Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Prayer for Help
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David when the Ziphites went to Saul and said, “We think David is hiding among our people.”
54 God, save me because of who you are.
By your strength show that I am innocent.
2 Hear my prayer, God;
listen to what I say.
3 Strangers turn against me,
and cruel people want to kill me.
They do not care about God. Selah
4 See, God will help me;
the Lord will support me.
5 Let my enemies be punished with their own evil.
Destroy them because you are loyal to me.
6 I will offer a sacrifice as a special gift to you.
I will thank you, Lord, because you are good.
7 You have saved me from all my troubles,
and I have seen my enemies defeated.
The Midianites Attack Israel
6 Again the Israelites did what the Lord said was wrong. So for seven years the Lord handed them over to Midian. 2 Because the Midianites were very powerful and were cruel to Israel, the Israelites made hiding places in the mountains, in caves, and in safe places. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other peoples from the east would come and attack them. 4 They camped in the land and destroyed the crops that the Israelites had planted as far away as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, and no sheep, cattle, or donkeys. 5 The Midianites came with their tents and their animals like swarms of locusts to ruin the land. There were so many people and camels they could not be counted. 6 Israel became very poor because of the Midianites, so they cried out to the Lord.
7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord against the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to them. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you out of Egypt, the land of slavery. 9 I saved you from the Egyptians and from all those who were against you. I forced the Canaanites out of their land and gave it to you. 10 Then I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God. Live in the land of the Amorites, but do not worship their gods.’ But you did not obey me.”
The Message of Christ’s Death
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come preaching God’s secret[a] with fancy words or a show of human 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 So when I came to you, I was weak and fearful and trembling. 4 My teaching and preaching were not with words of human wisdom that persuade people but with proof of the power that the Spirit gives. 5 This was so that your faith would be in God’s power and not in human wisdom.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.