Book of Common Prayer

David wrote this song.

Trust the Lord^[a]

²⁴ So David hid in the field. At the time of the new moon, the king sat down to eat the special meal. ²⁵ He sat beside the wall in his usual place. Jonathan sat with his face towards him. Abner sat beside the king. David's seat was empty. ²⁶ Saul did not say anything about it that day. He thought, ‘Perhaps something has happened to David that has made him unclean. I am sure that is why he is not here.’^{[a] 27} The next day after the new moon, David's seat was still empty at the meal. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, ‘Why has Jesse's son not come to the meal? He did not come yesterday or today.’

²⁸ Jonathan answered, ‘David asked me very strongly to let him go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, “Please let me go. My family is offering a sacrifice to God in the town. My brother told me that I must be there. If you agree as my friend, let me go to visit my brothers.” That is why David has not come to eat this meal with the king.’

³⁰ Saul became very angry with Jonathan. He said, ‘You stupid man! I see that you have turned against me! You have become a friend of that son of Jesse. You have brought shame on yourself. Your mother should be ashamed that she gave birth to you! ³¹ You will never rule as king while that son of Jesse is still alive. Send men to go and bring him to me now. He must die!’^[b]

³² Jonathan said to his father, King Saul, ‘Why must David die? What wrong thing has he done?’

³³ Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan and tried to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father had decided to kill David. ³⁴ Jonathan was very angry. He got up from the table. He did not eat anything on that second day of the special meal. He was very upset because his father had insulted David.

³⁵ The next morning, Jonathan went out to the field to meet David. He took a young boy with him. ³⁶ He said to the boy, ‘I will shoot some arrows. You must run and find them.’ While the boy was running, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ The boy ran to the place where the arrow had reached. Jonathan shouted to him, ‘I think that the arrow is beyond you.’ ³⁸ Then he shouted, ‘Hurry now! Go quickly. Do not wait.’ The boy picked up the arrow and he brought it back to Jonathan. ³⁹ (The boy did not understand what this meant. Only Jonathan and David knew.) ⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows back to the boy. He said to the boy, ‘Go now and take these things back to the town.’

⁴¹ When the boy had left, David came out from beside the rock. He went down on his knees in front of Jonathan. He bent down on the ground three times. Then David and Jonathan kissed each other and they wept. David wept even more than Jonathan did.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, ‘Go now and God will keep you safe. We have promised each other in the Lord's name that we will always be friends. The Lord will watch us to make sure that we always keep this promise. He will watch our descendants too, for ever.’

Then David left. Jonathan returned to the town.

The believers in Antioch send Saul and Barnabas to Cyprus

13 There were some prophets among the group of believers in Antioch. They taught the other believers more about Jesus. Barnabas and Simeon were two of these men. (People also called Simeon ‘Niger’.)^[a] There was Lucius who had lived in Cyrene. There was also Manaen who had lived together with the ruler Herod when they were children. And there was Saul.

² One day, the believers were meeting together. They were praising the Lord God and they were praying. They also fasted for a time. During that time, the Holy Spirit said to them, ‘I have chosen Barnabas and Saul to do a special work for me. Let them go now and do it.’

³ The believers continued to pray and to fast. Then the leaders put their hands on Barnabas and Saul and they prayed for them. They sent them away to start this new work.

What happened in Cyprus

⁴ The Holy Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul away from Antioch. They travelled to the town of Seleucia, which is near the coast. From there they travelled on a ship to an island called Cyprus. ⁵ They arrived at a town called Salamis. There they went into the Jewish meeting places and they told the people God's message about Jesus. John Mark went with Barnabas and Saul to help them with their work.

⁶ They travelled across the whole island and they arrived at a town called Paphos. There they met a man called Bar-Jesus.^[b] He was a Jew. He used magic to do surprising things. He said that he was a prophet from God. But his messages were not true.

⁷ The ruler of Cyprus was called Sergius Paulus. Bar-Jesus was his friend. Sergius Paulus understood things well. So he asked Barnabas and Saul to come to him. He wanted them to tell him God's message. ⁸ Bar-Jesus was also called Elymas. That was his name in the Greek language. He did not like what Barnabas and Saul were saying. He did not want Sergius Paulus to believe in Jesus. So he tried to stop him. ⁹ Then God filled Saul with the power of his Holy Spirit. (Saul was also now called Paul.^[c] ) Paul looked straight at Elymas and he said, ¹⁰ ‘You are a servant of the Devil! You are against everything that is right. Your mind is full of lies and other bad things. You try to change the true message of the Lord and make it into lies. You must stop doing that! ¹¹ The Lord will now punish you. You will become blind for a time. You will not even see the light of the sun.’

When Paul said that, immediately something like a dark cloud covered Elymas's eyes. He could not find his own way. He needed someone to lead him by the hand. ¹² Sergius Paulus saw what had happened to Elymas. He was very surprised about the things that Barnabas and Paul taught him about the Lord Jesus. And so he believed in Jesus.

Jesus answers questions about the day of rest

²³ On one Jewish day of rest, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some fields where wheat was growing. While they were walking along, his disciples picked some grains of wheat. ²⁴ Some Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Look at what your disciples are doing. They should not do that on our day of rest. It is against God's Law.’

²⁵ Jesus replied, ‘You have certainly read about what David did one day.^[a] He and the men who were with him were very hungry. They needed food to eat. ²⁶ David went into the temple. He ate the special bread that was there. He gave some of it to his men to eat as well. This happened during the time that Abiathar was the leader of the priests. It is against God's Law for anyone except the priests to eat that special bread.’

²⁷ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘God wanted to help people. So he made a day for them when they should rest. He did not make people so that they could keep laws about the day of rest. ²⁸ So you should know that the Son of Man has authority over the laws about the day of rest.’

Jesus makes a man well

3 Another time, Jesus went into the Jewish meeting place. A man was there. His hand was very small and weak, so he could not use it. ² Some Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. They wanted to find a reason to say that Jesus was doing wrong things. It was the Jewish day of rest. So the Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would make the man well on this day. ³ Jesus said to the man, ‘Stand here in front of everyone.’

⁴ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘Is it right for us to do good things on our day of rest? Or should we do bad things? Should we save a person's life? Or should we kill people?’

Nobody said anything.

⁵ Jesus looked round at everybody. He felt angry with them. He also felt sad because they did not want to learn. Then he said to the man, ‘Lift up your hand.’ The man lifted his hand and it became well. He could use it again. ⁶ The Pharisees left the meeting place immediately. They went to meet with some other people who were friends with the ruler, Herod.^[b] The Pharisees talked with them about how they could kill Jesus.