M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 26
David Spares Saul Again.[a] 1 (A)Men from Ziph came to Saul in Gibeah, reporting that David was hiding on the hill of Hachilah at the edge of Jeshimon. 2 So Saul went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand of the best warriors of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3 Saul camped beside the road on the hill of Hachilah, at the edge of Jeshimon. David, who was living in the wilderness, saw that Saul had come into the wilderness after him 4 and sent out scouts, who confirmed Saul’s arrival. 5 David then went to the place where Saul was encamped and saw the spot where Saul and his general, Abner, son of Ner, had their sleeping quarters. Saul was lying within the camp, and all his soldiers were bivouacked around him.(B) 6 David asked Ahimelech the Hittite, and Abishai, son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, “Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?” Abishai replied, “I will.”(C) 7 So David and Abishai reached Saul’s soldiers by night, and there was Saul lying asleep within the camp, his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his troops sleeping around him.
8 Abishai whispered to David: “God has delivered your enemy into your hand today. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not need to strike him twice!”(D) 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him, for who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and remain innocent? 10 As the Lord lives,” David declared, “only the Lord can strike him: either when the time comes for him to die, or when he goes out and perishes in battle.[b](E) 11 But the Lord forbid that I lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed! Now take the spear at his head and the water jug, and let us be on our way.” 12 So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s head, and they withdrew without anyone seeing or knowing or awakening. All remained asleep, because a deep slumber[c] from the Lord had fallen upon them.(F)
David Taunts Abner. 13 Crossing over to an opposite slope, David stood on a distant hilltop. With a great distance between them 14 David called to the army and to Abner, son of Ner, “Will you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner shouted back, “Who is it that calls me?” 15 David said to Abner: “Are you not a man? Who in Israel is your equal? Why were you not guarding your lord the king when one of his subjects came to assassinate the king, your lord? 16 What you have done is not right. As the Lord lives, you people deserve death because you have not guarded your lord, the anointed of the Lord. Go, look: where are the king’s spear and the water jug that was at his head?”
Saul Admits His Guilt. 17 Saul recognized David’s voice and asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?”[d] David answered, “Yes, my lord the king.” 18 He continued: “Why does my lord pursue his servant? What have I done? What evil am I planning? 19 Please, now, let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may an offering please the Lord. But if it is the people who have done so, may they be cursed before the Lord. They have driven me away so that today I have no share in the Lord’s heritage,[e] but am told: ‘Go serve other gods!’(G) 20 Do not let my blood spill on the ground far from the presence of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea as if he were hunting partridge[f] in the mountains.” 21 Then Saul said: “I have done wrong. Come back, David, my son! I will not harm you again, because you considered my life precious today even though I have been a fool and have made a serious mistake.” 22 But David answered: “Here is the king’s spear. Let an attendant come over to get it. 23 The Lord repays everyone’s righteousness and faithfulness. Although the Lord delivered you into my hands today, I could not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.(H) 24 Just as I regarded your life as precious today, so may the Lord regard my life as precious and deliver me from all dangers.” 25 Then Saul said to David: “Blessed are you, my son David! You shall certainly succeed in whatever you undertake.” David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.(I)
III. Answers to the Corinthians’ Questions
A. Marriage and Virginity[a]
Chapter 7
Advice to the Married.[b] 1 Now in regard to the matters about which you wrote: “It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman,”[c] 2 but because of cases of immorality every man should have his own wife, and every woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his duty toward his wife, and likewise the wife toward her husband. 4 A wife does not have authority over her own body, but rather her husband, and similarly a husband does not have authority over his own body, but rather his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other, except perhaps by mutual consent for a time, to be free for prayer, but then return to one another, so that Satan may not tempt you through your lack of self-control. 6 This I say by way of concession,[d] however, not as a command. 7 Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am, but each has a particular gift from God,[e] one of one kind and one of another.(A)
8 [f](B)Now to the unmarried and to widows I say: it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do, 9 but if they cannot exercise self-control they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire. 10 (C)To the married, however, I give this instruction (not I, but the Lord):[g] A wife should not separate from her husband 11 —and if she does separate she must either remain single or become reconciled to her husband—and a husband should not divorce his wife.
12 To the rest[h] I say (not the Lord): if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she is willing to go on living with him, he should not divorce her; 13 and if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he is willing to go on living with her, she should not divorce her husband. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother. Otherwise your children would be unclean, whereas in fact they are holy.(D)
15 If the unbeliever separates,[i] however, let him separate. The brother or sister is not bound in such cases; God has called you to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband; or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
The Life That the Lord Has Assigned.[j] 17 Only, everyone should live as the Lord has assigned, just as God called each one. I give this order in all the churches. 18 Was someone called after he had been circumcised? He should not try to undo his circumcision. Was an uncircumcised person called? He should not be circumcised.(E) 19 Circumcision means nothing, and uncircumcision means nothing; what matters is keeping God’s commandments.(F) 20 Everyone should remain in the state in which he was called.
21 Were you a slave when you were called? Do not be concerned but, even if you can gain your freedom, make the most of it. 22 For the slave called in the Lord is a freed person in the Lord, just as the free person who has been called is a slave of Christ.(G) 23 You have been purchased at a price. Do not become slaves to human beings.(H) 24 Brothers, everyone should continue before God in the state in which he was called.
Advice to Virgins and Widows. 25 Now in regard to virgins I have no commandment from the Lord,[k] but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 So this is what I think best because of the present distress: that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.(I) 27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation. Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife. 28 If you marry, however, you do not sin, nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries; but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life, and I would like to spare you that.
29 [l]I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,(J) 30 those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, 31 those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.
32 I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. 33 But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,(K) 34 and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.(L) 35 I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.(M)
36 [m]If anyone thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, and if a critical moment has come[n] and so it has to be, let him do as he wishes. He is committing no sin; let them get married. 37 The one who stands firm in his resolve, however, who is not under compulsion but has power over his own will, and has made up his mind to keep his virgin, will be doing well. 38 So then, the one who marries his virgin does well; the one who does not marry her will do better.
39 [o]A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whomever she wishes, provided that it be in the Lord.(N) 40 She is more blessed, though, in my opinion, if she remains as she is, and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.(O)
Chapter 5
1 Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it like a barber’s razor, to shave your head and your beard. Then take a balance scale for weighing and divide the hair.(A) 2 Set a third on fire within the city,[a] when the days of your siege are completed; place another third around the city and strike it with the sword; the final third scatter to the wind and then unsheathe the sword after it.(B) 3 But take a few of the hairs and tie them in the hem of your garment. 4 Take some of these and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire. Because of this, fire will flash out against the whole house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem! I placed it in the midst of the nations, surrounded by foreign lands. 6 But it rebelled against my ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against my statutes more than the foreign lands around it; they rejected my ordinances and did not walk in my statutes.(C) 7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have caused more uproar than the nations surrounding you, not living by my statutes nor carrying out my judgments, nor even living by the ordinances of the surrounding nations; 8 therefore, thus says the Lord God: See, I am coming against you![b] I will carry out judgments among you while the nations look on.(D) 9 Because of all your abominations I will do to you what I have never done before, the like of which I will never do again. 10 Therefore, parents will eat their children in your midst, and children will eat their parents.[c] I will inflict punishments upon you and scatter all who remain to the winds.(E)
11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your atrocities and all your abominations, I will surely withdraw and not look upon you with pity nor spare you.(F) 12 A third of your people shall die of disease or starve to death within you; another third shall fall by the sword all around you; a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue them with the sword.(G)
13 Thus my anger will spend itself; I will vent my wrath against them until I am satisfied. Then they will know that I the Lord spoke in my passion when I spend my wrath upon them.(H) 14 I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of every passerby.(I) 15 And you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in angry wrath, with furious chastisements. I, the Lord, have spoken! 16 When I loose against you the deadly arrows of starvation that I am sending to destroy you, I will increase starvation and will break your staff of bread.(J) 17 I will send against you starvation and wild beasts who will leave you childless, while disease and bloodshed sweep through you. I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.(K)
Second Book—Psalms 42–72
Psalm 42[a]
Longing for God’s Presence in the Temple
1 For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.[b]
I
2 As the deer longs for streams of water,(A)
so my soul longs for you, O God.
3 My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
When can I enter and see the face of God?[c](B)
4 My tears have been my bread day and night,(C)
as they ask me every day, “Where is your God?”(D)
5 Those times I recall
as I pour out my soul,(E)
When I would cross over to the shrine of the Mighty One,[d]
to the house of God,
Amid loud cries of thanksgiving,
with the multitude keeping festival.(F)
6 Why are you downcast, my soul;
why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, for I shall again praise him,
my savior and my God.
II
7 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I remember you
From the land of the Jordan[e] and Hermon,
from Mount Mizar,(G)
8 [f]Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your torrents,
and all your waves and breakers
sweep over me.(H)
9 By day may the Lord send his mercy,
and by night may his righteousness be with me!
I will pray[g] to the God of my life,
10 I will say to God, my rock:
“Why do you forget me?(I)
Why must I go about mourning
with the enemy oppressing me?”
11 It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me,
when they say to me every day: “Where is your God?”
12 Why are you downcast, my soul,
why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, for I shall again praise him,
my savior and my God.
Psalm 43
1 Grant me justice, O God;
defend me from a faithless people;
from the deceitful and unjust rescue me.(J)
2 You, O God, are my strength.
Why then do you spurn me?
Why must I go about mourning,
with the enemy oppressing me?
3 (K)Send your light and your fidelity,[h]
that they may be my guide;(L)
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place of your dwelling,
4 That I may come to the altar of God,
to God, my joy, my delight.
Then I will praise you with the harp,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you downcast, my soul?
Why do you groan within me?
Wait for God, for I shall again praise him,
my savior and my God.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.