Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 18[a]
For the choir director; by David, the servant of Yahweh. He sang this song to Yahweh when Yahweh rescued him from all his enemies, especially from Saul. He said,
1 I love you, O Yahweh, my strength.
2 Yahweh is my rock and my Metsuda and my Savior,
my El, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my Magen, and the strength of my salvation,
my stronghold.
3 Yahweh should be praised.
I called on him, and I was saved from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death had become tangled around me.
The torrents of destruction had overwhelmed me.
5 The ropes of the grave had surrounded me.
The clutches of death had confronted me.
6 I called on Yahweh in my distress.
I cried to my Elohim for help.
He heard my voice from his temple,
and my cry for help reached his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and quaked.
Even the foundations of the mountains trembled.
They shook violently because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and a raging fire came out of his mouth.
Glowing coals flared up from it.
9 He spread apart the heavens
and came down with a dark cloud under his feet.
10 He rode on one of the angels[b] as he flew,
and he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made the darkness his hiding place,
the dark rain clouds his covering.
12 Out of the brightness in front of him,
those rain clouds passed by with hailstones and lightning.
13 Yahweh thundered in the heavens.
Elyon made his voice heard with hailstones and lightning.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them.
He flashed streaks of lightning and threw them into confusion.
15 Then the ocean floor could be seen.
The foundations of the earth were laid bare
at your stern warning, O Yahweh,
at the blast of the breath from your nostrils.
16 He reached down from high above and took hold of me.
He pulled me out of the raging water.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
because they were too strong for me.
18 On the day when I faced disaster, they confronted me,
but Yahweh came to my defense.
19 He brought me out to a wide-open place.
He rescued me because he was pleased with me.
20 Yahweh rewarded me
because of my righteousness,
because my hands are clean.
He paid me back
21 because I have kept the ways of Yahweh
and I have not wickedly turned away from my Elohim,
22 because all his judgments are in front of me
and I have not turned away from his laws.
23 I was innocent as far as he was concerned.
I have kept myself from guilt.
24 Yahweh paid me back
because of my righteousness,
because he can see that my hands are clean.
25 In dealing with faithful people you are faithful,
with innocent people you are innocent,
26 with pure people you are pure.
In dealing with devious people you are clever.
27 You save humble people,
but you bring down a conceited look.
28 O Yahweh, you light my lamp.
My Elohim turns my darkness into light.
29 With you I can attack a line of soldiers.
With my Elohim I can break through barricades.
30 El’s way is perfect!
The promise of Yahweh has proven to be true.
He is a Magen to all those who take refuge in him.
31 Who is Eloah but Yahweh?
Who is a rock except our Elohim?
32 El arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like those of a deer
and gives me sure footing on high places.
34 He trains my hands for battle
so that my arms can bend an archer’s bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation.
Your right hand supports me.
Your gentleness makes me great.
36 You make a wide path for me to walk on
so that my feet do not slip.
37 I chased my enemies and caught up with them.
I did not return until I had ended their lives.
38 I wounded them so badly that they were unable to get up.
They fell under my feet.
39 You armed me with strength for battle.
You made my opponents bow at my feet.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and I destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried out for help, but there was no one to save them.
They cried out to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them into a powder as fine as the dust blown by the wind.
I threw them out as though they were dirt on the streets.
43 You rescued me from my conflicts with the people.
You made me the leader of nations.
A people I did not know will serve me:
44 As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
Foreigners will cringe in front of me.
45 Foreigners will lose heart,
and they will tremble when they come out of their fortifications.
46 Yahweh lives!
Thanks be to my rock!
May Elohim my Savior be honored.
47 El gives me vengeance!
He brings people under my authority.
48 He saves me from my enemies.
You lift me up above my opponents.
You rescue me from violent people.
49 That is why I will give thanks to you, O Yahweh, among the nations
and make music to praise your name.
50 He gives great victories to his king.
He shows mercy to his anointed,
to David, and to his descendant[c] forever.
Solomon’s Wisdom in Action
16 A short time later two prostitutes came to the king and stood in front of him. 17 One woman said to him, “Sir, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a son while she was with me in the house. 18 Two days later this woman also gave birth to a son. We were alone. No one else was with us. Just the two of us were in the house. 19 That night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on top of him. 20 So she got up during the night and took my son, who was beside me, while I was asleep. She held him in her arms. Then she laid her dead son in my arms. 21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, he was dead! I took a good look at him and realized that he wasn’t my son at all!”
22 The other woman said, “No! My son is alive—your son is dead.”
The first woman kept on saying, “No! Your son is dead—my son is alive.” So they argued in front of the king.
23 The king said, “This one keeps saying, ‘My son is alive—your son is dead,’ and that one keeps saying, ‘No! Your son is dead—my son is alive.’”
24 So the king told his servants to bring him a sword. When they brought it, 25 he said, “Cut the living child in two. Give half to the one and half to the other.”
26 Then the woman whose son was still alive was deeply moved by her love for the child. She said to the king, “Please, sir, give her the living child. Please don’t kill him!”
But the other woman said, “He won’t be mine or yours. Cut him in two.”
27 The king replied, “Give the living child to the first woman. Don’t kill him. She is his mother.”
28 All Israel heard about the decision the king made. They respected the king very highly, because they saw he possessed wisdom from Elohim to do what was right.
The Shipwreck
27 On the fourteenth night we were still drifting through the Mediterranean Sea. About midnight the sailors suspected that we were approaching land. 28 So they threw a line with a weight on it into the water. It sank 120 feet. They waited a little while and did the same thing again. This time the line sank 90 feet. 29 Fearing we might hit rocks, they dropped four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for morning to come.
30 The sailors tried to escape from the ship. They let the lifeboat down into the sea and pretended they were going to lay out the anchors from the front of the ship. 31 Paul told the officer and the soldiers, “If these sailors don’t stay on the ship, you have no hope of staying alive.” 32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.
33 Just before daybreak Paul was encouraging everyone to have something to eat. “This is the fourteenth day you have waited and have had nothing to eat. 34 So I’m encouraging you to eat something. Eating will help you survive, since not a hair from anyone’s head will be lost.” 35 After Paul said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat. 36 Everyone was encouraged and had something to eat. 37 (There were 276 of us on the ship.) 38 After the people had eaten all they wanted, they lightened the ship by dumping the wheat into the sea.
39 In the morning they couldn’t recognize the land, but they could see a bay with a beach. So they decided to try to run the ship ashore. 40 They cut the anchors free and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars. Then they raised the top sail to catch the wind and steered the ship to the shore. 41 They struck a sandbar in the water and ran the ship aground. The front of the ship stuck and couldn’t be moved, while the back of the ship was broken to pieces by the force of the waves.
42 The soldiers had a plan to kill the prisoners to keep them from swimming away and escaping. 43 However, the officer wanted to save Paul, so he stopped the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim ashore. 44 Then he ordered the rest to follow on planks or some other pieces of wood from the ship. In this way everyone got to shore safely.
Preparations for the Passover(A)
12 Killing the Passover lamb was customary on the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The disciples asked Yeshua, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”
13 He sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the city. You will meet a man carrying a jug of water. Follow him. 14 When he goes into a house, tell the owner that the teacher asks, ‘Where is my room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ 15 He will take you upstairs and show you a large room. The room will be completely furnished. Get everything ready for us there.”
16 The disciples left. They went into the city and found everything as Yeshua had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
17 When evening came, Yeshua arrived with the twelve apostles.
Jesus Knows Who Will Betray Him(B)
18 While they were at the table eating, Yeshua said, “I can guarantee this truth: One of you is going to betray me, one who is eating with me!”
19 Feeling hurt, they asked him one by one, “You don’t mean me, do you?”
20 He said to them, “It’s one of you twelve, someone dipping his hand into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man is going to die as the Scriptures say he will. But how horrible it will be for that person who betrays the Son of Man! It would have been better for that person if he had never been born.”
The Lord’s Supper(C)
22 While they were eating, Yeshua took bread and blessed it. He broke the bread, gave it to them, and said, “Take this. This is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, spoke a prayer of thanksgiving, and gave the cup to them. They all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood, the blood of the promise.[a] It is poured out for many people.
25 “I can guarantee this truth: I won’t drink this wine again until that day when I drink new wine in the kingdom of God.”
26 After they sang a hymn, they went to the Mount of Olives.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.