M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
God’s Covenant with David
17 Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.”(A) 2 Nathan said to David, “Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.”
3 But that same night the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 4 “Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to live in.(B) 5 For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle.[a](C) 6 Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’(D) 7 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel, 8 and I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies before you, and I will make for you a name like the name of the great ones of the earth. 9 I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place and be disturbed no more, and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, 10 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house.(E) 11 When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you,(F) 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.”(G) 15 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
David’s Prayer
16 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?(H) 17 And even this was a small thing in your sight, O God; you have also spoken of your servant’s house into the distant future. You regard me as someone of high rank,[b] O Lord God! 18 And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? You know your servant. 19 For your servant’s sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have done all these great deeds, making known all these great things.(I) 20 There is no one like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21 Who is like your people Israel, one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and awesome things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt? 22 And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God.(J) 23 And now, O Lord, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever, and do as you have promised. 24 Thus your name will be established and magnified forever in the saying, ‘The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God,’ and the house of your servant David will be established in your presence.(K) 25 For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him; therefore your servant has found it possible to pray before you. 26 And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant; 27 therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord, have blessed and are blessed[c] forever.”
Friendship with the World
4 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covet[a] something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.(A) 4 Adulterers![b] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(B) 5 Or do you suppose that the scripture speaks to no purpose? Does the spirit that God caused to dwell[c] in us desire envy?(C) 6 But God gives all the more grace; therefore it says,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”(D)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.(E) 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.(F) 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.(G)
Warning against Judging Another
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another speaks evil against the law and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.(H) 12 There is one lawgiver and judge[d] who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?(I)
Boasting about Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”(J) 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.(K) 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”(L) 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it commits sin.(M)
Jonah Tries to Run Away from God
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,(A) 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”(B) 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.(C)
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up.(D) 5 Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.(E) 6 The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up; call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”(F)
7 The sailors[a] said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.(G) 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”(H) 9 “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”(I) 10 Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.(J)
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.”(K) 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship[b] back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”(L) 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.(M)
17 [c]But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.(N)
The Question about the Sabbath
6 One Sabbath[a] while Jesus[b] was going through some grain fields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them.(A) 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful[c] on the Sabbath?”(B) 3 Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?(C) 4 How he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?”(D) 5 Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
The Man with a Withered Hand
6 On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.(E) 7 The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see whether he would cure on the Sabbath, so that they might find grounds to bring an accusation against him. 8 But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand in the middle.” He got up and stood there.(F) 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and began discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles
12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.(G) 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:(H) 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.(I)
Jesus Teaches and Heals
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.(J) 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.(K)
Blessings and Woes
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.(L)
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you[d] on account of the Son of Man.(M) 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.(N)
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.(O)
25 “Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.(P)
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.(Q)
Love for Enemies
27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you;(R) 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.(S) 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again.(T) 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.(U)
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[e] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.(V) 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Judging Others
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;(W) 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”(X)
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?(Y) 40 A disciple is not above the teacher, but every disciple who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.(Z) 41 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
A Tree and Its Fruit
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit;(AA) 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a bramble bush.(AB) 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.(AC)
The Two Foundations
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?(AD) 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.(AE) 48 That one is like a man building a house who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built.[f] 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it quickly collapsed, and great was the ruin of that house.”
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.