Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 5
For the choir director; for flutes; a psalm by David.
1 Open your ears to my words, O Yahweh.
Consider my innermost thoughts.
2 Pay attention to my cry for help, my Melek and my Elohim,
because I pray only to you.
3 In the morning, O Yahweh, hear my voice.
In the morning I lay my needs in front of you,
and I wait.
4 You are not an El who takes pleasure in wickedness.
Evil will never be your guest.
5 Those who brag cannot stand in your sight.
You hate all troublemakers.
6 You destroy those who tell lies.
Yahweh is disgusted with bloodthirsty and deceitful people.
7 But I will enter your house because of your great mercy.
Out of reverence for you, I will bow toward your holy temple.
8 O Yahweh, lead me in your righteousness because of those who spy on me.
Make your way in front of me smooth.
9 Nothing in their mouths is truthful.
Destruction comes from their hearts.
Their throats are open graves.
They flatter with their tongues.
10 Condemn them, O Elohim.
Let their own schemes be their downfall.
Throw them out for their many crimes
because they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.
Let them sing with joy forever.
Protect them, and let those who love your name triumph in you.
12 You bless righteous people, O Yahweh.
Like a large shield, you surround them with your favor.
Psalm 6
For the choir director; with stringed instruments, on the sheminith;[a] a psalm by David.
1 O Yahweh, do not punish me in your anger
or discipline me in your rage.
2 Have pity on me, O Yahweh, because I am weak.
Heal me, O Yahweh, because my bones shake with terror.
3 My soul has been deeply shaken with terror.
But you, O Yahweh, how long . . . ?
4 Come back, O Yahweh.
Rescue me.
Save me because of your mercy!
5 In death, no one remembers you.
In the grave, who praises you?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
My eyes flood my bed every night.
I soak my couch with tears.
7 My eyes blur from grief.
They fail because of my enemies.
8 Get away from me, all you troublemakers,
because Yahweh has heard the sound of my crying.
9 Yahweh has heard my plea for mercy.
Yahweh accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be put to shame and deeply shaken with terror.
In a moment they will retreat and be put to shame.
Psalm 10
1 Why are you so distant, Yahweh?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked person arrogantly pursues oppressed people.
He will be caught in the schemes that he planned.
3 The wicked person boasts about his selfish desires.
He blesses robbers, but he curses Yahweh.
4 He turns up his nose and says, “Yahweh doesn’t care.”
His every thought concludes, “There is no Elohim.”
5 He always seems to succeed.
Your judgments are beyond his understanding.
He spits at all his opponents.
6 He says to himself, “Nothing can shake me.
I’ll never face any trouble.”
7 His mouth is full of cursing, deception, and oppression.
Trouble and wrongdoing are on the tip of his tongue.
8 He waits in ambush in the villages.
From his hiding places he kills innocent people.
His eyes are on the lookout for victims.
9 He lies in his hiding place like a lion in his den.
He hides there to catch oppressed people.
He catches oppressed people when he draws them into his net.
10 His victims are crushed.
They collapse,
and they fall under the weight of his power.
11 He says to himself,
“El has forgotten.
He has hidden his face.
He will never see it!”
12 Arise, O Yahweh!
Lift your hand, O El.
Do not forget oppressed people!
13 Why does the wicked person despise Elohim?
Why does he say to himself, “Elohim doesn’t care”?
14 You have seen it; yes, you have taken note of trouble and grief
and placed them under your control.
The victim entrusts himself to you.
You alone have been the helper of orphans.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil person.
Punish his wickedness until you find no more.
16 Yahweh is Melek forever and ever.
The nations have vanished from his land.
17 You have heard the desire of oppressed people, O Yahweh.
You encourage them.
You pay close attention to them
18 in order to provide justice for orphans and oppressed people
so that no mere mortal will terrify them again.
Psalm 11
For the choir director; by David.
1 I have taken refuge in Yahweh.
How can you say to me:
“Flee to your mountain like a bird?
2 Wicked people bend their bows.
They set their arrows against the strings
to shoot in the dark at people whose motives are decent.
3 When the foundations of life are undermined,
what can a righteous person do?”
4 Yahweh is in his holy temple.
Yahweh’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes see.
They examine Adam’s descendants.
5 Yahweh tests righteous people,
but he hates wicked people and the ones who love violence.
6 He rains down fire and burning sulfur upon wicked people.
He makes them drink from a cup filled with scorching wind.
7 Yahweh is righteous.
He loves a righteous way of life.
Decent people will see his face.
The First Sin and the First Promise
3 The snake was more clever than all the wild animals Yahweh Elohim had made. He asked the woman, “Did Elohim really say, ‘You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman answered the snake, “We’re allowed to eat the fruit from any tree in the garden 3 except the tree in the middle of the garden. Elohim said, ‘You must never eat it or touch it. If you do, you will die!’”
4 “You certainly won’t die!” the snake told the woman. 5 “Elohim knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened. You’ll be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”
6 The woman saw that the tree had fruit that was good to eat, nice to look at, and desirable for making someone wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then their eyes were opened, and they both realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.
8 In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking around in the garden. So they hid from Yahweh Elohim among the trees in the garden. 9 Yahweh Elohim called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
11 Elohim asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man answered, “That woman, the one you gave me, gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then Yahweh Elohim asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The snake deceived me, and I ate,” the woman answered.
14 So Yahweh Elohim said to the snake, “Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all the wild or domestic animals.
You will crawl on your belly.
You will be the lowest of animals as long as you live.
15 I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other.
I will make your descendants
and her descendant hostile toward each other.
He will crush your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”
16 He said to the woman,
“I will increase your pain and your labor
when you give birth to children.
Yet, you will long for your husband,
and he will rule you.”
17 Then he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, although I commanded you, ‘You must never eat its fruit.’
The ground is cursed because of you.
Through hard work you will eat food that comes from it
every day of your life.
18 The ground will grow thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat wild plants.
19 By the sweat of your brow, you will produce food to eat
until you return to the ground,
because you were taken from it.
You are dust, and you will return to dust.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve [Life] because she became the mother of every living person.
21 Yahweh Elohim made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.
22 Then Yahweh Elohim said, “The man has become like one of us, since he knows good and evil. He must not reach out and take the fruit from the tree of life and eat. Then he would live forever.” 23 So Yahweh Elohim sent the man out of the Garden of Eden to farm the ground from which the man had been formed. 24 After he sent the man out, Elohim placed angels[a] and a flaming sword that turned in all directions east of the Garden of Eden. He placed them there to guard the way to the tree of life.
Everything Is Under Jesus’ Control
2 For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard. Then we won’t drift away from the truth. 2 After all, the message that the angels brought was reliable, and every violation and act of disobedience was properly punished. 3 So how will we escape punishment if we reject the important message, the message that God saved us? First, the Lord told this saving message. Then those who heard him confirmed that message. 4 God verified what they said through miraculous signs, amazing things, other powerful acts, and with other gifts from the Holy Spirit as he wanted.
5 He didn’t put the world that will come (about which we are talking) under the angels’ control. 6 Instead, someone has declared this somewhere in Scripture:
“What is a mortal that you should remember him,
or the Son of Man[a] that you take care of him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels.
You crowned him with glory and honor.
8 You put everything under his control.”
When God put everything under his Son’s control, nothing was left out.
However, at the present time we still don’t see everything under his Son’s control. 9 Yeshua was made a little lower than the angels, but we see him crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. Through God’s kindness[b] he died on behalf of everyone. 10 God is the one for whom and through whom everything exists. Therefore, while God was bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was the right time to bring Yeshua, the source of their salvation, to the end of his work through suffering.
John Prepares the Way(A)
19 This was John’s answer when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 John didn’t refuse to answer. He told them clearly, “I’m not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Well, are you Elijah?”
John answered, “No, I’m not.”
Then they asked, “Are you the prophet?”
John replied, “No.”
22 So they asked him, “Who are you? Tell us so that we can take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John said, “I’m a voice crying out in the desert, ‘Make the way for the Lord straight,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Some of those who had been sent were Pharisees. 25 They asked John, “Why do you baptize if you’re not the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet?”
26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Someone you don’t know is standing among you. 27 He’s the one who comes after me. I am not worthy to untie his sandal strap.”
28 This happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.