◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 57 (I cry to God Most High); 2 Samuel 19:1-18 (Israel and Judah want David back); John 6:35-40 (Doing God’s will) (New English Translation)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 57

Psalm 57^[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;^[b] a prayer^[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.^[d]

57 Have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me.
For in you I have taken shelter.^[e]
In the shadow of your wings^[f] I take shelter
until trouble passes.
²I cry out for help to God Most High,^[g]
to the God who vindicates^[h] me.
³May he send help from heaven and deliver me^[i]
from my enemies who hurl insults.^[j] (Selah)
May God send his loyal love and faithfulness.
⁴I am surrounded by lions;
I lie down^[k] among those who want to devour me,^[l]
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.^[m]
⁵Rise up^[n] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.^[o]
⁶They have prepared a net to trap me;^[p]
I am discouraged.^[q]
They have dug a pit for me.^[r]
They will fall^[s] into it. (Selah)
⁷I am determined,^[t] O God. I am determined.
I will sing and praise you.
⁸Awake, my soul!^[u]
Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!
I will wake up at dawn.^[v]
⁹I will give you thanks before the nations, O Lord.
I will sing praises to you before foreigners.^[w]
¹⁰For your loyal love extends beyond the sky,^[x]
and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.
¹¹Rise up^[y] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.^[z]

Footnotes

Psalm 57:1 sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.
Psalm 57:1 tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 58-59, 75.
Psalm 57:1 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56, 58-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”
Psalm 57:1 sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.
Psalm 57:1 tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.
Psalm 57:1 sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).
Psalm 57:2 sn The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ʿelyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.
Psalm 57:2 tn Or “avenges in favor of.”
Psalm 57:3 tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).
Psalm 57:3 tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”
Psalm 57:4 tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (ʾeshk^evah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).
Psalm 57:4 tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).
Psalm 57:4 tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”
Psalm 57:5 tn Or “be exalted.”
Psalm 57:5 tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “for my feet.”
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “my life bends low.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
Psalm 57:6 tn Heb “before me.”
Psalm 57:6 tn The perfect form is used rhetorically here to express the psalmist’s certitude. The demise of the enemies is so certain that he can speak of it as already accomplished.
Psalm 57:7 tn Or perhaps “confident”; Heb “my heart is steadfast.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and/or emotions.
Psalm 57:8 tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (k^evedi, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”
Psalm 57:8 tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.
Psalm 57:9 tn Or “the peoples.”
Psalm 57:10 tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”
Psalm 57:11 tn Or “be exalted.”
Psalm 57:11 tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)

2 Samuel 19:1-18

19 (19:2) Joab was told, “The king is weeping and mourning over Absalom.” ²So the victory of that day was turned to mourning as far as all the people were concerned. For the people heard on that day, “The king is grieved over his son.” ³That day the people stole away to go to the city the way people who are embarrassed steal away in fleeing from battle. ⁴The king covered his face and cried out loudly,^[a] “My son, Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁵So Joab visited^[b] the king at his home. He said, “Today you have embarrassed all your servants who have saved your life this day, as well as the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your concubines. ⁶You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now^[c] that if^[d] Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today,^[e] it would be all right with you. ⁷So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to^[f] your servants. For I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!”

⁸So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they^[g] all came before him.

David Goes Back to Jerusalem

But the Israelite soldiers^[h] had all fled to their own homes.^[i] ⁹All the people throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. ¹⁰But Absalom, whom we anointed as our king,^[j] has died in battle. So now why do you hesitate to bring the king back?”^[k]

¹¹Then King David sent a message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests saying, “Tell the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back to his palace,^[l] when everything Israel is saying has come to the king’s attention.^[m] ¹²You are my brothers—my very own flesh and blood!^[n] Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back?’ ¹³Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood?^[o] God will punish me severely,^[p] if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

¹⁴He^[q] won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, “Return, you and all your servants as well.” ¹⁵So the king returned and came to the Jordan River.^[r]

Now the people of Judah^[s] had come to Gilgal to meet the king and to help him^[t] cross the Jordan. ¹⁶Shimei son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim came down quickly with the men of Judah to meet King David. ¹⁷There were 1,000 men from Benjamin with him, along with Ziba the servant^[u] of Saul’s household, and with him his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They hurriedly crossed^[v] the Jordan within sight of the king. ¹⁸They crossed at the ford in order to help the king’s household cross and to do whatever he thought appropriate.

Now after he had crossed the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera threw himself down before the king.

John 6:35-40

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.^[a] ³⁶But I told you^[b] that you have seen me^[c] and still do not believe. ³⁷Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.^[d] ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. ³⁹Now this is the will of the one who sent me—that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up^[e] at the last day. ⁴⁰For this is the will of my Father—for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up^[f] at the last day.”^[g]

Footnotes

John 6:35 tn Grk “the one who believes in me will not possibly thirst, ever.”sn The one who believes in me will never be thirsty. Note the parallelism between “coming to Jesus” in the first part of v. 35 and “believing in Jesus” in the second part of v. 35. For the author of the Gospel of John these terms are virtually equivalent, both referring to a positive response to Jesus (see John 3:17-21).
John 6:36 tn Grk “But I said to you.”
John 6:36 tc A few witnesses lack με (me, “me”; א A a b e q sy^s,c), while the rest of the tradition has the word (P^66,75vid rell). It is possible that the mss that lack the pronoun preserve the original wording here, with the rest of the witnesses adding the pronoun for clarity’s sake. This likelihood increases since the object is not required in Greek. Without it, however, ambiguity increases: The referent could be “me” or it could be “signs,” reaching back to vv. 26 and 30. However, the oblique form of ἐγώ (egō, the first person personal pronoun) occurs some two dozen times in this chapter alone, yet it vacillates between the emphatic form and the unemphatic form. Although generally the unemphatic form is used with verbs, there are several exceptions to this in John (cf. 8:12; 12:26, 45, 48; 13:20; 14:9). If the pronoun is a later addition here, one wonders why it is so consistently the unemphatic form in the mss. Further, that two unrelated Greek witnesses lack this small word could easily be due to accidental deletion. Finally, the date and diversity of the witnesses for the pronoun are so weighty that it is likely to be authentic and should thus be retained in the text.
John 6:37 tn Or “drive away”; Grk “cast out.”
John 6:39 tn Or “resurrect them all,” or “make them all live again”; Grk “raise it up.” The word “all” is supplied to bring out the collective nature of the neuter singular pronoun αὐτό (auto) in Greek. The plural pronoun “them” is used rather than neuter singular “it” because this is clearer in English, which does not use neuter collective singulars in the same way Greek does.
John 6:40 tn Or “resurrect him,” or “make him live again.”
John 6:40 sn Notice that here the result (having eternal life and being raised up at the last day) is produced by looking on the Son and believing in him. Compare John 6:54 where the same result is produced by eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood. This suggests that the phrase in 6:54 (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood in terms of the phrase here (looks on the Son and believes in him).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 57[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;[b] a prayer[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.[d]

Footnotes

David Goes Back to Jerusalem

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 57^[a]

For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style;^[b] a prayer^[c] of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.^[d]