Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 26

Of David.

Psalm 28

Of David.

Psalm 36

For the music leader. Of the Lord’s servant David.

Psalm 39

For the music leader. To Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

David escapes Saul

19 Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David, but Jonathan, Saul’s son, liked David very much. ² So Jonathan warned David, “My father Saul is trying to kill you. Be on guard tomorrow morning. Stay somewhere safe and hide. ³ I’ll go out and stand by my father in the field where you’ll be. I’ll talk to my father about you, and I’ll tell you whatever I find out.”

⁴ So Jonathan spoke highly about David to his father Saul, telling him, “The king shouldn’t do anything wrong to his servant David, because he hasn’t wronged you. In fact, his actions have helped you greatly. ⁵ He risked his own life when he killed that Philistine, and the Lord won a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and were happy about it. Why then would you do something wrong to an innocent person by killing David for no reason?”

⁶ Saul listened to Jonathan and then swore, “As surely as the Lord lives, David won’t be executed.” ⁷ So Jonathan summoned David and told him everything they had talked about. Then Jonathan brought David back to Saul, and David served Saul as he had previously.

⁸ War broke out again. When David went out to fight the Philistines, he struck them with such force that they ran from him.

⁹ Then an evil spirit from the Lord came over Saul.^[a] He was sitting in his house with his spear in hand while David was playing music. ¹⁰ Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but David escaped Saul. Saul drove the spear into the wall, but David fled and got away safely. That night ¹¹ Saul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch on it and kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you don’t escape with your life tonight, you are a dead man tomorrow.” ¹² So Michal lowered David through a window. He took off and ran, and he got away. ¹³ Then Michal took the household’s divine image and laid it in the bed, putting some goat’s hair on its head and covering it with clothes.

¹⁴ Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, “He’s sick.”

¹⁵ Saul sent the messengers back to check on David for themselves. “Bring him to me on his bed,” he ordered, “so he can be executed.” ¹⁶ When the messengers arrived, they found the idol in the bed with the goat’s hair on its head. ¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, “Why could you betray me like this, letting my enemy go so that now he has escaped?”

Michal said to Saul, “David told me, ‘Help me get away or I’ll kill you!’”

¹⁸ So David fled and escaped. When he reached Samuel at Ramah, he reported to him everything Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to stay in the camps.^[b]

Herod imprisons Peter

12 About that time King Herod began to harass some who belonged to the church. ² He had James, John’s brother, killed with a sword. ³ When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter as well. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ He put Peter in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers, sixteen in all, who guarded him. He planned to charge him publicly after the Passover. ⁵ While Peter was held in prison, the church offered earnest prayer to God for him.

⁶ The night before Herod was going to bring Peter’s case forward, Peter was asleep between two soldiers and bound with two chains, with soldiers guarding the prison entrance. ⁷ Suddenly an angel from the Lord appeared and a light shone in the prison cell. After nudging Peter on his side to awaken him, the angel raised him up and said, “Quick! Get up!” The chains fell from his wrists. ⁸ The angel continued, “Get dressed. Put on your sandals.” Peter did as he was told. The angel said, “Put on your coat and follow me.” ⁹ Following the angel, Peter left the prison. However, he didn’t realize the angel had actually done all this. He thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself. After leaving the prison, they proceeded the length of one street, when abruptly the angel was gone.

¹¹ At that, Peter came to his senses and remarked, “Now I’m certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod and from everything the Jewish people expected.” ¹² Realizing this, he made his way to Mary’s house. (Mary was John’s mother; he was also known as Mark.) Many believers had gathered there and were praying. ¹³ When Peter knocked at the outer gate, a female servant named Rhoda went to answer. ¹⁴ She was so overcome with joy when she recognized Peter’s voice that she didn’t open the gate. Instead, she ran back in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate.

¹⁵ “You’ve lost your mind!” they responded. She stuck by her story with such determination that they began to say, “It must be his guardian angel.” ¹⁶ Meanwhile, Peter remained outside, knocking at the gate. They finally opened the gate and saw him there, and they were astounded.

¹⁷ He gestured with his hand to quiet them down, then recounted how the Lord led him out of prison. He said, “Tell this to James and the brothers and sisters.” Then he left for another place.

Healing and forgiveness

2 After a few days, Jesus went back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home. ² So many gathered that there was no longer space, not even near the door. Jesus was speaking the word to them. ³ Some people arrived, and four of them were bringing to him a man who was paralyzed. ⁴ They couldn’t carry him through the crowd, so they tore off part of the roof above where Jesus was. When they had made an opening, they lowered the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”

⁶ Some legal experts were sitting there, muttering among themselves, ⁷ “Why does he speak this way? He’s insulting God. Only the one God can forgive sins.”

⁸ Jesus immediately recognized what they were discussing, and he said to them, “Why do you fill your minds with these questions? ⁹ Which is easier—to say to a paralyzed person, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’? ¹⁰ But so you will know that the Human One^[a] has authority on the earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed, ¹¹ “Get up, take your mat, and go home.”

¹² Jesus raised him up, and right away he picked up his mat and walked out in front of everybody. They were all amazed and praised God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”