Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David and Goliath

17 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. They were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah. They set up their tents between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.

⁴ Then a strong fighter came out from the armies of the Philistines. His name was Goliath, from Gath. He was almost twice as tall as most men. ⁵ He had a head covering of brass, and wore brass battle-clothes that weighed as much as 5,000 silver pieces. ⁶ He wore brass leg-coverings, and had a brass spear on his shoulders. ⁷ The long part of his spear was like a cross-piece used on a cloth-maker. The iron head of his spear weighed as much as 600 pieces of silver. A man walked before him to carry his shield. ⁸ Goliath stood and called out to the army of Israel, saying, “Why have you come out dressed for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. ⁹ If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I fight him and kill him, then you must become our servants and work for us.” ¹⁰ Again the Philistine said, “I stand against the army of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” ¹¹ When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were troubled and very afraid.

¹⁹ Saul and your brothers and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.”

²⁰ So David got up early in the morning and left the flock in the care of a shepherd. He took the food and went, as Jesse had told him. And he came to the tents as the army was going out dressed for battle, calling out the war cry. ²¹ Israel and the Philistines came near each other dressed for battle, army against army. ²² David left the things with the man to take care of them. He ran to the army, and went to meet with his brothers. ²³ As he talked with them, Goliath the Philistine from Gath came out of the army of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.

³² David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart become weak because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” ³³ Saul said to David, “You are not able to go and fight against this Philistine. You are only a young man, while he has been a man of war since he was young.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant was 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 him and fought him and saved it from his mouth. When he came against me, I took hold of him by the hair of his head and hit him and killed him. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. And this Philistine who has not gone through our religious act will be like one of them. For he has made fun of the armies of the living God.” ³⁷ And David said, “The Lord Who saved me from the foot of the lion and from the foot of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.” ³⁸ Then Saul dressed David with his clothes. He put a brass head covering on his head, and dressed him with heavy battle-clothes. ³⁹ David put on his sword over his heavy battle-clothes and tried to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them.” And David took them off. ⁴⁰ He took his stick in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the river. He put them in his shepherd’s bag. His sling was in his hand, and he went to the Philistine.

⁴¹ The Philistine came near to David, with the man carrying his shield in front of him. ⁴² When the Philistine looked and saw David, he thought nothing of him. For he was only a young man, with good color in his skin, and good-looking. ⁴³ The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine spoke against David by his gods. ⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, “Come to me. I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the animals of the field.” ⁴⁵ Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and spears. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of All, the God of the armies of Israel, Whom you have stood against. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will give you into my hands. I will knock you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth. Then all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ All these people gathered here may know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” ⁴⁸ Then the Philistine rose up and came to meet David. And David rushed to the center of the valley to meet the Philistine. ⁴⁹ David put his hand into his bag, took out a stone and threw it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone went into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.

⁵⁷ So when David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner brought him to Saul with the Philistine’s head in his hand. ⁵⁸ Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

King Saul Is Jealous of David

18 When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan became one with the soul of David. Jonathan loved him as himself. ² Saul took David that day, and would not let him return to his father’s house. ³ Then Jonathan made an agreement with David, because he loved him as himself. ⁴ Jonathan took off his long coat and gave it to David. He gave him his battle-clothes, his sword, his bow and his belt also. ⁵ David went everywhere that Saul sent him, and did well. Saul had him lead the men of war. And it was pleasing to all the people and to Saul’s servants.

¹⁰ The next day a bad spirit sent from God came upon Saul with power. He acted like a crazy man in his house, while David was playing the harp. Saul had a spear in his hand, ¹¹ and he threw the spear, thinking, “I will nail David to the wall.” But David jumped out of his way twice. ¹² Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him but had left Saul. ¹³ So Saul made David go away from him, and had him lead a thousand men. And David went out to the people. ¹⁴ David did well in all that he did, because the Lord was with him. ¹⁵ When Saul saw how well he did, he was afraid of him. ¹⁶ But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.

⁹ The Lord also keeps safe those who suffer. He is a safe place in times of trouble. ¹⁰ Those who know Your name will put their trust in You. For You, O Lord, have never left alone those who look for You. ¹¹ Sing praises to the Lord, Who lives in Zion! Tell all the nations what He has done! ¹² For He Who punishes for the blood of another remembers them. He does not forget the cry of those who suffer. ¹³ Have pity on me, O Lord! See how I suffer from those who hate me, You Who have lifted me up from the gates of death, ¹⁴ that I may tell of all Your praises in the gates of the people of Zion. There I will be full of joy because You save.

¹⁵ The nations have fallen into the hole they have dug. Their own feet have been caught in the net they have hidden. ¹⁶ The Lord has made Himself known. He is fair in His Law. The sinful trap themselves by the work of their own hands. ¹⁷ The sinful, all the nations that forget God, will be turned back into the grave.

¹⁸ But those in need will not always be forgotten. The hope of the poor will not be lost forever. ¹⁹ Rise up, O Lord! Do not let man win the fight against You. Let the nations come to You and be judged. ²⁰ Make them afraid, O Lord. Let the nations know they are only men.

A Song of Praise

133 See, how good and how pleasing it is for brothers to live together as one! ² It is like oil of great worth poured on the head, flowing down through the hair on the face, even the face of Aaron, and flowing down to his coat. ³ It is like the morning water of Hermon coming down upon the hills of Zion. For there the Lord has given the gift of life that lasts forever.

Our Job to Do

6 We are working together with God. We ask you from our hearts not to receive God’s loving-favor and then waste it. ² The Holy Writings say, “I heard you at the right time. I helped you on that day to be saved from the punishment of sin. Now is the right time! See! Now is the day to be saved.” ^{(A) 3} We do not want to put anything in the way that would keep people from God. We do not want to be blamed. ⁴ Everything we do shows we are God’s servants. We have had to wait and suffer. We have needed things. We have been in many hard places and have had many troubles. ⁵ We have been beaten. We have been put in prison. We have been in fights. We have worked hard. We have stayed awake watching. We have gone without food. ⁶ We have been pure. We have known what to do. We have suffered long. We have been kind. The Holy Spirit has worked in us. We have had true love. ⁷ We have spoken the truth. We have God’s power. We have the sword of being right with God in the right hand and in the left hand. ⁸ Some men respect us and some do not. Some men speak bad against us and some thank us. They say we lie, but we speak the truth. ⁹ Some men act as if they do not know us. And yet we are known by everyone. They act as if we were dead, but we are alive. They try to hurt and destroy us, but they are not able to kill us. ¹⁰ We are full of sorrow and yet we are always happy. We are poor and yet we make many people rich. We have nothing and yet we have everything.

¹¹ We have spoken to you who are in the city of Corinth with plain words. Our hearts are wide open. ¹² Our hearts are not closed to you. But you have closed your hearts to us. ¹³ I am speaking to you now as if you were my own children. Open your hearts wide to us! That will pay us back for what we have done for you.

The Wind and Waves Obey Jesus ^(A)

³⁵ It was evening of that same day. Jesus said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ After sending the people away, they took Jesus with them in a boat. It was the same boat He used when He taught them. Other little boats went along with them. ³⁷ A bad wind storm came up. The waves were coming over the side of the boat. It was filling up with water. ³⁸ Jesus was in the back part of the boat sleeping on a pillow. They woke Him up, crying out, “Teacher, do You not care that we are about to die?” ³⁹ He got up and spoke sharp words to the wind. He said to the sea, “Be quiet! Be still.” At once the wind stopped blowing. There were no more waves. ⁴⁰ He said to His followers, “Why are you so full of fear? Do you not have faith?” ⁴¹ They were very much afraid and said to each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him!”