Book of Common Prayer
ZAYIN ז
49 Remember the word to Your servant,
on which You have made me hope.
50 My comfort in my affliction is this:
Your word has kept me alive.
51 The arrogant have viciously ridiculed me,
yet I did not turn away from Your Torah.
52 I remember Your judgments from of old,
Adonai, and comfort myself.
53 Burning indignation grips me,
because of the wicked who forsake Your Torah.
54 Your decrees have become my songs
in the house where I dwell.
55 In the night I remember Your Name, Adonai,
and keep watching over Your Torah.
56 This is my own:
that I keep Your precepts.
CHET ח
57 Adonai is my portion.
I promised to guard Your words.
58 I have entreated Your favor with all my heart.
Be gracious to me according to Your word.
59 I have considered my ways
and turned my feet back to Your testimonies.
60 I hasten and do not delay
to obey Your mitzvot.
61 The ropes of the wicked are coiled around me,
but I did not forget Your Torah.
62 At midnight I rise to praise You,
because of Your righteous rulings.
63 I am a companion of all who fear You,
of those who observe Your precepts.
64 The earth is full of Your lovingkindness.
Adonai—teach me Your decrees.
TET ט
65 You do good to Your servant,
Adonai, according to Your word.
66 Teach me good sense and knowledge,
for I trusted in Your mitzvot.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep Your word.
68 You are good and keep doing good—
teach me Your decrees.
69 Though the proud smeared a lie on me,
with all my heart I keep Your precepts.
70 Their minds are insensible,
but Your Torah is my delight.
71 It is good for me that I was afflicted,
so that I may learn Your decrees.
72 The Torah from Your mouth is better to me
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Rich and Poor Alike
Psalm 49
1 For the music director: a psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 Hear this, all you peoples.
Give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,
3 both low and high,
rich and poor together.
4 My mouth speaks wisdom,
My heart’s meditation is understanding.
5 I will turn my ear to a proverb.
I will utter my riddle on the harp:
6 Why should I fear in evil days?
when the iniquity of my deceivers surrounds me?
7 Or those trusting in their wealth,
boasting about their great riches?
8 No man can redeem his brother,
or give to God a ransom for him.
9 For the redemption of a soul is costly—
so, one should stop trying forever.
10 Will he live forever—
and never see the Pit?
11 Surely he must see, even wise men die.
The fool and the brutish will alike perish,
leaving their wealth to others.[a]
12 Their inward thought is:
Their houses are eternal,
their dwellings for generation after generation.
They name their lands after themselves.
13 But the pompous man will not endure—
he is like the beasts that perish.
14 Such is the way of the self-confident,
and their followers who approve their sayings. Selah
15 Like sheep they are destined for Sheol.
Death will be their shepherd
and the upright will rule over them in the morning.
Their image will decay in Sheol—
far from its lofty place.
16 But God redeems my soul from the power of Sheol—
for He receives me. Selah
17 Do not be afraid when a man gets rich,
when his house’s splendor increases.
18 For when he dies he takes nothing away.
His splendor will not follow him down.
19 Though during his life he congratulates himself,
and men praise you when you do well for yourself—
20 He will still join his fathers’ company,
who will never see the light.
21 A pompous man, without understanding—
he is like the beasts that perish.
A Fool Denies God
Psalm 53
1 For the music director: on Mahalath, a contemplative song of David.
2 The fool says in his heart:
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, commit vile injustice.
There is no one who does good.
3 God looks down from the heavens
on the children of men,
to see if anyone understands,
who seeks after God.
4 All have turned aside—
together they have become corrupt.
There is no one who does good—
no, not even one!
5 Will the evildoers never learn?
They consume My people as they would eat bread,
and never call upon God.
6 There they are in great dread—
where there is nothing to fear.
For God has scattered the bones of those besieging you.
You have put them to shame,
for God has rejected them.
7 Who will give salvation for Israel out of Zion?
When God restores His captive people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!
8 All the people will know what Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria
say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
9 “The bricks are fallen,
but we will rebuild with cut stones.
The sycamores are cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.”
10 Therefore Adonai raises up
Rezin’s adversaries against them,
and spurs on his enemies.
11 The Arameans from the east
and the Philistines from the west—
they will devour Israel with open mouth.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
yet His hand is still outstretched.
12 Yet the people will not turn back
to the One who strikes them,
nor will they seek Adonai-Tzva’ot.
13 So Adonai will cut off from Israel head and tail,
palm branch and bulrush in a single day.
14 The elder and the man of rank—
he is the head.
The prophet who teaches falsehood—
he is the tail.
15 The leaders of this people lead them astray.
Those they mislead are swallowed up.
16 Therefore Adonai will have no joy in their young men,
nor will He have compassion on their orphans and widows,
for everyone is ungodly and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaks foolishness.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
yet His hand is still outstretched.
17 For wickedness burns like a fire
and consumes the briers and thorns
It kindles the thickets of the forest,
so they roll up in a column of smoke.
False Teachers Condemned
2 But false prophets also arose among the people,[a] just as there will also be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master who bought them[b]—bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result the way of the truth will be maligned. 3 In their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol.[c] He put them in chains of gloomy darkness, to be held until the judgment. [d] 5 He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. 6 He devastated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes[e]—making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. 7 He rescued Lot, a righteous man deeply troubled by the shameless immorality of the wicked. [f] 8 (For that righteous man, while living among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by lawless deeds he saw and heard.) 9 Therefore the Lord certainly knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and how to keep the unrighteous being punished until the Day of Judgment— 10 especially those who follow after the flesh in its unclean desires and who despise the Lord’s authority.[g]
Brazen and arrogant, these people do not tremble while slandering glorious beings;
The Kingdom Is Coming Now
1 The beginning of the Good News of Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Ben-Elohim. 2 As Isaiah the prophet has written,
“Behold, I send My messenger before You,
who will prepare Your way.[a]
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way of Adonai,
and make His paths straight.’”[b]
4 John appeared, immersing in the wilderness, proclaiming an immersion involving repentance for the removal of sins. 5 All the Judean countryside was going out to him, and all the Jerusalemites. As they confessed their sins, they were being immersed by him in the Jordan River.
6 John wore clothes made from camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 “After me comes One who is mightier than I am,” he proclaimed. “I’m not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of His sandals! 8 I immersed you with water, but He will immerse you in the Ruach ha-Kodesh.”[c]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.