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.
24 Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up to Micaiah and slapped him in the face. Zedekiah said, “Has the Lord’s spirit left me to speak through you?”
25 Micaiah answered, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inside room.”
26 Then Ahab king of Israel ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son. 27 Tell them I said to put this man in prison and give him only bread and water until I return safely from the battle.”
28 Micaiah said, “Ahab, if you come back safely from battle, the Lord has not spoken through me. Remember my words, all you people!”
29 So Ahab king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went to Ramoth in Gilead. 30 King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I will go into battle, but I will wear other clothes so no one will recognize me. But you wear your royal clothes.” So Ahab wore other clothes and went into battle.
31 The king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Don’t fight with anyone—important or unimportant—except the king of Israel.” 32 When these commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought he was certainly the king of Israel, so they turned to attack him. But Jehoshaphat began shouting. 33 When they saw he was not King Ahab, they stopped chasing him.
34 By chance, a soldier shot an arrow, but he hit Ahab king of Israel between the pieces of his armor. King Ahab said to his chariot driver, “Turn around and get me out of the battle, because I am hurt!” 35 The battle continued all day. King Ahab was held up in his chariot and faced the Arameans. His blood flowed down to the bottom of the chariot. That evening he died. 36 Near sunset a cry went out through the army of Israel: “Each man go back to his own city and land.”
37 In that way King Ahab died. His body was carried to Samaria and buried there. 38 The men cleaned Ahab’s chariot at a pool in Samaria where prostitutes bathed, and the dogs licked his blood from the chariot. These things happened as the Lord had said they would.
39 Everything else Ahab did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. It tells about the palace Ahab built and decorated with ivory and the cities he built. 40 So Ahab died, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.
25 I want you to understand this secret, brothers and sisters, so you will understand that you do not know everything: Part of Israel has been made stubborn, but that will change when many who are not Jews have come to God. 26 And that is how all Israel will be saved. It is written in the Scriptures:
“The Savior will come from Jerusalem;
he will take away all evil from the family of Jacob.[a]
27 And I will make this agreement with those people
when I take away their sins.” Isaiah 59:20–21; 27:9
28 The Jews refuse to accept the Good News, so they are God’s enemies. This has happened to help you who are not Jews. But the Jews are still God’s chosen people, and he loves them very much because of the promises he made to their ancestors. 29 God never changes his mind about the people he calls and the things he gives them. 30 At one time you refused to obey God. But now you have received mercy, because those people refused to obey. 31 And now the Jews refuse to obey, because God showed mercy to you. But this happened so that they also can[b] receive mercy from him. 32 God has given all people over to their stubborn ways so that he can show mercy to all.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.