Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy saving health how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire and hast not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For thou givest him beforehand the blessings of goodness; thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of thee, and thou didst give him length of days for ever and ever.
5 His glory is great in thy saving health; honour and beauty hast thou laid upon him.
6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever; thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.
7 ¶ For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.
8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies; thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger; the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth and their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against thee; they imagined a wicked device, but they did not prevail.
12 Therefore shalt thou separate them; thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.
13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy valour.
5 ¶ Then all the tribes of Israel came unto David in Hebron and spoke, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
2 And even yesterday and the day before yesterday, when Saul was king over us, it was thou that didst lead out and bring in Israel; and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel.
3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel.
4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
6 ¶ Then the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, who dwelt in the land, who spoke unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in here, thinking, David cannot come in here.
7 Nevertheless, David took the fortress of Zion; the same is the city of David.
8 And David said on that day, Who shall go up the waterspout and smite the Jebusites and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul? Therefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
9 So David dwelt in the fortress and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.
10 And David went on and grew great, and the LORD God of the hosts was with him.
16 ¶ I say again, Let no one think me a fool if otherwise, receive me as a fool, that I may yet glory a little.
17 That which I speak, I speak it not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of glory.
18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
20 For ye suffer it if anyone brings you into bondage, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes of you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone smites you on the face.
21 I speak as concerning the reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit in that in which another is bold, (I speak foolishly), I am bold also.
22 ¶ Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more, in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.
24 Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck, night and day I have been in the deep;
26 in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by those of my nation, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 in labour and travail, in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, my daily combat is the welfare of all the congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}
29 Who is sick, and I am not sick? who stumbles, and I burn not?
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knows that I do not lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me;
33 and through a window in a basket I was let down by the wall and escaped his hands.
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