Book of Common Prayer
Walking with Integrity
Psalm 26
1 Of David.
Vindicate me, Adonai,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and trusted in Adonai without wavering.
2 Probe me, Adonai, and test me,
refine my mind and my heart.
3 For Your love is before my eyes
and I have walked in Your truth.
4 I have not sat with men of falsehood,
nor do I consort with hypocrites.
5 I detest the company of evildoers,
and do not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash my hands in innocence,
so I can walk around Your altar, Adonai,
7 hearing the voice of thanksgiving
while proclaiming all Your wonders.
8 Adonai, I love the House where You live,
the place where Your glory dwells.
9 Do not take my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with people of bloodshed—
10 in whose hands are wicked schemes,
whose right hand is full of bribes.
11 But I—I will walk in my integrity.
Redeem me and be gracious to me.
12 My feet stand on level ground.
In congregations I will bless Adonai.
Hoshia-na!
Psalm 28
1 Of David.
To You, Adonai, I call—
my Rock, do not be deaf to me.
If You were silent to me,
I would become like those going down to the Pit.
2 Hear the sound of my pleas,
when I cry to You for help,
when I lift up my hands toward Your holy Sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me away with the wicked and with doers of iniquity,
who speak peace with their neighbors,
while evil is in their hearts.
4 Repay them for their deeds, their evil acts.
Repay them for the deeds of their hands.
Bring back on them what they deserve.
5 Since they show no regard for the deeds of Adonai
nor the work of His hands,
He will tear them down
and never build them up.
6 Blessed be Adonai, because He has heard
the sound of my supplications.
7 Adonai is my strength and my shield.[a]
My heart trusts in Him, and I was helped.
Therefore my heart leaps for joy,
and I will praise Him with my song.
8 Adonai is their strength—
a stronghold of salvation for His anointed.
9 Save Your people, bless Your inheritance,
shepherd them and carry them forever.
With God Is the Fountain of Life
Psalm 36
1 For the music director, of David the servant of Adonai.
2 An oracle of Transgression—within my heart, to the wicked one:
“There is no fear of God before his eyes.[a]
3 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to notice his iniquity—or hate it.
4 His mouth’s words are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and do good.
5 Even on his bed he plans sin.
He puts himself on a path that is no good, never refusing evil.”
6 Your love, Adonai, is in the heavens,
Your faithfulness up to the skies.
7 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.
Your judgments are like the great deep.
You preserve man and beast, Adonai.
8 How precious is Your love, O God!
The children of men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
9 They drink their fill from the abundance of Your House.
You give them drink from the river of Your delights.
10 For with You is the fountain of life—
in Your light we see light.
11 Continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
and Your justice to the upright in heart.
12 May the foot of pride never tread on me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
13 There the evildoers lie fallen—
thrown down, not able to rise!
Make Me Know the Number of My Days
Psalm 39
1 For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2 I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3 So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
4 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
5 “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
6 Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7 Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.[a]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10 I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
11 Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12 With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13 Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
14 Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”
Job: Everything is in His Hand
12 Job responded and said:
3 Still, I desire to speak to Shaddai
and to argue my case with God.
4 You, however, smear me with lies;
you are worthless doctors—all of you!
5 If only you would keep completely silent!
For you, that would be wisdom.
6 Hear now my argument;
listen to the contentions of my lips.
7 Will you speak unjustly on God’s behalf?
Will you speak deceitfully for Him?
8 Will you show Him partiality?
Will you argue the case for God?
9 Would it turn out well if He examined you?
Could you deceive Him as you deceive a man?
10 He would surely rebuke you
if you secretly showed favoritism.
11 Would not His majesty terrify you
and the dread of Him fall on you?
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;
your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 Be silent and let me speak;
then let come to me what may.
14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
and take my life in my hands?
15 Even if He slays me, I will wait for Him;
I will surely defend my ways before Him.
16 This, too, will be my salvation
for no godless can come before Him.
17 “Listen carefully to my words,
and let my declaration be in your ears.
21 withdraw Your hand far from me,
and do not assail me with Your terror.
22 Then call, and I will answer,
or I will speak, and You respond to me.
23 How many are my iniquities and sins?
Show me my transgressions and sin.
24 Why do You hide Your face
and consider me Your enemy?
25 Will You frighten a windblown leaf
and chase after dry chaff?
26 For You write bitter things against me
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27 You put my feet in shackles and watch all my paths;
You put marks on the soles of my feet.
Persecution and Deliverance
12 Now at that time Herod the king seized some from Messiah’s community to do them harm. 2 He had Jacob, John’s brother, put to death with the sword. 3 Seeing it pleased the Judean leaders, he proceeded to capture Peter as well. This was during the Days of Matzah. 4 After seizing him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads with four soldiers each to guard him. He was intending to bring him before the people after Passover. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being offered fervently to God by Messiah’s community.
6 Now that very night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping—bound with two chains between two soldiers, while guards before the gate were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He poked Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up! Quick!” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals,” and he did so. Then he tells him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9 Peter went out and kept following him—he didn’t know that what was happening with the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they passed a first guard and a second, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself. They went out and walked along a narrow street. Suddenly the angel left him.
11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for real that the Lord has sent His angel[a] and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Judean people were expecting.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Miriam, the mother of John (also called Mark), where many were assembled together and praying. 13 When he knocked on the door of the entrance gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Although she recognized Peter’s voice, out of joy she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, “You’re crazy!” But she kept insisting it was so. But they were saying, “It is his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking. When they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed! 17 But he motioned with his hand for them to be silent, and he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, “Go tell these things to Jacob and the brothers.” Then he left and went to another place.
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s children and have never been slaves to anyone! How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Yeshua answered them, “Amen, amen I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now the slave does not remain in the household forever; the son abides forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed! 37 I know you are Abraham’s children; yet you are trying to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I tell of what I have seen with the Father; so also you do what you heard from the Father.”[a]
39 “Abraham is our father,” they replied to Him.
Yeshua said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. 40 But now you are seeking to kill Me—a Man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do! 41 You are doing the deeds of your father.”
They said to Him, “We were not born as illegitimate children—we have one Father, God Himself!”
42 Yeshua said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for from God I came and now I am here. For I have not come on My own, but He sent Me. 43 Why don’t you understand My speech? Because you’re not able to hear My word! 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks lies he is just being himself—for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which one of you convicts Me of sinning? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me? 47 He who belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you don’t hear[b] is because you do not belong to God.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.