M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
16 Eternal One (to Samuel): How long will you mourn over Saul? I have rejected him as king over My people Israel. Now take your horn, fill it with oil, and depart. I have selected a new king for Me from among the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem.
The Lord has yet another mission for Samuel.
Samuel: 2 How can I do that? If Saul hears I am anointing a new king, he will kill me!
Eternal One: Take a heifer with you, and say, “I have come to sacrifice to the Eternal One.” 3 Invite Jesse to that sacrifice, and when he arrives, I will show you what to do. You will anoint for Me the one I show to you.
4 Samuel did as the Eternal One had told him, and he went to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came out to him, unsure of what business he had there.
Elders (trembling): Do you come in peace?
Samuel: 5 Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Eternal One. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.
And Samuel consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice as well. 6 When they came, he noticed the eldest son, Eliab.
Samuel (to himself): Surely this is the one the Eternal One will anoint.
Eternal One (to Samuel): 7 Take no notice of his looks or his height. He is not the one, for the Eternal One does not pay attention to what humans value. Humans only care about the external appearance, but the Eternal considers the inner character.
8 Jesse called his son Abinadab and brought him to Samuel. Samuel looked at him.
Samuel: The Eternal has not chosen him either.
9 Then Jesse brought his son Shammah in front of Samuel.
Samuel: The Eternal has not chosen him either.
10 Jesse walked seven of his sons in front of Samuel, and each time, Samuel refused them because the Eternal One had chosen none of them.
Samuel (to Jesse): 11 Are all your sons here?
Jesse: All but the youngest. He is off keeping the sheep.
Samuel: Send for him, and bring him here. We will not sit down until he arrives.
12 Jesse sent for the youngest son, David, and he came in front of Samuel. He was a handsome boy, with a healthy complexion and bright eyes.
Eternal One: Rise and anoint him, because this is the one.
13 Then Samuel took the horn filled with olive oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Eternal fell strongly on David and remained from that day on. Samuel then left for Ramah.
14 The Spirit of the Eternal left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the Eternal One tormented him. 15 Saul’s servants saw this.
Servants (to Saul): Look, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. 16 Let our lord command that his servants find someone skillful on the harp, so that when this evil spirit from God is bothering you, he will play and ease your mind.
Saul (to his servants): 17 I agree. Find someone who can play well, and bring him here to me.
One of the younger men there spoke up.
A Young Servant: 18 I know someone, one of the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem, who plays skillfully and who is a man of courage, a warrior, sensible in what he says, and handsome; and the Eternal One is surely with him.
19 So Saul dispatched messengers to Jesse.
Saul’s Message: Send your son David, who is watching your flocks, to me. Your king needs his service.
20 So Jesse did as his king commanded. He sent Saul a young goat and a donkey loaded down with bread and a skin of wine by his son David. 21 David came to Saul and served him. The king loved him greatly and made David his armor-bearer. 22 Then he sent a message to Jesse.
Saul’s Message: David has impressed me. Please allow him to remain here in my service.
23 Whenever God allowed the evil spirit to afflict Saul, David would play the harp, Saul would be relieved of his torment, and the evil spirit would depart.
14 It’s high time that you welcome all people weak in the faith without debating and disputing their opinions.
2 Here’s the issue: One person believes that nothing’s off the menu; he’ll eat any food put before him. But there’s another believer—we’ll call him the weaker—who eats only vegetables because the meat is tainted through contact with an idol. 3 If you are an eater of all things, do not be condescending to your vegetarian brother or sister. In turn, those who abstain from certain foods on religious principles should not judge your brothers and sisters who eat meat—if God has accepted them, you have no reason to reject them. 4 How could you think for a moment that you have the right to judge another person’s servant? Each servant answers to his own Master, and he will either stand or fall in His presence. The good news is that he will stand because the Master is able to make it so.
5 There may be a believer who regards one day as more sacred than any other, while another views every day as sacred as the next. In these matters, all must reach their own conclusions and satisfy their own minds. 6 If someone observes a day as holy, he observes it in honor of the Lord. If another eats a particular diet, he eats in honor of the Lord since he begins by giving thanks! If yet another abstains from that same food, he abstains out of respect for the Lord and begins his meal by thanking God too. 7 The truth is that none of us live for ourselves, and none die for ourselves. 8 For if we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. So in both life and death, we belong to the Lord. 9 The Anointed One, the Liberating King, died and returned to life to make this a reality: through His death and resurrection, He became Lord of the living and the dead.
10 So how is it that you continue to judge your brother? How is it possible for you to look down on a sister? We will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written,
“As I live, so I promise,” says the Lord, “every knee will bow down to Me.
Every tongue will confess to God.”[a]
12 So every one of us, regardless of our eating habits, should expect to give an account for our own lives to God.
13 In light of this, we must resolve never to judge others and never to place an obstacle or impediment in their paths that could cause them to trip and fall. 14 Personally I have been completely convinced that in Jesus, our Lord, no object in and of itself is unclean; but if my fellow believers are convinced that something is unclean, then it is unclean to them. 15 If the food you eat harms your brother, then you have failed to love him. Do not let what you eat tear down your brother; after all, the Anointed laid down His life for him. 16 Do not allow people to slander something you find to be good 17 because the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. When God reigns, the order of the day is redeeming justice, true peace, and joy made possible by the Holy Spirit. 18 You see, those who serve the Anointed in this way will be welcomed into the whole acceptance of God and valued by all men. 19 Join us, and pursue a life that creates peace and builds up our brothers and sisters.
20 Do not sacrifice God’s work for the sake of certain foods. It is true that all things are clean, but it’s wrong to eat if you know that eating something will cause offense. 21 It is right for you to abstain from certain meats and wine (or anything else for that matter) if it prevents your brother from falling in his faith. 22 Hold on to what you believe about these issues, but keep them between you and God. A happy man does not judge himself by the lifestyle he endorses. 23 But a man who decides for himself what to eat is condemned because he is not living by his faith. Any action not consistent with faith is sin.
1 [a] Aaghh! Lonely is this city that once bustled with life;
Cheer is empty; like a widow, she is abandoned
and oh, so lonely.
She who was a princess, great among the nations,
has lost everything and been forced to serve as a slave.
2 Bawling, she weeps without constraint every night,
cries herself to sleep, bitter tears streaming down her cheeks.
Her former friends ignore her;
there is no one there to share her sorrow;
Companions contend and have betrayed her;
friends have been unfaithful and turned against her as enemies.
3 Carried off to a foreign place, Judah is exiled in misery
and debased by affliction and hard labor;
She cannot find rest living among the pagan nations.
She tried to run and hide, but in her distress pursuers have overcome her.
4 Despair permeates the very dust of Zion’s roads.
Nobody walks them in anticipation of celebration and worship.
No one enters the city’s desolate gates bringing offerings or sacrifices to God.
The religious leaders are heavyhearted,
And the virgin women despair.
It’s so bitter for dear Zion!
5 Enemies of Jerusalem have gained the upper hand.
Her foes prosper against her.
The Eternal One has caused her sorrow because of her rebellions,
for she acted against Him, willfully, again and again.
Even her little ones are taken away at the whim of her foes.
6 Faded beauty, this daughter Zion.
Her princely young men, like stags,
They have no place to graze, no strength to fight;
they fled to the woods,
Pursued mercilessly by hunters.
7 Gone are the days that she remembers, happy and precious;
Jerusalem wanders aimlessly and remembers what precious things she has lost—
Things from the old days of David, Solomon, and Josiah.
But now her people have fallen to her enemies,
And in this defeat by her enemies, no one ran to her aid,
and her enemies now snicker and gloat at her downfall.
8 Hideous must be Jerusalem’s crimes
that the city itself is now morally and ritually impure.
Those who once admired her now hate her.
They strip her naked and laugh.
All she can do is groan
and shrink back, ashamed.
9 Impurity clung to her inside the cover of her clothes.
She refused to consider anything but the present,
Never expecting her impurity would be revealed.
Nobody came forward with comfort—no one.
Lady Jerusalem: See, Eternal One, how badly I suffer
and how my enemies swell with pride.
The people of Judah and Jerusalem have had many opportunities to recognize their failings. Now they learn that their choices have grave consequences. For generations they have ignored the warnings and continued in idolatry, dependence upon foreign powers, and oppression of the less fortunate. Yes, the sacrifices in the temple have continued, but they have continually turned away from God. One prophet after another has called them back to a life of trust in the Lord, but they still look to others for assurance. Time has run out.
10 Jabbing and fondling,
mauling all her treasures, the enemy takes stock.
Foreign nations enter even her holy place,
claiming what You decided was off-limits
And forbidden to them—Your temple.[b]
11 Kept in hunger,
her people are desperate for food.
Once prosperous, they trade her treasures
for nourishment of any kind.
Lady Jerusalem: Look, Eternal One—
really see how hated I’ve become.
12 Look around, you who pass by and go about your business.
Is there any sorrow as great as mine?
Any pain as great as that which has been forced on me?
No. Because my pain comes from the Eternal.
It is His judgment, rendered on the day of His intense anger.
13 My bones burn with the wrath of God,
the fire sent from on high.
He laid a trap, then left me,
turned me back to the destruction,
With the shakes, constantly sick and faint.
14 Now the burden of all my wrongs is a yoke.
God has laid them upon my shoulders,
Bound them around my neck.
He has made sure I’m too weak to support them.
The Lord gave me into the hand of an enemy.
I could not resist.
15 Overwhelmed by none other than God,
the Lord has determined that all my warriors are worthless.
He has summoned a meeting of those who are against me
to crush the young men who would protect me,
And He has stomped lovely Judah, virgin daughter,
like grapes in a winepress.
16 Pity, my eyes won’t stop their crying; I can’t stop.
There is no one nearby to comfort me or revive my spirit,
No one to pull me up.
My children know it—they’re left empty,
The enemy has won.
17 Quietly, Zion spreads out her hands, pleading for comfort.
But no one comes. The Lord forbids it.
God has commanded Jacob’s enemies
to surround her.
Jerusalem has become their foe;
she is an impurity among them.
The poetic imagery is violently and sexually disturbing. Zion’s captors enter her sacred area and cart off her children. She has been unfaithful to her husband, the Eternal One.
18 Lady Jerusalem: Right and true is the Eternal One.
I am the one in the wrong: I have rebelled against His law.
Listen all of you peoples.
See how much I have suffered;
My handsome men and my gentle women, unmarried and unprotected,
have marched away into captivity.
19 Summoning my lovers brings nothing—
nothing but pain in their betrayal.
The old guard, religious and political leaders,
have died starving here in the city;
Their search for sustenance failed.
20 Take account, Eternal One, of me; how miserable I am.
My belly growls and turns;
My heart is wrung out like a rag; my faults and failings are to blame
because I have been rebellious.
Death is everywhere in the homes;
the sword makes women childless in the streets.
21 Uncaring, with no compassion from others,
they know how badly I suffer.
O how alone I am.
My enemies gloat, and You have brought about my misery,
So happy to know I’m in pain.
But You, O God, will make them as bad off as I.
22 Vindicate me and judge their evil actions
and make them suffer,
As You’ve made me suffer
for all my wrongdoings.
I’m a wreck, and I groan with a faint heart.
Psalm 32
A contemplative song[a] of David.
The psalms celebrate God’s forgiveness that comes through confession and repentance. Some interpreters link this psalm to David’s sin with Bathsheba after Nathan had exposed his transgression, but the king certainly had other failings. Even if we do not associate this psalm with any personal transgression by David, it serves well as a model confession for those who are painfully aware of their sin.
1 How happy is the one whose wrongs are forgiven,
whose sin is hidden from sight.
2 How happy is the person whose sin the Eternal will not take into account.[b]
How happy are those who no longer lie, to themselves or others.
3 When I refused to admit my wrongs, I was miserable,
moaning and complaining all day long
so that even my bones felt brittle.
4 Day and night, Your hand kept pressing on me.
My strength dried up like water in the summer heat;
You wore me down.
[pause][c]
5 When I finally saw my own lies,
I owned up to my sins before You,
and I did not try to hide my evil deeds from You.
I said to myself, “I’ll admit all my sins to the Eternal,”
and You lifted and carried away the guilt of my sin.
[pause]
6 So let all who are devoted to You
speak honestly to You now, while You are still listening.
For then when the floods come, surely the rushing water
will not even reach them.
7 You are my hiding place.
You will keep me out of trouble
and envelop me with songs that remind me I am free.
[pause]
8 I will teach you and tell you the way to go and how to get there;
I will give you good counsel, and I will watch over you.
9 But don’t be stubborn and stupid like horses and mules
who, if not reined by leather and metal,
will run wild, ignoring their masters.
10 Tormented and empty are wicked and destructive people,
but the one who trusts in the Eternal is wrapped tightly in His gracious love.
11 Express your joy; be happy in Him, you who are good and true.
Go ahead, shout and rejoice aloud, you whose hearts are honest and straightforward.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.