Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
57 O God, have pity, for I am trusting you! I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until this storm is past. 2 I will cry to the God of heaven who does such wonders for me. 3 He will send down help from heaven to save me because of his love and his faithfulness. He will rescue me from these liars who are so intent upon destroying me. 4 I am surrounded by fierce lions—hotheads whose teeth are sharp as spears and arrows. Their tongues are like swords. 5 Lord, be exalted above the highest heavens! Show your glory high above the earth. 6 My enemies have set a trap for me. Frantic fear grips me. They have dug a pitfall in my path. But look! They themselves have fallen into it!
7 O God, my heart is quiet and confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! 8 Rouse yourself, my soul! Arise, O harp and lyre! Let us greet the dawn with song! 9 I will thank you publicly throughout the land. I will sing your praises among the nations. 10 Your kindness and love are as vast as the heavens. Your faithfulness is higher than the skies.
11 Yes, be exalted, O God, above the heavens. May your glory shine throughout the earth.
19 Then Zadok’s son Ahimaaz said, “Let me run to King David with the good news that the Lord has saved him from his enemy Absalom.”
20 “No,” Joab told him, “it wouldn’t be good news to the king that his son is dead. You can be my messenger some other time.”
21 Then Joab said to a man from Cush, “Go tell the king what you have seen.” The man bowed and ran off.
22 But Ahimaaz pleaded with Joab, “Please let me go too.”
“No, we don’t need you now, my boy,” Joab replied. “There is no further news to send.”
23 “Yes, but let me go anyway,” he begged.
And Joab finally said, “All right, go ahead.” Then Ahimaaz took a shortcut across the plain and got there ahead of the man from Cush. 24 David was sitting at the gate of the city. When the watchman climbed the stairs to his post at the top of the wall, he saw a lone man running toward them.
25 He shouted the news down to David, and the king replied, “If he is alone, he has news.”
As the messenger came closer, 26 the watchman saw another man running toward them. He shouted down, “Here comes another one.”
And the king replied, “He will have more news.”
27 “The first man looks like Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok,” the watchman said.
“He is a good man and comes with good news,” the king replied.
28 Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, “All is well!” He bowed low with his face to the ground and said, “Blessed be the Lord your God who has destroyed the rebels who dared to stand against you.”
29 “What of young Absalom?” the king demanded. “Is he all right?”
“When Joab told me to come, there was a lot of shouting; but I didn’t know what was happening,”[a] Ahimaaz answered.
30 “Wait here,” the king told him. So Ahimaaz stepped aside.
31 Then the man from Cush arrived and said, “I have good news for my lord the king. Today Jehovah has rescued you from all those who rebelled against you.”
32 “What about young Absalom? Is he all right?” the king demanded.
And the man replied, “May all of your enemies be as that young man is!”
33 Then the king broke into tears, and went up to his room over the gate, crying as he went. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. If only I could have died for you! O Absalom, my son, my son.”
14 Dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen and for him to come, try hard to live without sinning; and be at peace with everyone so that he will be pleased with you when he returns.
15-16 And remember why he is waiting. He is giving us time to get his message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation—they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scripture—and the result is disaster for them.
17 I am warning you ahead of time, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too. 18 But grow in spiritual strength and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be all glory and splendid honor, both now and forevermore. Good-bye.
Peter
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.