M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Nathan warns David
12 The Lord sent Nathan to go and speak to David.[a] Nathan told this story to David, ‘There were two men who lived in the same town. One man was rich and the other man was poor. 2 The rich man had very many sheep, goats and cows. 3 But the poor man had only one little female lamb. He had bought it and he had taken care of it. It had grown up with his own children. It ate his bits of food and it drank water from his cup. It even slept while he held it. It was like a daughter for him.
4 One day, the rich man had a visitor to his home. The rich man needed to make a meal for his visitor. But he did not want to kill one of his own animals. Instead, he took the poor man's lamb away from him. He cooked the lamb to feed his visitor.’
5 When David heard what the rich man had done, he became very angry. He said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, that man deserves to die. 6 He did that cruel thing and he was not sorry for the poor man. So he must pay the poor man enough money to buy four lambs.’
7 Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are that man! This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says: “I chose you as king to rule over Israel. I saved you from Saul's power. 8 I gave your master's palace to you, and his wives as well. I gave the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to you. And if that was not enough for you, I would have given you even more than that. 9 But now you have not respected the Lord's command. You have done an evil thing. You caused Uriah the Hittite to die in a battle. You used the Ammonite soldiers to kill Uriah. 10 So now your family will always have people who die in battle. When you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife, you showed that you did not respect me.”
11 This is what the Lord says, “I will cause someone from your own family to bring trouble to you. You yourself will see it happen! I will take your wives from you and I will give them to someone else. He will have sex with them in the daytime, for everyone to see. 12 What you did, you did secretly. But I will cause this to happen in the light of day, so that all Israel can see it.” ’
13 Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’
Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has forgiven your sin. He will not punish you with death. 14 But you did not respect the Lord when you did this bad thing. Because of that, your baby son will certainly die.’ 15 Then Nathan went home.
David's son dies
After that, the Lord caused the child of Uriah's wife to become very ill. 16 David asked the Lord to make his child well again. He lay on the floor of his house all night and he ate no food. 17 His palace officers stood around him. They tried to help him to get up from the ground. But he refused and he would not eat anything with them.
18 On the seventh day, the child died. David's officers were afraid to tell him. They thought, ‘Even when the child was alive, David refused to listen to us. So what will happen if we tell him that the child is dead? He might try to hurt himself.’
19 But David saw that his officers were speaking secretly to each other. So he realized that the child had died. He asked them, ‘Is the child dead?’
They replied, ‘Yes, he is dead.’
20 Then David got up from the ground and he washed himself. He put special oil on his body and he dressed himself in clean clothes. Then he went into the Lord's house to worship him. After that, he went back to his palace. He asked his servants to bring some food and he ate it.
21 His officers said to him, ‘We do not understand what you are doing. While the child was still alive, you refused to eat food and you wept. But now that the child is dead you are no longer weeping. You are moving around and you are eating. Why?’
22 David replied, ‘While the child was still alive, I wept and I did not eat anything. I thought that perhaps the Lord would be kind to me. I thought that he might let the child live. 23 But now the child is dead. Even if I fast and I pray, I cannot bring him back to me. One day, I will go to the place where he is. But he will never come back here to me.’
24 Then David went to comfort his wife, Bathsheba. He had sex with her as his wife. Later, she gave birth to a son. David gave him the name ‘Solomon’. The Lord loved the child, 25 so he sent a message to David with Nathan, the prophet. He told David to call his son Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him.[b]
David wins Rabbah
26 At this time, Joab was attacking Rabbah, the Ammonite city. He had taken from the enemy the king's strong place in the city. 27 Joab sent men to take this message to David: ‘I have attacked Rabbah. Now I have taken the place that holds the city's water. 28 So you should bring the other soldiers of our army to make their camp here. Then you can attack the city and you can take it for us. If you do not do that, I will take the city myself. Then the city will have my name instead of yours.’
29 So David brought all the soldiers of the army together. He led them to Rabbah. They attacked the city and they won against it. 30 He took the crown off the Ammonite king's head. The crown was made of gold. It weighed 34 kilograms. There was a valuable jewel fixed on it. David's men then put the crown on David's head. David also took a lot of valuable things from the city. 31 He brought the people out from the city to do hard work for him. He made them cut wood with saws, and use iron tools and axes. He also made them work at the brick ovens. He did the same thing to the people of all the other Ammonite cities.
Then David and all his army returned to Jerusalem.
God has prepared a new body for us
5 Our bodies are like a tent that we live in here on earth. One day, that home will come to an end. But we know that God will give us a new home. It is not a house that a human builder has built. God has built it for us in heaven and we will live there for ever. 2 Now, while we are in our body here on earth, we cry inside ourselves. We want to go and live in our house that is in heaven. 3 That will be like new clothes that we put on. When we go to live there, we will not be without clothes and ashamed.
4 While we still live in our bodies here on earth, we cry inside ourselves. Many difficult things happen to us. We do not really want to take off our old body. But we do want to put on our new body, like new clothes. When that happens, we will no longer need our old body which had to die. Instead we will have a new body that will live for ever. 5 God is the one who has prepared us to have a new life in heaven one day. He has given his Spirit to be with us now. Because of that, we know that we will receive all God's good things one day.
6 Because God's Spirit is with us, we continue to be brave. While we still live here on earth, we know that we are not yet at home with the Lord. 7 As we live here, we have to trust God. We do not yet see the things that belong to heaven. 8 We are brave because we trust God. We would like to go away from our body here on earth. Then we would go to be at home with the Lord. And that would be better! 9 But all the time we want to please the Lord. We want to do that while we are still at home in our body here on earth. We also want to please him when we go away from these bodies. 10 Because all of us must go and stand in front of Christ as our judge. He will decide about the things that we have done during our lives here on earth. Whether we have done good things or bad things, we will receive what is right for us.
God makes us new people in Christ
11 We know that the Lord will judge us, so we are careful to obey him. Because of that, we tell God's message to people. We want them to believe in God. And God himself knows that we try to do what is right. I hope that you know that also, when you think about it.
12 We are not trying again to make you think that our work is good. But we do want to give you the chance to be proud of us. Then you will be able to show the false teachers that they are wrong. They are proud about what they look like on the outside. They do not think about what they are really like inside themselves. 13 To some people, we may seem to be crazy. That is because we want to serve God. But if we seem to be wise, that is to help you.
14 Whatever we do, we do it because Christ loves us. We know that one man, Christ, died on behalf of all people. So we also know that all of us died with him. 15 He died on behalf of all people. So, while we live, we no longer live to please ourselves. Instead, we live to please Christ. He is the one that died on our behalf. He is the one that God raised up, to live again.
16 So that changes how we think about people. We no longer use human ideas to think what they are like. At one time, we thought about Christ as humans think. But now we think about him very differently! 17 When anyone belongs to Christ, they become a new person. Their old way of life has gone. Their new life has begun!
18 All this is what God does for us. Because of what Christ has done, God has brought us back to himself, as his friends. Now he wants us to bring other people to be his friends too. That is the job that he has given to us. 19 God's message is this: By Christ's death, God was bringing people of the world back to himself, as his friends. He would no longer keep their sins in his thoughts. This is the message that God wants us to tell people.
20 So we speak to people on behalf of Christ. It is like this: When we speak, God himself is speaking to you. On behalf of Christ, we say to you, ‘Please come back to God, as his friends!’ 21 Christ never did any wrong thing, but God punished him as if he had. He died as punishment for our sins. As a result, we become right with God when we belong to Christ. We become right, because he is right.
19 ‘Sing this sad funeral song for the leaders of Israel.
2 Say this:
“Your mother was like a great lion among the other lions.
She lay among strong young lions.
She helped her children to grow safely.
3 She taught one of her children to catch animals for food.
As he grew, he started to eat people.
4 The people of other nations heard about him.
They dug a hole and they caught him in their trap.
They put hooks in him and they took him to Egypt.
5 His mother waited for him to return home.
He did not come and she stopped hoping for him.
She helped another of her sons to become a strong young lion.
6 He grew to be strong among the other lions.
He learned to catch wild animals and to eat them.
He also learned to eat people.
7 He attacked their strong buildings and he destroyed their cities.
When he roared, the noise frightened everyone in the land.
8 Men from other nations near there came to attack him.
They threw a net over him.
They caught him in their trap.
9 They tied hooks around his neck.
They took him to the king of Babylon.
There they put him in prison to stop him roaring.
The people on the hills of Israel could not hear his voice any longer.
10 Your mother was like a vine that was growing near a stream.
It grew well because there was plenty of water there.
It made many branches and it had a lot of fruit.
11 Its branches became big and strong.
They were strong enough to make a ruler's stick of authority.
The vine grew taller than all the other trees around it.
Everyone could see that it was very tall and strong.
12 But the Lord became angry with that vine.
He pulled up its roots and he threw it down to the ground.
The east wind made it dry and destroyed its fruit.
Its strong branches broke and they became useless.
Fire destroyed them.
13 Now that vine is growing in a desert.
It is in a hot, dry place where there is no water.
14 Fire started to burn its strongest branch.
From there the fire destroyed its other branches and its fruit.
No strong branch remained in the vine.
Now there was nothing to make a ruler's stick of authority.”
This is a funeral song. It tells a very sad story.’
David wrote this song for the music leader.
God will keep us safe[a]
64 God, please listen to me
as I tell you about my troubles.
Keep me safe from my enemies
when they attack me.
2 When evil men think of ways to hurt me,
hide me in a safe place.
Those people work together as a group
to do wicked things.
3 Their tongues are like
sharp swords that hurt people.
Their cruel words are like
arrows that they shoot at people.
4 They hide in secret places,
and they quickly shoot lies at good people.
They are not afraid that anyone will punish them.
5 They help each other to do evil things.
They decide where they will hide their traps,
and they say, ‘Nobody will see them!’
6 They think of wicked ideas to hurt people.
They say, ‘That is a great idea!’[b]
Nobody really understands what people think
deep inside themselves.
7 But God will punish them!
He will suddenly shoot an arrow at them
and it will hurt them a lot.[c]
8 Their own evil words will turn against them
and make them fall.
Everyone who sees them will shake their heads.
9 People will be afraid.
They will say, ‘Look at what God has done!’
They will think carefully about it all.
10 But people who serve the Lord should be happy
because of what he has done.
They should trust him to keep them safe.
Good, honest people should praise God,
because he is great!
This psalm is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
We trust God to save us[d]
65 God, it is right for us to praise you in Zion.
There, we will offer to you
the gifts that we have promised.
2 You answer our prayers.
All of us must come to you,
3 because of our many sins.
Our sins are too heavy for us to carry,
but you forgive the bad things that we do against you.[e]
4 You have blessed each person that you have chosen.
You let them live near to you in your home.
The good things that are in your holy temple
will make us very happy!
5 God, you are the one who saves us!
You answer our prayers,
and you do great things to rescue us.
People from everywhere on earth trust in you,
even those who live far away across the seas.
6 You used your power to make the mountains,
and you showed how strong you are.
7 You stop the seas from being angry,
so that their waters make no noise.[f]
You do the same with the angry nations.
8 People who live far away see
the great things that you have done.
It makes them afraid.
Everywhere on earth, east and west,
people sing happy songs to praise you.
9 You take care of the land.
You send rain to make the earth good for plants.
Your rivers are full of water.
You cause the earth to give good crops
so that the people have grain to eat.
10 When people plough their fields,
you send rain to make the earth wet.
You make the ground soft with the rain,
so that crops grow there.
11 Every year at harvest time,
you bless people with lots of good things.
Everywhere that you go,
there is plenty of food.[g]
12 Fresh grass covers the fields in the wilderness.
There are plenty of good things all over the hills,
so that people are very happy.
13 The fields are full of sheep.
The valleys are covered with crops.
Everywhere seems to shout and sing for joy!
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