Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the director: With instruments. A maskil of David written when the Ziphites went to Saul and told him, “We think David is hiding among our people.”
54 God, use your power and save me.
Use your great power to set me free.[a]
2 God, listen to my prayer.
Listen to what I say.
3 Strangers who don’t even think about God have turned against me.
Those powerful men are trying to kill me. Selah
4 Look, my God will help me.
My Lord will support me.
5 He will punish the people who turned against me.
God, be faithful to me and destroy them.
6 Lord, I will give freewill offerings to you.
I will praise your good name.
7 You saved me from all my troubles.
I saw my enemies defeated.
The Midianites Fight Israel
6 Again the Israelites did what the Lord said was wrong. So for seven years the Lord allowed the Midianites to defeat the Israelites.
2 The Midianites were very powerful and were cruel to the Israelites. So the Israelites made many hiding places in the mountains. They hid their food in caves and places that were hard to find. 3 They did that because the Midianites and Amalekites from the east always came and destroyed their crops. 4 They camped in the land and destroyed the crops that the Israelites had planted. They ruined the crops of the Israelites as far as the land near the city of Gaza. They did not leave anything for the Israelites to eat. They did not even leave them any sheep, cattle, or donkeys. 5 The Midianites came with their families, animals, and tents. They were like a swarm of locusts! They and their camels were too many to count. They came into the land and ruined it. 6 The Israelites became very poor because of the Midianites. So the Israelites cried to the Lord for help.
7 [a] The Midianites did all these bad things, so the Israelites cried to the Lord for help. 8 The Lord sent a prophet to them. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘You were slaves in the land of Egypt. I made you free and brought you out of that land. 9 I saved you from the powerful Egyptians. Then the Canaanites hurt you, so I saved you again. I made them leave their land. And I gave their land to you.’ 10 Then I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You will live in the land of the Amorites, but you must not worship their false gods.’ But you did not obey me.”
My Message: Jesus Christ on the Cross
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I told you the secret truth of God. But I did not use fancy words or great wisdom. 2 I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. 3 When I came to you, I was weak and shook with fear. 4 My teaching and my speaking were not with wise words that persuade people. But the proof of my teaching was the power that the Spirit gives. 5 I did this so that your faith would be in God’s power, not in human wisdom.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International