Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Morning Prayer for Justice
Psalm 5
1 For the music director, on the wind instruments, a psalm of David.
2 Hear my words, Adonai,
consider my groaning.
3 Listen to the sound of my cry for help,
my King and my God, for I pray to you.
4 Adonai, in the morning You hear my voice.
In the morning I order my prayer before You and watch expectantly.
5 For You are not a God who rejoices in evil.
No wickedness dwells with you.
6 Braggarts will not stand before your eyes.
You hate all wrongdoers.
7 You destroy those who speak falsehood.
A person of bloodshed and deceit Adonai detests.
8 But because of your great lovingkindness, I will enter Your House.
I will bow toward Your holy Temple, in awe of You.
23 Meanwhile, the servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their God is a God of the mountains—that’s why they were stronger than us. But let’s fight against them in the plain. Then surely we’ll be stronger than them. 24 So this is what you should do: remove the kings, each from his post, and appoint governors in their place. 25 Then muster an army like the army that you lost—horse for horse and chariot for chariot—and let’s fight against them in the plain, and surely we’ll be stronger than them!” He listened to their advice and acted accordingly.
26 It came about at the turn of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and marched up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. 27 Now the children of Israel were mustered, given provisions, and marched against them. But when the children of Israel encamped before them, they looked like two little flocks of goats while the Arameans covered the land.
28 Then a man of God approached the king of Israel and spoke to him saying, “Thus says Adonai: Because the Arameans have said, ‘Adonai is a God of the mountains, but He is not a God of the valleys,’ therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Adonai.”
29 So they encamped one over against the other seven days. On the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel struck down 100,000 of the Aramean foot soldiers in a single day. 30 The rest fled to Aphek into the city and the wall fell upon 27,000 men that were left. But Ben-Hadad fled into the city, into an inner chamber. 31 His officials said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let’s put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and surrender to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
32 So they girded sackcloth on their loins, put ropes on their heads, came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says: ‘Please let me live.’”
He replied, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33 The men took it as a good sign and were quick to catch on, so they said, “Yes, Ben-Hadad is your brother.”
“Go, bring him,” he said. So Ben-Hadad came out to him and he took him up into his chariot.
34 Then he said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will give back, and you may set up markets for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”
“Then I will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.
Israel Not Rejected
11 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He?[a] May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He knew beforehand.[b] Or do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 “Adonai, they have killed your prophets, they have destroyed your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” [c] 4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” [d] 5 So in the same way also at this present time there has come to be a remnant[e] according to God’s gracious choice. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained; but the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened— 8 just as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes not to see and ears not to hear,
until this very day.”[f]
9 And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened so they do not see,
and bend their back continually.”[g]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.