Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 28
A song of David.
1 Eternal One, I am calling out to You;
You are the foundation of my life. Please, don’t turn Your ear from me.
If You respond to my pleas with silence,
I will lose all hope like those silenced by death’s grave.
2 Listen to my voice.
You will hear me begging for Your help
With my hands lifted up in prayer,
my body turned toward Your holy home.
This Davidic psalm pleads with God to spare him and repay his enemies. It would be difficult to locate this psalm in any one event. During his life David faced many threats from different enemies; not only were these threats from outside his realm, but some of his most difficult challenges came from inside his own family.
3 I beg You; don’t punish me with the most heinous men.
They spend their days doing evil.
Even when they engage their neighbors in pleasantness,
they are scheming against them.
4 Pay them back for their deeds;
hold them accountable for their malice.
Give them what they deserve.
5 Because these are people who have no respect for You, O Eternal,
they ignore everything You have done.
So He will tear them down with His powerful hands;
never will they be built again.
6 The Eternal should be honored and revered;
He has heard my cries for help.
7 The Eternal is the source of my strength and the shield that guards me.
When I learn to rest and truly trust Him,
He sends His help. This is why my heart is singing!
I open my mouth to praise Him, and thankfulness rises as song.
8 The Eternal gives life and power to all His chosen ones;
to His anointed He is a sturdy fortress.
9 Rescue Your people, and bring prosperity to Your legacy;
may they know You as a shepherd, carrying them at all times.
16 When Samson went to Gaza, he saw a prostitute there who pleased him, so he went in to be with her. 2 Word went out to the men of Gaza that Samson had arrived. So they surrounded the house and waited quietly for him at the city gate, thinking, “When morning comes, we will strike him down.” 3 But Samson fooled the men of Gaza: he stayed with the prostitute only until midnight. Then he rose from the bed, took hold of the closed city gates, and pulled them, still barred, and the posts that held them, out of the ground. Then he hoisted them onto his shoulders and carried them up onto the hill in front of Hebron.
4 After this he fell in love with Delilah, a woman from the valley of Sorek. 5 The rulers of the Philistines came to her with a plan.
Philistine Rulers: If you can charm him into giving you the secret of his great strength so that we can overpower and capture him, each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.
6 Delilah agreed. On one of their visits, she questioned him.
Delilah (to Samson): What makes you so strong? How could anyone bind you and control you?
Samson: 7 If you were to bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not dried yet, I would be weak and no different from any other man.
It seems as though Samson is toying with Delilah in his answer.
8 The Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven fresh bowstrings. As Samson slept, she bound him with them. 9 When the warriors had taken their places in the inner chamber, Delilah called out to him.
Delilah: Wake up, Samson! The Philistines are attacking!
But he snapped the bowstrings the way a thread snaps when it is touched by a flame and fended off the attackers. So the secret of his strength remained hidden.
Delilah (to Samson): 10 You’re making fun of me now. You haven’t told me the truth. Please tell me: how could I bind you and take away your strength?
Samson: 11 If you were to bind me with new ropes that have never been used, I would be weak and no different from any other man.
12 Using new ropes Delilah bound Samson as he slept. When the warriors had taken their places in the inner chamber, Delilah called out to him.
Delilah: Wake up, Samson! The Philistines are attacking!
But he snapped the ropes like a thread and fended off the attackers. So the secret of his strength remained hidden.
Delilah (to Samson): 13 You just go on making fun of me. You haven’t told me the truth. Please tell me: how could I bind you and take away your strength?
Samson: If you were to weave my seven locks of hair into the loom’s web and make it tight with a pin, I would be weak and no different from any other man.
14 While he slept, Delilah wove his seven locks of hair into the loom’s web and tightened it with the weaver’s comb. When the warriors had taken their places in the inner chamber, Delilah called out,
Delilah: Wake up, Samson! The Philistines are attacking!
But Samson woke up and easily pulled out the comb from the loom and his hair from the web and fended off the attackers. So the secret of his strength remained hidden.
Delilah: 15 How can you say you love me when your actions prove your heart is somewhere else? Three times now you’ve lied to me and haven’t told me why you have such great strength.
16 She continued to ask him, day after day, always nagging; and finally he was tired of it, so tired he couldn’t stand to hear it any longer. 17 Samson told her the truth.
Samson: I have been a Nazirite, set aside to God since I was in my mother’s womb, and my hair has never been cut. If my head were shaved, my strength would vanish. I would be weak and no different from any other man.
18 Delilah at last saw that he was telling her the truth. She sent for the rulers of the Philistines and told them, “This time he has told me his whole secret.” So the lords of the Philistines came, bringing the money they had promised to pay her for betraying Samson.
Samson’s bride and Delilah are both presented as unfaithful and deceitful, and Delilah’s name has become synonymous with any wily and seductive woman who wants to ruin a man. Although these betrayals are part of God’s purpose, some readers have used these particular stories to put down all women. It’s good to remind ourselves that earlier in the Book of Judges God uses Deborah and Jael, brave and strong women, to achieve His purpose. The characters in the story of God’s people—men and women alike—are sometimes good and sometimes evil. Even a Levite, someone set aside to the priesthood of God, can behave with selfishness and cowardice.
19 She helped Samson fall asleep in her lap and called in a man to shave off the seven locks of Samson’s hair. Immediately his strength left him. 20 This time she called to him.
Delilah: Wake up, Samson! The Philistines are attacking!
His strength was gone. Samson woke up and thought he would shake himself free, as he had before, because he did not know that the Spirit of the Eternal had left him.
21 But this time the Philistines seized and held him. They put out his eyes. Then they took him to Gaza, where they bound him with bronze chains and put him to work grinding grain in the prison mill. 22 But while he was there, his hair began to grow back.
15-17 I am well aware that some people out there are preaching the message of the Anointed One because of jealousies and rivalries. Their motives aren’t pure. They’re driven by selfish ambitions and personal agendas, hoping somehow to add to my pain here in prison. And I also know there are others who are preaching the Anointed from true goodness, motivated by love. They wish me the best because they know I’m here in prison in defense of the gospel.
Even in difficult times, Paul remains faithful because he realizes that the kingdom and the message of the Anointed One are more important than any one messenger. Paul uses his own willingness to sacrifice himself as a model for believers to follow. He directs them to be good and faithful citizens of the heavenly kingdom, no matter what opposition they receive.
18 So what do we do then? Listen. What matters is that in every way, regardless of the motives—whether pure or shady—the great story of the Anointed is a cause for joy. I will continue to rejoice 19 because I know that through your encouragement and prayers and through the help of the Spirit of Jesus the Anointed, I will soon be released from this dark place. 20 I don’t expect that dishonor and shame will plague me in any way, but I do hope that I will continue to be able to speak freely and courageously about Jesus, and that now and forever the Anointed One will be glorified and placed above all else through this body of mine—whether I live or die. 21 For my life is about the Anointed and Him alone. And my death, when that comes, will mean great gain for me.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.