Thursday 3 August 2023 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Thursday 3 August 2023
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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