Book of Common Prayer
My Help and My Deliverer
Psalm 70
1 For the music director, of David, for a memorial.
2 O God, come quickly to deliver me,
Adonai, to help me.
3 May they be put to shame and disgrace
who seek my life.
May they be turned back in humiliation
who delight in my hurt.
4 May those who say, “Aha! Aha!”
be turned away because of their shame.
5 But may all who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You.
May those who love Your salvation
always say, “Let God be magnified.”
6 But I am poor and needy—
God, come quickly to me.
You are my help and my deliverer—
Adonai, do not delay.
My Hope When I Am Gray
Psalm 71
1 In You, Adonai, have I taken refuge.
Let me never be ashamed.
2 Deliver me and rescue me in Your justice.
Turn Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a sheltering rock where I may always go.
Give the command to save me—
for You are my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the grasp of an evil, ruthless man.
5 For You are my hope, Adonai my Lord—
my trust from my youth.
6 From my birth I have leaned on You.
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise is always about You.
7 I am like an ominous sign to many,
but You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with Your praise
and with Your glory all day.
9 Do not cast me away in the time of old age.
When my strength fails, do not forsake me.
10 For my enemies speak against me.
Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
11 saying: “God has forsaken him—
Pursue and take him, for no one will deliver.”
12 O God, be not far from me!
My God, come quickly to help me.
13 Let the accusers of my soul
be disgraced and destroyed.
Let those who seek to harm me
be covered with scorn and confusion.
14 But I—I will hope continually
and will praise You more and more.
15 My mouth will recount Your justice and Your salvation all day,
though I do not know the sum of them.
16 I come because of the mighty deeds of Adonai my Lord.
I will remember Your righteousness—Yours alone.
17 God, You taught me from my youth,
and I still keep declaring Your wonders.
18 So even until I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
till I tell of Your strong arm to the next generation,
Your might to all who are to come.
19 For Your righteousness, O God,
reaches to high heaven.
You have done great things—O God,
who is like You?
20 You made me see many troubles and evils
—You will revive me again—
from the depths of the earth
You will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and comfort me once again.
22 So I will praise You with the harp for your truth, O my God.
I will sing praises to You with the lyre O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy
—when I sing praises to You—
and my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 Also my tongue will tell of Your righteousness all day.
For those who seek my hurt have been put to shame and confusion.
Intercession for Restoration of Zion
Psalm 74
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Why have You cast us off forever, O God?
Why does Your anger smolder against the flock of Your pasture?
2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased of old,
redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance,
and Mount Zion, where You dwelt.
3 Lift Your steps toward the perpetual ruins—
an enemy has done all evil to the Sanctuary!
4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place.
They have set up their standards as signs.
5 It seemed like bringing up axes
into a thicket of trees—
6 and now all its carved work
they smash with hatchet and hammers!
7 They set Your Sanctuary on fire,
burning it to the ground.
They defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.
8 They said in their hearts: “Let us crush them totally!”
They burned down all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs.
No longer is there any prophet—
and no one among us knows how long.
10 How long, O God, will the adversary mock?
Will the enemy revile Your Name forever?
11 Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?
Draw it out of Your bosom and consume them!
12 Yet God is my King of old,
working salvation in the midst of the land.
13 You split the sea with Your power.
You smashed the monsters’ heads in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan,
giving him as food to the desert dwellers.
15 You opened up spring and brook.
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours.
You provided moon and sun.
17 You set all the borders of earth.
You made summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy mocked, Adonai,
and how foolish people despised Your Name.
19 Do not deliver Your turtledove’s soul to the wild beast.
Do not forget the life of Your afflicted ones forever.
20 Look upon the covenant—for haunts of violence
fill the dark places of earth.
21 Do not let the oppressed turn back in shame.
But let the poor and needy praise Your Name.
22 Rise up O God, and defend Your cause.
Remember how the fool mocks You all day.
23 Do not forget the noise of Your foes,
the uproar of those rising up against You,
ascending continually.
4 Now Deborah, a woman who was a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and Bnei-Yisrael came up to her for judgment. 6 Now she sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Hasn’t Adonai, God of Israel, commanded, ‘Go, march to Mount Tabor, and take with you 10,000 men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun? 7 Then at the Kishon torrent, I will draw out to you Sisera, commander of Jabin’s army with his chariots and his multitude, and I will give him into your hand.’”
8 But Barak said to her, “If you are going with me, then I will go. But if you aren’t going with me, I won’t go.”
9 “Surely I will go with you,” she said. “However, no honor will be yours on the way that you are about to go—for Adonai will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” So Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Then Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and 10,000 men marched up after him, and Deborah went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
12 They told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13 So Sisera ordered all his chariots—900 iron chariots—and all the troops that were with him, from Harosheth-ha-goyim to the Kishon.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day in which Adonai will deliver Sisera into your hand. Has Adonai not gone out before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. 15 Adonai threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into confusion before Barak with the edge of the sword. Then Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-ha-goyim. The whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not one was left.
17 Meanwhile Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Yael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 So Yael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me! Don’t be afraid!” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and made him drink some, and covered him. 20 Then he said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you saying, ‘Is there a man here?’ then you will say, ‘There’s no one.’”
21 Then Yael, Heber’s wife, took a tent pin and got a hammer in her hand, approached him stealthily and drove the pin into his temple until it pierced through into the ground—for he was exhausted and in a deep sleep. So he died. 22 Now behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Yael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he entered with her, and behold, Sisera was lying dead, with a tent-pin in his temple!
23 So on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before Bnei-Yisrael.
15 In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (the number of names all together was about a hundred and twenty) and said, 16 “Brothers,[a] the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Ruach ha-Kodesh foretold by the mouth of David, concerning Judah—who became a guide to those who seized Yeshua. 17 For he was counted among us and received his share of this office.” 18 (Now this man Judah bought a field with the reward of his wickedness. Falling headfirst, he burst open in the middle and his intestines splattered out. 19 And it became known to all those living in Jerusalem, so in their own language that field was called Akeldama[b]—that is, ‘Field of Blood.’) 20 For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
‘Let his dwelling place become desolate,
and let there be no one living in it’[c]
and ‘Let another take his position.’[d]
21 “Therefore one of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Yeshua went in and out among us— 22 beginning with His immersion by John until the day He was taken up from us—must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
23 So they nominated two—Joseph, called Barsabbas (also called Justus), and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show us which of these two You have chosen 25 to take the position in this office as emissary, from which Judah turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 Then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was added to the eleven emissaries.
The Tomb Is Sealed
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Yeshua from the Galilee, serving Him. 56 Among them were Miriam from Magdala, Miriam the mother of Jacob and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
57 Now when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had also become a disciple of Yeshua. 58 This man went to Pilate and asked for Yeshua’s body. Then Pilate ordered it to be given up. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. 60 And he laid it in his own new tomb,[a] which he had cut in the rock. Then he rolled a large stone up to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Now Miriam from Magdala was there, and the other Miriam, sitting opposite the tomb.
Guarding the Tomb
62 Now on the next day, which is after the preparation, the ruling kohanim and Pharisees were gathered before Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember how that deceiver said while He was still alive, ‘After three days I’m to be raised.’ 64 Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, so His disciples do not come and steal Him away. They will tell the people, ‘He is risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first!”
65 “You have a guard,” Pilate said to them. “Go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone along with the soldiers of the guard.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.