Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 150

Praise the Lord!

Where?

Why?

How?

Who?

³² David said to Saul, “Do not let anyone lose heart because of this Philistine! Your servant will go and fight him.”

³³ But Saul said to David, “You cannot go against this Philistine to fight with him, because you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior since he was a youth.”

³⁴ David said to Saul, “Your servant has been taking care of his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it and struck it and rescued the lamb out of its mouth. When the lion reared up against me, I grabbed it by its mane, struck it, and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has defied the ranks of the living God.” ³⁷ David added, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go then! May the Lord be with you.” ³⁸ So Saul dressed David in his own gear.^[a] He placed a bronze helmet on his head and dressed him in scaled body armor. ³⁹ David strapped his sword over his gear. David tried to walk around in them, since he had never trained with this kind of equipment before.

David said to Saul, “I cannot go in these, because I have never trained with them.” So David took them off.

⁴⁰ Then David took his staff in his hand and picked five smooth stones out of the stream bed and put them into the pouch of his shepherd’s bag. He took his sling in his hand and approached the Philistine.

⁴¹ The Philistine kept walking and got closer and closer to David. The man who was carrying his shield was walking ahead of him. ⁴² When the Philistine got a good look at David, he despised him, because David was just a boy, nothing but a good-looking, red-headed boy.^[b]

⁴³ The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come against me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will feed your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the countryside.”

⁴⁵ Then David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ Today the Lord will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth. Then all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷ and all those gathered here will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle belongs to the Lord, and he will deliver you into our hand.”

⁴⁸ Then, when the Philistine started advancing to attack David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. ⁴⁹ David put his hand into his bag, took a stone from it, shot it from his sling, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground.

⁵⁰ So David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine and killed him, even though David did not have a sword in his hand. ⁵¹ So David ran, stood over the Philistine, took hold of his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it.

When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

³⁶ As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷ But they were terrified and frightened and thought they were looking at a ghost.

³⁸ He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.