M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Death of Samuel
25 Samuel died. All Israel gathered together and mourned for him. They buried him at his house in Ramah.
David, Nabal, and Abigail
Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.
2 There was a man in Maon who made his livelihood in Carmel. This man was very wealthy. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep at Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. This woman had good judgment and was beautiful, but her husband was a harsh, unbending man, who behaved badly. He was from the family line of Caleb.
4 In the wilderness David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men and told them, “Go up to Carmel. Approach Nabal and wish him peace in my name. 6 Tell him this: ‘Long life to you! Peace be with you! Peace be with your household! Peace be with all that you have! 7 Now I hear that you are shearing sheep. Your shepherds have recently been with us, and we did not harm them. Nothing was missing from them the whole time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on a good day. Please give whatever you can to your servants and to your son David.’”
9 So David’s men came and said all those things to Nabal in the name of David. When they had finished, 10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are so many servants breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Should I take my bread, my water, and my meat that I have butchered for my shearers and give it to men when I do not know where they come from?”
12 So David’s men left and went on their way. They came back and told David all these things.
13 David said to his men, “Each of you, strap on your sword!”
So every man strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. About four hundred men followed David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of Nabal’s young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Listen to me. You need to know what happened. David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them. 15 Those men have been very good to us, and we have not been harmed, nor have we had anything missing the entire time we were in the countryside with them. 16 They were a wall around us night and day, the whole time we were among them while we were taking care of the sheep. 17 So carefully consider what you should do, for they are determined to bring disaster on our master and on his entire household, since he is such a worthless good-for-nothing that no one can talk to him.”
18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers[a] of wine, five sheep that were already prepared, a bushel[b] of roasted grain, one hundred clumps of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dried figs. She loaded these supplies on donkeys. 19 She said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me. I will follow right after you.” But she did not tell her husband, Nabal. 20 As she rode on her donkey and came down to the secluded trail[c] on the mountain, she saw that David and his men were coming down toward her, and she met them.
21 Now David had said, “It was all for nothing that I have protected everything that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing from everything that belonged to him. But he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God punish the enemies of David[d] severely and double it, if by the morning light I leave alive so much as one person who urinates against a wall.”[e]
23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got off her donkey. She bowed and fell facedown on the ground in David’s presence. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “To me, my lord—charge the guilt to me! Please let your servant speak to you. Listen to the words of your servant. 25 Please, my lord, do not pay attention to this worthless good-for-nothing Nabal, for he is exactly what his name suggests. Nabal[f] is his name, and foolishness is never far from him. But I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men, whom you sent. 26 Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from the guilt of bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil against my lord be like Nabal. 27 Please distribute this gift that I, your servant,[g] have brought to my lord for the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive your servant’s offense. For the Lord will certainly make an enduring house[h] for my lord, because my lord is fighting the Lord’s battles. May no evil be found in you all your days. 29 Though men may rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, may the life of my lord be safely wrapped up in the bundle of the living, with the Lord your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away like a stone from the pocket of a sling. 30 Then, when the Lord has done for my lord all the good things that he has spoken concerning you, and he has appointed you leader over Israel, 31 you will not be burdened by grief or a guilty conscience because you, my lord, have shed blood without cause or have avenged yourself. Then, when the Lord has dealt well with you, my lord, remember your servant.”
32 David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! 33 Your good judgment is blessed, and you are blessed, because today you have kept me from the guilt of shedding blood and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For truly, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, certainly by the morning light there would not have been left for Nabal so much as one person who urinates against a wall.”[i]
35 So David received from her hand what she had brought for him. Then he said to her, “Go up to your house in peace. You see, I have listened to your voice and have shown you favor.”
36 Abigail came to Nabal and saw that he was holding a feast[j] in his house, a feast fit for a king. Nabal was in good spirits, because he had drunk a lot. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
37 In the morning, when the wine had worn off for Nabal, his wife told him about these things, and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.[k] 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has passed judgment on Nabal’s insults against me and has kept his servant from doing evil. The Lord has returned the evil done by Nabal back on his own head.”
Then David sent messengers to make arrangements with Abigail for him to take her as his wife. 40 When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her and said, “David has sent us to you to bring you to him as his wife.”
41 She got up and bowed down with her face to the ground. She said, “Behold. I, your humblest servant,[l] am here ready to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 Abigail hurried and set out, riding on a donkey, with five young women who were her attendants following her. She went with the messengers of David and became his wife.
43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezre’el, so they both became his wives. 44 But Saul gave his daughter Michal, who was David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
Lawsuits and Unrighteous Behavior
6 If any one of you has a case against another, does he dare to seek judgment before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to deal with insignificant lawsuits? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the matters of this life! 4 So if you have lawsuits involving matters of this life, do you appoint those people as your judges whom the church considers of no account? 5 I say this to make you feel ashamed. Is it really the case that there is not one wise man among you who would be able to decide a dispute between his brothers? 6 Instead, brother sues brother, and that in front of unbelievers! 7 The fact that you have lawsuits with one another is already a complete failure on your part. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 Instead, you yourselves do the wronging and defrauding, and you do it to your brothers!
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor males who have sex with males,[a] 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the verbally abusive, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And some of you were those types of people. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ[b] and by the Spirit of our God.
Flee From Sexual Immorality!
12 “All things are permitted for me”—but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted for me”—but I will not allow anything to control me. 13 “Foods are for the belly, and the belly is for foods, but God will do away with both of them.” However, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then remove the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Certainly not! 16 Or[c] do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.”[d] 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Flee from sexual immorality! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
Action Prophecies About the Siege and the Exile
4 Now you, son of man, take a brick for yourself, place it in front of you, and sketch on it a city, which is Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, heap up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and station battering rams against it, all the way around it.
3 And you, take an iron griddle and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Direct your face toward[a] it, so that it will be under siege as you besiege it. This will be a sign for the house of Israel.
4 And you, lie down on your left side, and place the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For as many days as you lie on your side, you shall bear their guilt. 5 I will assign to you the number of days you are to lie on your side on the basis of the number of years of their guilt: three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the guilt of the house of Israel. 6 When you have finished these days, you shall lie down a second time on your right side, and you shall bear the guilt of the house of Judah for forty days. I have assigned to you one day for each year. 7 You shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it. 8 See, I have placed ropes upon you, so that you will not turn from your one side to your other side until you finish the days of your siege.
9 And you, take some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat for yourself. You shall put them in a single dish and make bread for yourself with them. During the whole number of days that you are lying on your side—three hundred ninety days—you shall eat it. 10 You shall weigh out the food you eat—half a pound[b] a day. You are to eat it at set times each day. 11 You shall measure the water you drink—a pint and a half[c] a day. You are to drink it at set times each day. 12 You are to eat it as you would eat flat bread made of barley, and you are to bake it over balls of human excrement in their sight.
13 Then the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their food: They will be ceremonially unclean among the nations where I will banish them.”
14 Then I said, “Oh no, Lord God, I have never made myself unclean. I have never eaten a carcass or something torn by wild animals, from my youth until now. Neither has any meat which is ceremonially unclean ever entered my mouth.”
15 Then he answered me, “Very well, I will let you use droppings of cattle instead of balls of human excrement, and you shall bake your bread over them.”
16 He also said this to me: “Son of man, watch for this! I am about to take away the bread supply from[d] Jerusalem, and they will measure out their bread by weight and eat it with anxiety, and they will measure out their water and drink it with horror. 17 So they will lack food and water, and they will be horrified, each man and his brother, and they will waste away because of their guilt.”
Psalm 40
I Desire to Do Your Will
(Psalm 40:13-17 parallels Psalm 70)
Heading
For the choir director. By David. A psalm.
Messiah’s Prayer of Thanks
1 I waited and waited for the Lord.
Then he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 Then he pulled me up from the deadly quicksand,
from the mud and muck.
He made my feet stand on a rock to keep my steps from slipping.
3 Then he put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear.
They will trust in the Lord.
4 How blessed is everyone who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud
or to those who turn aside to falsehood.
5 Many are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God.
No one can explain to you all your thoughts for us.[a]
If I try to speak and tell about them,
they are too many to count.
Messiah’s Willing Sacrifice
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.
Ears you have opened for me.[b]
You did not ask for burnt offerings and sin offerings.
7 Then I said, “Here I am, I have come.
The book written on a scroll tells about me.
8 My God, I take pleasure in doing your will.
Your law[c] is in my heart.”
Messiah’s Preaching of Good News
9 I preach righteousness in the great assembly.
Indeed, I do not hold back my lips, O Lord, as you know.
10 I do not conceal your righteousness deep in my heart.
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not hide your mercy and your truth from the great assembly.
Messiah’s Prayer in Distress
11 Lord, you do not hold back your compassion from me.
Let your mercy and your truth always protect me,
12 although troubles without number surround me.
Punishments for my guilt have smothered me, so I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head, so my courage deserts me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to save me.
Lord, hurry to help me.
14 Let all who seek to end my life be frustrated and completely confused.[d]
Let everyone who desires my ruin be turned back and disgraced.
15 Let those who say to me, “Aha! We got you!” be dismayed,
because they have been put to shame.
16 But let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation always say,
“The Lord is great!”
17 Yet I am poor and needy.
May the Lord think about me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
O my God, do not delay.
Psalm 41
Even My Friend
Heading
For the choir director. A psalm by David.
David’s Confidence of Delivery
1 How blessed is the person who understands the plight of the weak!
May the Lord deliver him in the day of trouble.
2 May the Lord guard him and keep him alive.
May he be blessed in the land.
May you not surrender him to the desire of his enemies.
3 May the Lord sustain him on his sickbed.
You raise him up from his bed.
4 I said, “Lord, have mercy on me.
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.”
The Treachery of the Conspirators
5 My enemies speak evil about me:
“When will he die and his name perish?”
6 If one comes to see me, he speaks falsely.
In his heart he collects malicious plans.
He goes out. He speaks about them in the street.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me.
They plan evil for me. They say,
8 “A deadly affliction is poured out on him.
He will never get up from the place where he lies.”
9 Even a man who was at peace with me,
a man whom I trusted, who ate my bread,
has raised up his heel to step on me.
Closing Prayer
10 But you, Lord, have mercy on me.
Raise me up, so that I can repay them.
11 From this I know that you are pleased with me:
My enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me—in my integrity you uphold me,
and you set me up in your presence forever.
Closing Doxology
13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity.
Amen and Amen.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.