Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
An instruction[a] of Asaph
Remembering God in Times of Trouble
78 Listen, my people, to my instruction.
Hear[b] the words of my mouth.
2 I will tell[c] a parable,
speaking riddles from long ago—
3 things that we have heard and known
and that our ancestors related to us.
4 We will not withhold them from their descendants;
we’ll declare to the next generation the praises of the Lord—
his might and awesome deeds that he has performed.
52 Yet he led out his people like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them to safety so they would not fear.
As for their enemies, the sea covered them.
54 He brought the people[a] to the border of his holy mountain,
which he acquired by his might.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their tribal inheritance,
settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested the Most High God by rebelling against him,
and they did not obey his statutes.
57 They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors.
They became unreliable, like a defective bow;
58 they angered him with their high places
and with their carved images they made him jealous.
59 God heard and became furious,
and he completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned the tent at Shiloh,
the tent that he established among mankind.
61 Then he sent his might[b] into captivity
and his glory into the control of the adversary.
62 He delivered his people over to the sword
and was angry with his possession.
63 The young men were consumed by fire,
and the virgins had no marriage celebrations.[c]
64 The priests fell by the sword,
yet their widows couldn’t weep.
65 The Lord awoke as though from sleep,
like a mighty warrior stimulated by wine.
66 He beat back his adversaries,
permanently disgracing them.
67 He rejected the clan[d] of Joseph;
and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose.
68 But he chose the tribe of Judah,
the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary, high as the heavens,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 Then he chose his servant David,
whom he took from the sheepfold.
71 He brought him from birthing sheep
to care for Jacob, his people,
Israel, his possession.
72 David[e] shepherded them with a devoted heart,
and led them with skillful hands.
David Flees to Nob
21 [a]David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest, and Ahimelech was trembling as he came[b] to meet David. Ahimelech[c] told him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?”
2 David told Ahimelech the priest, “The king commanded me about a matter, saying to me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the matter I’m sending you to do[d] and about which I’ve commanded you. I’ve directed the young men to a certain place.’ 3 Now, what do you have available?[e] Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you have.”[f]
4 The priest answered David: “There is no ordinary bread available;[g] only consecrated bread, provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”
5 David answered the priest, saying to him, “Indeed, women were kept from us as is usual[h] whenever I go out on a mission,[i] and the equipment[j] of the young men is consecrated even when it’s an ordinary journey, so how much more is their equipment[k] consecrated today?” 6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread because no bread was there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the Lord’s presence and replaced with hot bread on the day it was taken away.
The Healing at the Pool
5 Later on, there was another[a] festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is a pool called Bethesda[b] in Hebrew. It has five colonnades, 3 and under these a large number of sick people were lying—blind, lame, or paralyzed—waiting for the movement of the water.[c] 4 At certain times an angel of the Lord would go down into the pool and stir up the water, and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.[d]
5 One particular man was there who had been ill for 38 years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 The man immediately became well, and he picked up his mat and started walking. Now that day was a Sabbath.
10 So the Jewish leaders[e] told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.
11 But he answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”
13 But the one who had been healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd in that place. 14 Later on, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Look! You have become well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went off and told the Jewish leaders[f] that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 So the Jewish leaders[g] began persecuting Jesus,[h] because he kept doing such things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus[i] answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working.” 18 So the Jewish leaders[j] were trying all the harder to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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