Thursday 2 August 2007 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Thursday 2 August 2007 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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2 Samuel 4:1-12

When Saul's son Ishbaal heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage
failed, and all Israel was dismayed. Saul's son had two captains of
raiding bands; the name of one was Baanah, and the name of the other
Rechab. They were sons of Rimmon, a Benjaminite from Beeroth-for Beeroth
is considered to belong to Benjamin. (Now the people of Beeroth had fled
to Gittaim and are there as resident aliens to this day). 
Saul's son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five
years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His
nurse picked him up and fled; and, in her haste to flee, it happened
that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. 
Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and
about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ishbaal, while he
was taking his noonday rest. They came inside the house as though to
take wheat, and they struck him in the stomach; then Rechab and his
brother Baanah escaped. Now they had come into the house while he was
lying on his couch in his bedchamber; they attacked him, killed him, and
beheaded him. Then they took his head and travelled by way of the Arabah
all night long. They brought the head of Ishbaal to David at Hebron and
said to the king, 'Here is the head of Ishbaal, son of Saul your enemy
who sought your life; the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on
Saul and on his offspring.' 
David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the
Beerothite, 'As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every
adversity, when the one who told me, "See, Saul is dead", thought he was
bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag-this was the
reward I gave him for his news. How much more then, when wicked men have
killed a righteous man on his bed in his own house! And now shall I not
require his blood at your hand, and destroy you from the earth?' So
David commanded the young men, and they killed them; they cut off their
hands and feet, and hung their bodies beside the pool at Hebron. But the
head of Ishbaal they took and buried in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.
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Acts 16:25-40

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and
the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake,
so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and
immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were
unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that
the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, 'Do not
harm yourself, for we are all here.' The jailer called for lights, and
rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he
brought them outside and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They
answered, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and
your household.' They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who
were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed
their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and
his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God. 
When morning came, the magistrates sent the police, saying, 'Let those
men go.' And the jailer reported the message to Paul, saying, 'The
magistrates sent word to let you go; therefore come out now and go in
peace.' But Paul replied, 'They have beaten us in public, uncondemned,
men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and now are
they going to discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and
take us out themselves.' The police reported these words to the
magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman
citizens; so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out
and asked them to leave the city. After leaving the prison they went to
Lydia's home; and when they had seen and encouraged the brothers and
sisters there, they departed.
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Mark 7:1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from
Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples
were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the
Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash
their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not
eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also
many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and
bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, 'Why do
your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but
eat with defiled hands?' He said to them, 'Isaiah prophesied rightly
about you hypocrites, as it is written,
"This people honours me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me; 
in vain do they worship me,
   teaching human precepts as doctrines." 
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.' 
Then he said to them, 'You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment
of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, "Honour your
father and your mother"; and, "Whoever speaks evil of father or mother
must surely die." But you say that if anyone tells father or mother,
"Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban" (that is, an
offering to God)- then you no longer permit doing anything for a father
or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that
you have handed on. And you do many things like this.' 
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, 'Listen to me, all of
you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in
can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.' 
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked
him about the parable. He said to them, 'Then do you also fail to
understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside
cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes
out into the sewer?' (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said,
'It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within,
from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft,
murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy,
slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they
defile a person.' 
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 70, 71

Psalm 70

Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.
   O Lord, make haste to help me! 
Let those be put to shame and confusion
   who seek my life.
Let those be turned back and brought to dishonour
   who desire to hurt me. 
Let those who say, 'Aha, Aha!'
   turn back because of their shame. 


Let all who seek you
   rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation
   say evermore, 'God is great!' 
But I am poor and needy;
   hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
   O Lord, do not delay!



Psalm 71

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
   let me never be put to shame. 
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
   incline your ear to me and save me. 
Be to me a rock of refuge,
   a strong fortress, to save me,
   for you are my rock and my fortress. 


Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
   from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. 
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
   my trust, O Lord, from my youth. 
Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
   it was you who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you. 


I have been like a portent to many,
   but you are my strong refuge. 
My mouth is filled with your praise,
   and with your glory all day long. 
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
   do not forsake me when my strength is spent. 
For my enemies speak concerning me,
   and those who watch for my life consult together. 
They say, 'Pursue and seize that person
   whom God has forsaken,
   for there is no one to deliver.' 


O God, do not be far from me;
   O my God, make haste to help me! 
Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
   let those who seek to hurt me
   be covered with scorn and disgrace. 
But I will hope continually,
   and will praise you yet more and more. 
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
   of your deeds of salvation all day long,
   though their number is past my knowledge. 
I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
   I will praise your righteousness, yours alone. 


O God, from my youth you have taught me,
   and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 
So even to old age and grey hairs,
   O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
   to all the generations to come.
Your power and your righteousness, O God,
   reach the high heavens. 


You who have done great things,
   O God, who is like you? 
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
   will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
   you will bring me up again. 
You will increase my honour,
   and comfort me once again. 


I will also praise you with the harp
   for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
   O Holy One of Israel. 
My lips will shout for joy
   when I sing praises to you;
   my soul also, which you have rescued. 
All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,
for those who tried to do me harm
   have been put to shame, and disgraced.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 74

Psalm 74

O God, why do you cast us off for ever?
   Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? 
Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago,
   which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage.
   Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell. 
Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
   the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. 


Your foes have roared within your holy place;
   they set up their emblems there. 
At the upper entrance they hacked
   the wooden trellis with axes. 
And then, with hatchets and hammers,
   they smashed all its carved work. 
They set your sanctuary on fire;
   they desecrated the dwelling-place of your name,
   bringing it to the ground. 
They said to themselves, 'We will utterly subdue them';
   they burned all the meeting-places of God in the land. 


We do not see our emblems;
   there is no longer any prophet,
   and there is no one among us who knows how long. 
How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
   Is the enemy to revile your name for ever? 
Why do you hold back your hand;
   why do you keep your hand in your bosom? 


Yet God my King is from of old,
   working salvation in the earth. 
You divided the sea by your might;
   you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. 
You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
   you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. 
You cut openings for springs and torrents;
   you dried up ever-flowing streams. 
Yours is the day, yours also the night;
   you established the luminaries and the sun. 
You have fixed all the bounds of the earth;
   you made summer and winter. 


Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
   and an impious people reviles your name. 
Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals;
   do not forget the life of your poor for ever. 


Have regard for your covenant,
   for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence. 
Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame;
   let the poor and needy praise your name. 
Rise up, O God, plead your cause;
   remember how the impious scoff at you all day long. 
Do not forget the clamour of your foes,
   the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
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