us
4 we will not hide from their descendants;
we will tell the generation to come
the praises of Adonai and his strength,
the wonders that he has performed.
5 He raised up a testimony in Ya‘akov
and established a Torah in Isra’el.
He commanded our ancestors
to make this known to their children,
6 so that the next generation would know it,
the children not yet born,
who would themselves arise
and tell their own children,
7 who could then put their confidence in God,
not forgetting God’s deeds,
but obeying his mitzvot.
8 Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation with unprepared hearts,
with spirits unfaithful to God.
9 The people of Efrayim, though armed with bows and arrows,
turned their backs on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to live by his Torah.
11 They forgot what he had done,
his wonders which he had shown them.
12 He had done wonderful things
in the presence of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt,
in the region of Tzo‘an.
13 He split the sea and made them pass through,
he made the waters stand up like a wall.
14 He also led them by day with a cloud
and all night long with light from a fire.
15 He broke apart the rocks in the desert
and let them drink as if from boundless depths;
16 yes, he brought streams out of the rock,
making the water flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High;
18 in their hearts they tested God
by demanding food that would satisfy their cravings.
19 Yes, they spoke against God by asking,
“Can God spread a table in the desert?
20 True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out,
until the vadis overflowed;
but what about bread? Can he give that?
Can he provide meat for his people?”
21 Therefore, when Adonai heard, he was angry;
fire blazed up against Ya‘akov;
his anger mounted against Isra’el;
22 because they had no faith in God,
no trust in his power to save.
23 So he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down man on them as food;
he gave them grain from heaven —
25 mortals ate the bread of angels;
he provided for them to the full.
26 He stirred up the east wind in heaven,
brought on the south wind by his power,
27 and rained down meat on them like dust,
birds flying thick as the sand on the seashore.
28 He let them fall in the middle of their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate till they were satisfied;
he gave them what they craved.
30 They were still fulfilling their craving,
the food was still in their mouths,
31 when the anger of God rose up against them
and slaughtered their strongest men,
laying low the young men of Isra’el.
32 Still, they kept on sinning
and put no faith in his wonders.
33 Therefore, he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 When he brought death among them, they would seek him;
they would repent and seek God eagerly,
35 remembering that God was their Rock,
El ‘Elyon their Redeemer.
36 But they tried to deceive him with their words,
they lied to him with their tongues;
37 for their hearts were not right with him,
and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, because he is full of compassion,
forgave their sin and did not destroy;
many times he turned away his anger
and didn’t rouse all his wrath.
39 So he remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that blows past and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert
and grieved him in the wastelands!
41 Repeatedly they challenged God
and pained the Holy One of Isra’el.
42 They didn’t remember how he used his hand
on the day he redeemed them from their enemy,
43 how he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Tzo‘an.
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
so they couldn’t drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their harvest to shearer-worms,
the fruit of their labor to locusts.
47 He destroyed their vineyards with hail
and their sycamore-figs with frost.
48 Their cattle too he gave over to the hail
and their flocks to lightning bolts.
49 He sent over them his fierce anger,
fury, indignation and trouble,
with a company of destroying angels
50 to clear a path for his wrath.
He did not spare them from death,
but gave them over to the plague,
51 striking all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But his own people he led out like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them safely, and they weren’t afraid,
even when the sea overwhelmed their foes.
54 He brought them to his holy land,
to the hill-country won by his right hand.
55 He expelled nations before them,
apportioned them property to inherit
and made Isra’el’s tribes live in their tents.
56 Yet they tested El ‘Elyon
and rebelled against him,
refusing to obey his instructions.
57 They turned away and were faithless, like their fathers;
they were unreliable, like a bow without tension.
58 They provoked him with their high places
and made him jealous with their idols.
59 God heard, and he was angry;
he came to detest Isra’el completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent he had made where he could live among people.
61 He gave his strength into exile,
his pride to the power of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
and grew angry with his own heritage.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
their virgins had no wedding-song,
64 their cohanim fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then Adonai awoke, as if from sleep,
like a warrior shouting for joy from wine.
66 He struck his foes, driving them back
and putting them to perpetual shame.
67 Rejecting the tents of Yosef
and passing over the tribe of Efrayim,
68 he chose the tribe of Y’hudah,
Mount Tziyon, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights;
like the earth, he made it to last forever.
70 He chose David to be his servant,
taking him from the sheep-yards;
71 from tending nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Ya‘akov his people,
Isra’el his heritage.
72 With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with skillful hands.
15 “Oh no! The Day!
The Day of Adonai is upon us!
As destruction from Shaddai
it is coming!
16 The food is cut off before our very eyes,
also joy and gladness from the house of our God.
17 The seed-grain is rotting in its furrows;
the granaries are deserted, the barns in ruins;
because the grain has withered.
18 How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep bear the punishment, too.
19 Adonai, I cry out to you!
For the fire has consumed the pastures in the desert,
and the flame set ablaze all the trees in the fields.
20 Even the wild animals
come to you, panting,
because the streambeds have dried up,
and fire has consumed the pastures in the desert.”
2 “Blow the shofar in Tziyon!
Sound an alarm on my holy mountain!”
Let all living in the land tremble,
for the Day of Adonai is coming! It’s upon us! —
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick fog;
a great and mighty horde is spreading
like blackness over the mountains.
There has never been anything like it,
nor will there ever be again,
not even after the years
of many generations.
3 Ahead of them a fire devours,
behind them a flame consumes;
ahead the land is like Gan-‘Eden,
behind them a desert waste.
From them there is no escape.
4 They look like horses,
and like cavalry they charge.
5 With a rumble like that of chariots
they leap over the mountaintops,
like crackling flames devouring stubble,
like a mighty horde in battle array.
6 At their presence the peoples writhe in anguish,
every face is drained of color.
7 Like warriors they charge,
they scale the wall like soldiers.
Each one keeps to his own course,
without getting in the other’s way.
8 They don’t jostle each other,
but stay on their own paths;
they burst through defenses unharmed,
without even breaking rank.
9 They rush into the city,
they run along the wall,
they climb up into the houses,
entering like a thief through the windows.
10 At their advance the earth quakes,
and the sky shakes,
the sun and moon turn black,
and the stars stop shining.
11 Adonai shouts orders to his forces —
his army is immense, mighty,
and it does what he says.
For great is the Day of Adonai, fearsome,
terrifying! Who can endure it?
19 After these things, I heard what sounded like the roar of a huge crowd in heaven, shouting,
“Halleluyah!
The victory, the glory, the power of our God!
2 For his judgments are true and just.
He has judged the great whore
who corrupted the earth with her whoring.
He has taken vengeance on her
who has the blood of his servants on her hands.”
3 And a second time they said,
“Halleluyah!
Her smoke goes up forever and ever!”
4 The twenty-four elders and the four living beings fell down and worshipped God, sitting on the throne, and said,
“Amen!
Halleluyah!”
5 A voice went out from the throne, saying,
“Praise our God, all you his servants,
you who fear him, small and great!”
6 Then I heard what sounded like the roar of a huge crowd, like the sound of rushing waters, like loud peals of thunder, saying,
“Halleluyah!
Adonai, God of heaven’s armies,[a]
has begun his reign!
7 “Let us rejoice and be glad!
Let us give him the glory!
For the time has come for the
wedding of the Lamb,
and his Bride has prepared herself —
8 fine linen, bright and clean
has been given her to wear.”
(“Fine linen” means the righteous deeds of God’s people.)
9 The angel said to me, “Write: ‘How blessed are those who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb!’” Then he added, “These are God’s very words.” 10 I fell at his feet to worship him; but he said, “Don’t do that! I’m only a fellow-servant with you and your brothers who have the testimony of Yeshua. Worship God! For the testimony of Yeshua is the Spirit of prophecy.”
25 Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid. 27 Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot be my talmid.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it? 29 If you don’t, then when you have laid the foundation but can’t finish, all the onlookers start making fun of you 30 and say, ‘This is the man who began to build, but couldn’t finish!’
31 “Or again, suppose one king is going out to wage war with another king. Doesn’t he first sit down and consider whether he, with his ten thousand troops, has enough strength to meet the other one, who is coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he hasn’t, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to inquire about terms for peace.
33 “So every one of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has cannot be my talmid. 34 Salt is excellent. But if even the salt becomes tasteless, what can be used to season it? 35 It is fit for neither soil nor manure — people throw it out. Those who have ears that can hear, let them hear!”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.