Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

130 O Lord, from the depths of despair I cry for your help: ² “Hear me! Answer! Help me!”

^3-4 Lord, if you keep in mind our sins, then who can ever get an answer to his prayers? But you forgive! What an awesome thing this is! ⁵ That is why I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised. ⁶ I long for him more than sentinels long for the dawn.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind and comes to us with armloads of salvation. ⁸ He himself shall ransom Israel from her slavery to sin.

¹⁸ In that way David got away and went to Ramah to see Samuel, and told him all that Saul had done to him. So Samuel took David with him to live at Naioth. ¹⁹ When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah, ²⁰ he sent soldiers to capture him; but when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon them and they also began to prophesy. ²¹ When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other soldiers, but they too prophesied! The same thing happened a third time! ²² Then Saul himself went to Ramah and arrived at the great well in Secu.

“Where are Samuel and David?” he demanded.

Someone told him they were at Naioth. ²³ But on the way to Naioth the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he too began to prophesy! ²⁴ He tore off his clothes and lay naked all day and all night, prophesying with Samuel’s prophets. Saul’s men were incredulous!

“What!” they exclaimed. “Is Saul a prophet too?”^[a]

² Please open your hearts to us again, for not one of you has suffered any wrong from us. Not one of you was led astray. We have cheated no one nor taken advantage of anyone. ³ I’m not saying this to scold or blame you, for, as I have said before, you are in my heart forever, and I live and die with you. ⁴ I have the highest confidence in you, and my pride in you is great. You have greatly encouraged me; you have made me so happy in spite of all my suffering.

⁵ When we arrived in Macedonia there was no rest for us; outside, trouble was on every hand and all around us; within us, our hearts were full of dread and fear. ⁶ Then God who cheers those who are discouraged refreshed us by the arrival of Titus. ⁷ Not only was his presence a joy, but also the news that he brought of the wonderful time he had with you. When he told me how much you were looking forward to my visit, and how sorry you were about what had happened, and about your loyalty and warm love for me, well, I overflowed with joy!

⁸ I am no longer sorry that I sent that letter to you, though I was very sorry for a time, realizing how painful it would be to you. But it hurt you only for a little while. ⁹ Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you but because the pain turned you to God. It was a good kind of sorrow you felt, the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so that I need not come to you with harshness. ¹⁰ For God sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek eternal life. We should never regret his sending it. But the sorrow of the man who is not a Christian is not the sorrow of true repentance and does not prevent eternal death.

¹¹ Just see how much good this grief from the Lord did for you! You no longer shrugged your shoulders but became earnest and sincere and very anxious to get rid of the sin that I wrote you about. You became frightened about what had happened and longed for me to come and help. You went right to work on the problem and cleared it up, punishing the man who sinned.^[a] You have done everything you could to make it right.

¹² I wrote as I did so the Lord could show how much you really do care for us. That was my purpose even more than to help the man who sinned or his father to whom he did the wrong.

¹³ In addition to the encouragement you gave us by your love, we were made happier still by Titus’ joy when you gave him such a fine welcome and set his mind at ease. ¹⁴ I told him how it would be—told him before he left me of my pride in you—and you didn’t disappoint me. I have always told you the truth and now my boasting to Titus has also proved true! ¹⁵ He loves you more than ever when he remembers the way you listened to him so willingly and received him so anxiously and with such deep concern. ¹⁶ How happy this makes me, now that I am sure all is well between us again. Once again I can have perfect confidence in you.