Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

38 O Lord, don’t punish me while you are angry! ² Your arrows have struck deep; your blows are crushing me. ^3-4 Because of your anger, my body is sick, my health is broken beneath my sins. They are like a flood, higher than my head; they are a burden too heavy to bear. ^5-6 My wounds are festering and full of pus. Because of my sins, I am bent and racked with pain. My days are filled with anguish. ⁷ My loins burn with inflammation,^[a] and my whole body is diseased. ⁸ I am exhausted and crushed; I groan in despair.^[b]

⁹ Lord, you know how I long for my health once more. You hear my every sigh. ¹⁰ My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. ¹¹ My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.

¹² Meanwhile my enemies are trying to kill me. They plot my ruin and spend all their waking hours planning treachery. ^13-14 But I am deaf to all their threats; I am silent before them as a man who cannot speak. I have nothing to say. ¹⁵ For I am waiting for you, O Lord my God. Come and protect me. ¹⁶ Put an end to their arrogance, these who gloat when I am cast down!

¹⁷ How constantly I find myself upon the verge of sin;^[c] this source of sorrow always stares me in the face. ¹⁸ I confess my sins; I am sorry for what I have done. ¹⁹ But my enemies persecute with vigor and continue to hate me—though I have done nothing against them to deserve it. ²⁰ They repay me evil for good and hate me for standing for the right.

²¹ Don’t leave me, Lord; don’t go away! ²² Come quickly! Help me, O my Savior.

24 After Saul’s return from his battle with the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of Engedi; ² so he took three thousand special troops and went to search for him among the rocks and wild goats of the desert. ³ At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to go to the bathroom, but as it happened, David and his men were hiding in the cave!

⁴ “Now’s your time!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today is the day the Lord was talking about when he said, ‘I will certainly put Saul into your power, to do with as you wish’!” Then David crept forward and quietly slit off the bottom of Saul’s robe! ⁵ But then his conscience began bothering him.

⁶ “I shouldn’t have done it,” he said to his men. “It is a serious sin to attack God’s chosen king in any way.”

^7-8 These words of David persuaded his men not to kill Saul.

After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way, David came out and shouted after him, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.

^9-10 Then he shouted to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? This very day you have seen it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave, and some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm him—he is the Lord’s chosen king.’ ¹¹ See what I have in my hand? It is the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you! Doesn’t this convince you that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for my life?

¹² “The Lord will decide between us. Perhaps he will kill you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you. ¹³ As that old proverb says, ‘Wicked is as wicked does,’ but despite your wickedness, I’ll not touch you. ¹⁴ And who is the king of Israel trying to catch, anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a flea? ¹⁵ May the Lord judge as to which of us is right and punish whichever one of us is guilty. He is my lawyer and defender, and he will rescue me from your power!”

¹⁶ Saul called back, “Is it really you, my son David?” Then he began to cry. ¹⁷ And he said to David, “You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil. ¹⁸ Yes, you have been wonderfully kind to me today, for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you didn’t kill me. ¹⁹ Who else in all the world would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today. ²⁰ And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and Israel shall be yours to rule. ²¹ Oh, swear to me by the Lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!”

²² So David promised, and Saul went home, but David and his men went back to their cave.

¹⁷ Next on my list of items to write you about is something else I cannot agree with. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together for your communion services. ¹⁸ Everyone keeps telling me about the arguing that goes on in these meetings, and the divisions developing among you, and I can just about believe it. ¹⁹ But I suppose you feel this is necessary so that you who are always right will become known and recognized!

²⁰ When you come together to eat, it isn’t the Lord’s Supper you are eating, ²¹ but your own. For I am told that everyone hastily gobbles all the food he can without waiting to share with the others, so that one doesn’t get enough and goes hungry while another has too much to drink and gets drunk. ²² What? Is this really true? Can’t you do your eating and drinking at home to avoid disgracing the church and shaming those who are poor and can bring no food? What am I supposed to say about these things? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly do not!

²⁷ So if anyone eats this bread and drinks from this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, he is guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ That is why a man should examine himself carefully before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. ²⁹ For if he eats the bread and drinks from the cup unworthily, not thinking about the body of Christ and what it means, he is eating and drinking God’s judgment upon himself; for he is trifling with the death of Christ. ³⁰ That is why many of you are weak and sick, and some have even died.

³¹ But if you carefully examine yourselves before eating you will not need to be judged and punished. ³² Yet, when we are judged and punished by the Lord, it is so that we will not be condemned with the rest of the world. ³³ So, dear brothers, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper—the communion service—wait for each other;