Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when King Saul sent men to catch David at his house and murder him.
A prayer[a]
59 My God, please save me from my enemies!
They are attacking me,
so please keep me safe from them.
2 Rescue me from those dangerous men,
who are doing evil things.
3 Look at them! They are waiting to kill me!
Cruel men are ready to attack me.
Lord, I have not done anything against them,
but they still want to kill me.
4 I have done nothing that is wrong,
but they are preparing to attack me.
Do something to help me!
Look at what they are doing!
5 For you are the Lord God Almighty,
the God that Israel serves.
Get up and punish all the foreign nations.
Do not forgive any wicked people
who have turned against us.
Selah.
6 Those bad people come back to the city every evening.
They go from place to place,
and they cry out like dogs.
7 They shout evil things,
and their words hurt like swords.
They think, ‘Nobody can hear what we say!’
8 But Lord, you laugh at them.
You laugh at all the foreign nations.
9 I will wait for you to help me,
because you are the one who gives me strength.
You, God, are the strong place
where I will be safe.
10 Yes God, you love me with a faithful love,
and you will come to help me.
God will let me see that he has won against my enemies.
11 Do not kill them yet,
or my people will soon forget.
Use your power to send them away without homes.
Then make them fall!
You are our Lord
who keeps us safe like a soldier's shield.
12 They speak bad words that are evil.
Let their own pride catch them in a trap,
because they curse people,
and they tell lies.
13 Because you are angry with them,
destroy them!
Destroy them completely,
so that they are no more.
Then everybody will know that God rules in Israel,
and he rules everywhere in the earth.
Selah.
14 Those bad people come back to the city every evening.
They go from place to place,
and they cry out like dogs.
15 They go from place to place
and they look for food to eat.
They will not rest until they are full.
16 But I will sing to praise you.
I will sing about your strength!
In the morning,
I will praise you for your faithful love.
Because you are the strong place where I can hide.
When I am in trouble,
you keep me safe.
17 You are the one who gives me strength.
I will sing songs to praise you.
You, God, are my strong, safe place.
You are the God who loves me with a faithful love.
Jehu becomes king of Israel
9 The prophet Elisha told a man from the group of prophets to come to him. Elisha said to him, ‘Tie your belt around you and prepare to travel. Take this bottle of olive oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 When you arrive there, look for Jehu. He is the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him and take him into a room away from his friends. 3 Pour the oil from the bottle onto his head. Say to him, “This is what the Lord says to you: I have now chosen you to be king of Israel.” Then open the door and run away quickly!’
4 The young prophet that Elisha had sent went to Ramoth Gilead. 5 When he arrived there, he found the army officers. They were sitting together. The prophet said, ‘Captain, I have a message for you.’ Jehu asked him, ‘The message is for which of us?’ The prophet replied, ‘It is for you, sir.’ 6 So Jehu stood up and he went into the house. The young prophet poured the oil onto Jehu's head. He said to him, ‘This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says to you: “I have now chosen you to be king of the Lord's people, Israel. 7 You will destroy the family of your master, Ahab. In this way I will punish Ahab's wife Jezebel, because she killed the prophets and other people who served me. 8 The whole family of Ahab must die. I will kill every male among his descendants in Israel, whoever they are. 9 I will destroy Ahab's family as I did to the family of Nebat's son Jeroboam and the family of Ahijah's son Baasha. 10 Dogs will eat Jezebel's body on the ground in Jezreel. Nobody will bury her.” ’
Then the young prophet opened the door and he ran away.
11 Jehu went out to the other army officers. They asked him, ‘Is everything well? Why did that crazy man come to you?’ Jehu replied, ‘It was not important. You know what that man is like and the kind of things he says.’ 12 But the officers said, ‘That is not true! Tell us what he said.’ So Jehu told them what the prophet had said. He told them, ‘The prophet said, “This is what the Lord says: I have now chosen you to be the king of Israel.” ’
13 The other officers then quickly took their coats. They put them on the stone steps for Jehu to walk on. Then they made a loud noise with a trumpet. They shouted, ‘Jehu is king!’
Christ's death on the cross
18 Some people think that the message about Christ's death on the cross is silly. Those people are destroying themselves. But it is different for us, the people that God is saving. The message about the cross shows us God's power to save us.
19 It says in the Bible:
‘I, God, will destroy all the clever thoughts of wise people.
I will show that their clever ideas are useless.’[a]
20 So the wise people in this world are not really important. The clever teachers of God's Law are not really important. People who know how to argue well are not really important. God has shown that the wise ideas that belong to this world have no value.
21 God himself is wise. He has decided that people cannot know him just because they are wise in their own way. Instead, God uses the message about Jesus to save people. That message may seem to be silly to some people. But when we tell it to people, God saves them if they believe it.
22 Jewish people want to see God do a miracle. Then they will listen. Gentile people want to listen to a message that has clever ideas. 23 But as for us, we tell people about how Christ died on a cross. That is a message that Jewish people refuse to accept as true. Gentile people think that it is a silly message. 24 But it is different for us whom God has called to come to him. Some of us are Jews, and some of us are Gentiles. For us, Christ shows God's great power. He shows how wise God is. 25 Christ's death on a cross may seem a silly thing for God to do. But really it shows that God is very wise. He is wiser than people with their clever ideas. Christ's death on a cross may seem to show that God is weak. But really he is stronger than any human power.
26 Christian friends, remember the time when God called you to come to him. Think about what you were like. Not many of you were clever or powerful in the way that people think is good. Not many of you belonged to important families. 27 Instead, God chose to use things that people think are silly. He did this so that clever people would be ashamed. Yes, God chose to use things that people think are weak. He did this so that powerful people would be ashamed. 28 God chose to use things that people think are useless. People who belong to this world do not like those things. They think that they have no value. God did this so that the things that seem important would become unimportant.
29 Because of all this, nobody can be proud of themselves in front of God. 30 It is because of God's work that you now belong to Christ Jesus. As a result of Christ's death on the cross, we share in God's wise plan. Because we belong to Christ, God makes us right with himself. He makes us his own special people. He makes us free from the power of sin.
31 Remember what is written in the Bible:
‘If you want to be proud about something,
be proud of what the Lord has done.’[b]
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