Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
SAMECH.
113 ¶ I hate vain thoughts; but I love thy law.
114 ¶ Thou art my hiding place and my shield; I have waited for thy word.
115 ¶ Depart from me, ye evildoers; for I will keep the commandments of my God.
116 ¶ Uphold me according unto thy word, and I shall live; and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
117 Hold me up, and I shall be saved, and I shall delight in thy statutes continually.
118 ¶ Thou hast trodden down all those that err from thy statutes; for their deceit is falsehood.
119 Thou dost cause all the wicked of the earth to come undone like dross; therefore I have loved thy testimonies.
120 My flesh trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.
AIN.
121 ¶ I have complied with judgment and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be surety for thy slave for good; do not let the proud do violence unto me.
123 ¶ Mine eyes fail for thy saving health and for the spoken word of thy righteousness.
124 ¶ Deal with thy slave according to thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.
125 I am thy slave; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
126 ¶ It is time for thee, O LORD, to act; for they have dissipated thy law.
127 ¶ Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.
128 Therefore I have esteemed all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I have hated every false way.
6 ¶ And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.
7 And the women sang as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.
8 And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him, and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands; and what can he have more but the kingdom?
9 And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
10 And it came to pass on the next day that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house, and David played with his hand as at other times, and there was a spear in Saul’s hand.
11 And Saul cast the spear, saying, I will smite David to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.
12 ¶ But Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him and had departed from Saul.
13 Therefore, Saul removed him from him and made him captain over a thousand, and he went out and came in before the people.
14 And David behaved himself prudently in all his ways, and the LORD was with him.
15 Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved himself very prudently, he was afraid of him.
16 But all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them.
17 And Saul said to David, Behold I will give thee my elder daughter Merab to wife; only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD’s battles. For Saul said to himself, My hand shall not be against him, but the hand of the Philistines shall be against him.
18 And David said unto Saul, Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king?
19 And it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David that she was given unto Adriel, the Meholathite, to wife.
20 But Michal, Saul’s other daughter, loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
21 And Saul said, I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore, Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law with the other one.
22 And Saul commanded his slaves, saying, Speak with David secretly and say, Behold, the king has delight in thee, and all his slaves love thee; now, therefore, be the king’s son-in-law.
23 And Saul’s slaves spoke those words in the ears of David. And David said, Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed?
24 And the slaves of Saul told him, saying, David spoke these words.
25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The desire of the king is not in any dowry, but one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. For Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
26 And when his slaves told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law, and the days were not expired.
27 Therefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men, and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them all to the king that he might be the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal, his daughter, to wife.
28 But Saul, seeing and knowing that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved him,
29 was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David’s enemy continually.
30 Then the princes of the Philistines went forth, and it came to pass after they went forth that David behaved himself more prudently than all the slaves of Saul so that his name was much set by.
13 And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, raising sails, they sailed close by Crete.
14 But not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. {devastating cold north wind from Europe}
15 And when the ship was caught up by it and could not resist against the wind, the ship was taken by the wind and drifted.
16 And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat,
17 Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into Syrtis, {or the sandbanks} struck sail and so were driven.
18 And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
19 and the third day with our own hands we cast off the dead works of the ship.
20 And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then lost.
21 ¶ Then after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete to have avoided this harm and loss.
22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any person’s life among you, but only of the ship.
23 For the angel of God stood by me this night, whose I am and whom I serve,
24 saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar; and, behold, God has given thee all those that sail with thee.
25 Therefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
26 However we must be cast upon a certain island.
27 And when the fourteenth night was come as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic sea, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country
28 and sounded and found it twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms.
29 Then fearing lest we should fall upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.
30 And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship,
31 Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.
32 Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.
33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have waited and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
34 Therefore I pray you to take some food, for this is for your salvation and health, for there shall not one hair fall from the head of any of you.
35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all; and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
36 Then they were all of good cheer, and they also took some food.
37 And we were in all, in the ship, two hundred and seventy-six souls.
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the grain into the sea.
Copyright © 2013, 2020 by Ransom Press International