Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

144 (Mizmor of Dovid). Baruch Hashem my Tzur (rock) which teacheth my hands for war, and my fingers for milchamah (battle);

² My Chesed, and my Metzudah (Fortress); my Stronghold, and my Deliverer; my Mogen, and He in Whom I take refuge; Who subdueth my people under me.

³ Hashem, what is adam, that Thou takest knowledge of him! Or the ben enosh, that Thou takest account of him!

⁴ Adam is like hevel; his days are as a tzel that passeth away.

⁵ Part Thy heavens, Hashem, and come down; touch the harim, and they shall smoke.

⁶ Cast forth lightning, and scatter them; shoot Thine khitzim (arrows), and destroy them.

⁷ Send Thine Yad from above; rescue me, and deliver me out of mayim rabbim, from the yad Bnei Nekhar;

⁸ Whose mouth speaketh shav (lies), and their right hand is a right hand of sheker.

⁹ I will sing a shir chadash unto Thee, O Elohim; upon a nevel of ten strings will I make music unto Thee.

¹⁰ It is He that giveth Teshu’ah (deliverance, salvation) unto melachim; Who delivereth Dovid His eved from the cherev ra’ah.

¹¹ Rescue me, and save me from the yad Bnei Nekhar, whose mouth speaketh shav (lies) and their right hand is a right yad of sheker;

¹² In their youth, may baneinu (our sons) be like plants full grown; may benoteinu (our daughters) be like cornerstones, columns wrought for the Heikhal;

¹³ That our barns may be full, affording all manner of provision; that our tzon may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our meadows;

¹⁴ That our oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no peretz (breach) nor golus; that there be no cry of anquish in our streets.

¹⁵ Ashrei are such people; Ashrei is the people that Hashem is Elohav.

¹⁰ Immecha is like a gefen (vine) full of shoots, planted by the mayim; she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of mayim rabbim.

¹¹ And she had strong branches that became the shivtei moshlim (scepters of rulers), and her stature towered above the thick branches, and she was seen in her height amid the dense branches.

¹² But she was uprooted in chemah (fury), she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her p’ri; her strong branches were broken and withered; the eish consumed them.

¹³ And now she is planted in the midbar, in a dry and thirsty eretz.

¹⁴ And eish is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her p’ri, so that she hath no strong branch to be a shevet (sceptre) to rule. This is a kinah lament, and shall be for a funeral dirge.

⁴ Come to him [Moshiach], to that "Even Chayyah" ("Living Stone"), CHADAL ISHIM ("rejected by men" YESHAYAH 53:3; TEHILLIM 118:22; YESHAYAH 28:16) but BECHIR ("Chosen" YESHAYAH 42:1 [1:1]), and precious in the sight of Hashem.

⁵ You also, like avanim chayyot (living stones [2:24]), are being built up for a Bayit Ruchani (a Spiritual Beis, House) for a kehunnat kodesh (holy priesthood) to offer up zivchei ruach (sacrifices of the spirit) acceptable to Hashem through Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua.

⁶ For it stands written in the Kitvei HaKodesh, HINENI YISSAD B’TZION EVEN PINNAT YIKRAT ("Behold, I place in Zion a precious corner stone” YESHAYAH 28:16; TEHILLIM 118:22; DANIEL 2:34-35), chosen, and HAMMA’AMIN LO YACHISH ("the one believing [on him, on Moshiach] never will be dismayed, ashamed YESHAYAH 28:16).

⁷ Therefore, to you who are the ma’aminim [in Moshiach] this EVEN ("Stone") is YIKRAT ("precious" YESHAYAH 28:16), but to the Apikorosim (Unbelievers): EVEN MA’ASU HABONIM HAY’TAH LEROSH PINAH ("The Stone which the ones building rejected became the head of the corner" TEHILLIM 118:22 [YESHAYAH 53:3]).

⁸ And EVEN NEGEF U’L’TZUR MICHSHOL ("a stone for stumbling over and a rock for falling over" YESHAYAH 8:14). They stumble because they have no mishma’at (obedience 1:2,14,22; 4:17) to the Dvar Hashem which is also what they were appointed for [2K 2:9,12,17; Yd 1:4; Ro 9:14-24].

⁹ But you are an AM NIVCHAR ("a chosen people” YESHAYAH 43:20; SHEMOT 6:7), a MAMLECHET KOHANIM ("a kingdom of priests, royal priests" Ex 19:6), a GOY KADOSH ("a holy nation" Ex 19:6), an AM SEGULLAH ("a people of treasured possession" Ex 19:5; Mal 3:17), for this purpose: that you may declare the wondrous deeds of the One who gave you the kri’ah (calling) and summoned you out of choshech into his marvelous ohr [Isa 43:21; 42:12].

¹⁰ You, who once were LO AMI ("not My people" Hos 1:9) but now AMI ATAH ("My people you are" Hos 2:25), the AM Hashem ("the people of G-d"), the ones having not received rachamim, but now having received rachamim (Hos 2:25).