Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. There he sat down under a broom tree, where he prayed that he would die. He said, “I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” ⁵ Then he lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

⁶ Then he looked around, and near his head there was a loaf of bread baking on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank, and then he lay down again.

⁷ Then the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too much for you.”

⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Then, with the strength gained from that food, he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Psalm 34

Blessed Is the Person Who Takes Refuge in God

Heading

By David. When he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelek, who drove him away, and David left.^[a]

David’s Thanks for Deliverance

An Invitation to Join David in Praise

The Story of David’s Deliverance

The Application of This Truth to All Believers

²⁵ Therefore, after you put away lying, let each of you speak truthfully with your neighbor, because we are all members of one body. ²⁶ “Be angry, yet do not sin.”^[a] Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. ²⁷ Do not give the Devil an opportunity. ²⁸ Let the one who has been stealing steal no longer. Instead, let him work hard doing what is good with his own hands, so that he has something to share with a person who is in need. ²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come from your mouths. Say only what is beneficial when there is a need to build up others, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear. ³⁰ Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of every kind of bitterness, rage, anger, quarreling, and slander, along with every kind of malice. ³² Instead, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us.^[b]

5 Therefore, be imitators of God as his dearly loved children. ² And walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³⁵ “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.

⁴¹ So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say,^[a] ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’^[b] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me^[c] has eternal life.

⁴⁸ “I am the Bread of Life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”