Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 57^(A)

For the Music Director. To the melody of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David when he fled from Saul in the cave.

David, Nabal, and Abigail

² Now there was a man in Maon whose work was in Carmel. He was a rich man with three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³ The man’s name was Nabal and the name of his wife Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding and beautiful, but the man was harsh and evil in his actions and he was a Calebite.

⁴ David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent out ten young men, and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. ⁶ And thus you will you say to him who lives in prosperity, ‘Peace be to you and peace to your house, and to all that you have, peace.

⁷ “ ‘I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds were with us. We did not harm them nor did they miss anything all the days they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a good day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants, and to your son David.’ ”

⁹ When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, then they waited.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? Today many servants are breaking away each one from his master. ¹¹ Should I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat, that which I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men whose origins are unknown?”

¹² So David’s young men turned themselves around and went back. And they came and reported to him all these words. ¹³ David said to his men, “Each man strap on his sword.” And each man strapped on his sword. David also put on his sword, and four hundred men went up after David. But two hundred stayed with the baggage.

¹⁴ Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Listen, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master; and he railed against them. ¹⁵ But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything, all the days we went about with them in the field. ¹⁶ They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the days we were with them keeping the flocks. ¹⁷ Now therefore know and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household. He is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, five prepared sheep, five measures^[a] of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ And she said to her servants, “Go on before me. See, I will be coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And as she was riding on the donkey and going down into the cover of the mountain, David and his men were coming down to meet her and she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. And he has returned me evil for good. ²² So may God do unto the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave even one male of all who belong to him.”

Going to Law Before Unbelievers

6 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to the law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ³ Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life? ⁴ If then you have judgments dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint as judges those who are least esteemed in the church? ⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it true that there is not even one wise man among you who shall be able to judge between his brothers? ⁶ But brother goes to the law against brother, and before unbelievers, at that.

⁷ Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and do this to your brothers. ⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God.