Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 57
Praise for God’s Protection
For the choir director: “Do Not Destroy.”[a] A Davidic Miktam. When he fled before Saul into the cave.(A)
1 Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me,
for I take refuge in You.
I will seek refuge in the shadow of Your wings
until danger passes.(B)
2 I call to God Most High,
to God who fulfills His purpose for me.[b](C)
3 He reaches down from heaven and saves me,
challenging the one who tramples me.(D)
God sends His faithful love and truth.(E)
4 I am surrounded by lions;
I lie down with those who devour men.
Their teeth are spears and arrows;
their tongues are sharp swords.(F)
5 God, be exalted above the heavens;
let Your glory be over the whole earth.(G)
6 They prepared a net for my steps;
I was despondent.
They dug a pit ahead of me,
but they fell into it!(H)
7 My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident.
I will sing; I will sing praises.(I)
8 Wake up, my soul![c]
Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.(J)
9 I will praise You, Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among the nations.(K)
10 For Your faithful love is as high as the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches the clouds.(L)
11 God, be exalted above the heavens;(M)
let Your glory be over the whole earth.(N)
2 A man in Maon(A) had a business in Carmel;(B) he was a very rich man with 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats and was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name, Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite,(C) was harsh and evil in his dealings.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep, 5 so David sent 10 young men instructing them, “Go up to Carmel, and when you come to Nabal, greet him in my name.[a] 6 Then say this: ‘Long life to you,[b] and peace to you, to your family, and to all that is yours.(D) 7 I hear that you are shearing.[c] When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.(E) 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast[d] day.(F) Please give whatever you can afford to your servants and to your son David.’”
9 David’s young men went and said all these things to Nabal on David’s behalf,[e] and they waited.[f] 10 Nabal asked them, “Who is David?(G) Who is Jesse’s son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters. 11 Am I supposed to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t know where they are from.”
12 David’s men retraced their steps. When they returned to him, they reported all these words. 13 He said to his men, “All of you, put on your swords!” So David and all his men put on their swords. About 400 men followed David while 200 stayed with the supplies.(H)
14 One of Nabal’s young men informed Abigail, Nabal’s wife: “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master,(I) but he yelled at them. 15 The men treated us well. When we were in the field, we weren’t harassed(J) and nothing of ours was missing the whole time we were living among them. 16 They were a wall around us, both day and night,(K) the entire time we were herding the sheep. 17 Now consider carefully what you must do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”
18 Abigail hurried, taking 200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, a bushel[g] of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.(L) 19 Then she said to her male servants, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.”(M) But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she saw David and his men coming toward her and met them. 21 David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good. 22 May God punish me[h] and do so severely(N) if I let any of his men[i] survive until morning.”(O)
Lawsuits among Believers
6 If any of you has a legal dispute against another, do you dare go to court(A) before the unrighteous,[a] and not before the saints? 2 Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest cases? 3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels—not to mention ordinary matters? 4 So if you have cases pertaining to this life, do you select those[b] who have no standing(B) in the church to judge? 5 I say this to your shame!(C) Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between his brothers?(D) 6 Instead, believer[c] goes to court against believer, and that before unbelievers!(E)
7 Therefore, to have legal disputes against one another is already a moral failure for you.(F) Why not rather put up with injustice?(G) Why not rather be cheated?(H) 8 Instead, you act unjustly and cheat—and you do this to believers! 9 Don’t you know that the unrighteous(I) will not inherit God’s kingdom?(J) Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters,(K) adulterers,(L) or anyone practicing homosexuality,[d](M) 10 no thieves,(N) greedy(O) people, drunkards, verbally abusive people,(P) or swindlers(Q) will inherit God’s kingdom. 11 And some of you used to be like this.(R) But you were washed, you were sanctified,(S) you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
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