Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Prayer for Defense against Enemies.
For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A [a]Maskil of David, [b]when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself among us?”
54 Save me, O God, by (A)Your name,
And [c]vindicate me by (B)Your power.
2 (C)Hear my prayer, O God;
(D)Give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers have (E)risen against me
And (F)violent men have (G)sought my [d]life;
They have (H)not set God before them. [e]Selah.
Israel Oppressed by Midian
6 Then the sons of Israel (A)did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of (B)Midian seven years. 2 The [a]power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves (C)the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and [b]go against them. 4 So they would camp against them and (D)destroy the produce of the earth [c]as far as Gaza, and (E)leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in (F)like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it. 6 So Israel was brought (G)very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.
7 Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, 8 that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and (H)he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of [d]slavery. 9 I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, 10 and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you (I)shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not [e]obeyed Me.”’”
Paul’s Reliance upon the Spirit
2 And when I came to you, brethren, I (A)did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you (B)the [a]testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except (C)Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in (D)weakness and in (E)fear and in much trembling, 4 and my [b]message and my preaching were (F)not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of (G)the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not [c]rest on the wisdom of men, but on (H)the power of God.
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