Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 18
Royal Thanksgiving for Victory
To the leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.(A)
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
so I shall be saved from my enemies.(B)
4 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of perdition assailed me;(C)
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.(D)
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.(E)
43 You delivered me from strife with the peoples;[a]
you made me head of the nations;
people whom I had not known served me.(A)
44 As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me;
foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart
and came trembling out of their strongholds.(B)
14 David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but the Lord[a] did not give him into his hand.(A)
David Eludes Saul in the Wilderness
15 David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh when he learned that[b] Saul had come out to seek his life. 16 Saul’s son Jonathan set out and came to David at Horesh; there he strengthened his hand through the Lord.[c](B) 17 He said to him, “Do not be afraid, for the hand of my father Saul shall not find you; you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be second to you; my father Saul also knows that this is so.”(C) 18 Then the two of them made a covenant before the Lord; David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.(D)
Commendation of Titus
16 But thanks be to God, who put in the heart of Titus the same eagerness for you that I myself have. 17 For he not only accepted our appeal, but since he is more eager than ever, he is going to you of his own accord. 18 With him we are sending the brother who is praised among all the churches for his work for the gospel,(A) 19 and not only that, but he has also been appointed by the churches to travel with us while we are administering this generous undertaking[a] for the glory of the Lord himself[b] and to show our goodwill.(B) 20 We are making this arrangement lest anyone blame us about this generous gift that we are administering, 21 for we are setting our minds on what is right not only before the Lord but also before the people.(C) 22 And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found eager in many matters but who is now more eager than ever because of his great confidence in you. 23 As for Titus, he is my partner and coworker in your service; as for our brothers, they are messengers[c] of the churches, the glory of Christ.(D) 24 Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you to them.(E)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.