Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Plea for Vindication

Psalm 17

²⁷ When the time of mourning was over, David sent someone who brought her to his palace. So she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done was evil in Adonai’s eyes.

Nathan Confronts David

12 Then Adonai sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said to him, “There were two men in the same city—one was rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had an exceedingly huge flock and herd, ³ but the poor man had nothing at all, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and his children. It ate from his own morsel and drank from his own cup, and nestled in his bosom, and it was to him like a daughter. ⁴ Now a traveler came to the rich man, but he was unwilling to take one from his own flock or herd to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Rather, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man that had come to him.”

⁵ Then David’s anger blazed hot against the man and he said to Nathan, “As Adonai lives, the man that did this deserves to die! ⁶ So he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did such a thing and showed no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: It is I who anointed you king over Israel, and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸ I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom, and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. Now if that were too little, then I would have added to you so much more. ⁹ Why then have you despised the word of Adonai by doing such evil in My eyes? Uriah the Hittite you have struck down with the sword, and his wife you have taken to be your wife, and him you have slain with the sword of the children of Ammon ¹⁰ So now the sword will never depart from your house—because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

¹¹ “Thus says Adonai: Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² Indeed you have done it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun.”

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Adonai.”

Nathan replied to David, “Adonai also has made your sin pass away—you will not die. ¹⁴ However, because by this deed you have made the enemies of Adonai greatly blaspheme, so even the child born to you will surely die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house.

Then Adonai struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David and he became very sick.

Philadelphia: I Have Loved You

⁷ To the angel of Messiah’s community in Philadelphia write: “Thus says the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens: ^{[a] 8} I know your deeds. Behold, I have set before you an open door that no one is able to shut—because you have little power, but you have kept My word and have not denied My name. ⁹ Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of satan—who say they are Jewish and are not, but lie—behold, I will cause them to come and bow down before your feet,^[b] so that they acknowledge that I have loved you!

¹⁰ “Because you have kept My word about patient endurance, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is coming upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. ¹¹ I am coming soon—hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. ¹² The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of My God,^[c] and he will never leave it. And on him I will write the name of My God and the name of the city of My God—the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God—and My own new Name. ¹³ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach is saying to Messiah’s communities.”