Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 45^[a]

Nuptial Ode for the Messianic King

¹ For the director.^[b] According to “Lilies.” A maskil of the sons of Korah. A love song.

Psalm 47^[a]

The Lord, King of All Nations

¹ For the director.^[b] A psalm of the sons of Korah.

Psalm 48^[g]

Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of God’s People

¹ A psalm of the sons of Korah.^[h] A song.

Chapter 25

Death of Samuel. ¹ Now Samuel died, and all of Israel gathered to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then went down into the Desert of Paran.^[a]

Nabal and Abigail. ² There was a certain man from Maon who had property in Carmel, for he was very wealthy. He owned three thousand sheep and one thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³ His name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was a good woman, intelligent and beautiful, but her husband, who was a Calebite, was difficult and disagreeable in his dealings.

⁴ While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and approach Nabal, greeting him in my name. ⁶ Say to him, ‘May you have a long and pleasant life, and may your household prosper, and may all that you own multiply. ⁷ I have heard that you were shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harm them nor did anything that belonged to them go missing the whole time they were at Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, show your favor to these young men, for we are here on a feast day. Please give your servants and your son David whatever comes to hand.’ ”

⁹ When David’s young men arrived, they said all of these things to Nabal in David’s name. Then they waited. ¹⁰ Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves these days who have run away from their masters. ¹¹ Why should I take my bread and my water, and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give them to men when I do not even know from where they have come?”

¹² David’s young men turned and went on their way. They came back and told him all these things. ¹³ David said to his men, “Let each man put on his sword.” Each man put on his sword, and David also put on his sword. About four hundred men went up with David while the other two hundred remained with the supplies.

¹⁴ One of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers into the wilderness to greet our master, and he insulted them. ¹⁵ But they have treated us well, and they have not harmed us, nor did anything go missing when we were wandering about in the fields near them. ¹⁶ Night and day, the whole time that we were with them tending the sheep, they were like a wall around us. ¹⁷ Now think about it and figure out what you will do, for certain disaster is awaiting our master and his entire household. He is a son of Belial, and no one can speak to him.”

¹⁸ Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of parched grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she loaded it all on donkeys. ¹⁹ She then said to her servants, “Go on ahead, I will follow you.” But she did not tell this to her husband.

²⁰ As she was riding along on the donkey, she went down into a mountain ravine, and there was David and his men coming down the other side, and she met them. ²¹ David had been saying, “Surely it was in vain that I watched over all of his things in the wilderness so that nothing that he owned went missing. He has paid me back evil for good. ²² May God do this to David, and even more, if by morning I have left alive even one male who belongs to him.”

Chapter 14

Jews and Gentiles at Iconium.^{[a] 1} In Iconium, they went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke so effectively that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. ² However, the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. ³ Therefore, they stayed there for a considerable period of time, speaking boldly on behalf of the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to work signs and wonders.

⁴ However, the people in the city were divided, some siding with the Jews, others with the apostles. ⁵ Eventually, a plot was hatched by both the Gentiles and the Jews, together with their leaders, to attack and stone them. ⁶ When they became aware of this, they fled to the Lycaonian cities^[b] of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding area. ⁷ There they preached the good news.

At Lystra Paul and Barnabas Are Taken for Gods.^{[c] 8} At Lystra, there was a man who was crippled. Lame from birth, he had never once been able to walk. ⁹ He listened to Paul speaking. Paul looked intently at him, and, seeing that he had the faith to be healed, ¹⁰ called out to him in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet.” The man sprang up and began to walk.

^11 [d]When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” ¹² They called Barnabas Zeus, and since Paul was the chief speaker, they called him Hermes. ¹³ And the priest of Zeus, who was on the outskirts of the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, since he and the people intended to offer sacrifice.

¹⁴ However, when the apostles Barnabas and Paul learned about this, they tore their clothes^[e] and rushed into the crowd, shouting, ¹⁵ “Men, why are you doing this? We are only human beings, just like you. We proclaim to you the good news so that you may turn from these idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.

¹⁶ “In the past, God allowed all the Gentiles to go their own way. ¹⁷ However, even then he did not leave you without a witness in doing good, for he sends you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons, and he provides you with food and fills your hearts with joy.” ¹⁸ Yet, even with these words, they were barely able to prevent the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

²¹ The Parable of the Lamp.^[a] He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? To the contrary, it is placed on a lampstand. ²² For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing is secret that will not be brought to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

²⁴ The Parable of the Measure.^[b] He also told them, “Pay careful attention to what you hear. The measure you give will be the measure you will receive, and you will receive more in addition. ²⁵ To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who does not have, even what little he has will be taken away.”^[c]

²⁶ The Parable of the Secretly Growing Seed.^[d] He went on to say, “The kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day, while he sleeps and while he is awake, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not understand how. ²⁸ The ground produces fruit of its own accord—first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ And when the crop is ripe, he immediately stretches out the sickle, because the time for harvest has come.”

³⁰ The Parable of the Mustard Seed.^[e] He then said, “With what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to explain it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. ³² But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the greatest of all plants, and it puts forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

³³ The Usefulness of Parables.^[f] With many such parables as these he spoke the word to them so far as they were able to comprehend it. ³⁴ He never spoke to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves.