Saturday 1 August 2009<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal">DAILY LECTIONARY</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Email Evangelism, forward to a friend: http://www.dailylectionary.org</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2 Samuel 5:22-6:11<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Once again the Philistines came up, and were spread out in the valley of Rephaim. When David inquired of the Lord, he said, ‘You shall not go up; go round to their rear, and come upon them opposite the balsam trees. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then be on the alert; for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.’ David did just as the Lord had commanded him; and he struck down the Philistines from Geba all the way to Gezer.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio,* the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God;* and Ahio* went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs* and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark;* and he died there beside the ark of God. David was angry because the Lord had burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah; so that place is called Perez-uzzah* to this day. David was afraid of the Lord that day; he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come into my care?’ So David was unwilling to take the ark of the Lord into his care in the city of David; instead David took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Acts 17:16-34</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the market-place* every day with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.’ (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor* he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God* and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“For we too are his offspring.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mark 8:1-10</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.’ His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Morning Psalms: Psalm 75, 76</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 75</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We give thanks to you, O God;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>we give thanks; your name is near.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">People tell of your wondrous deeds.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the set time that I appoint</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will judge with equity.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>it is I who keep its pillars steady.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Selah</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast’,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">do not lift up your horn on high,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>or speak with insolent neck.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For not from the east or from the west</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and not from the wilderness comes lifting up;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">but it is God who executes judgement,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>putting down one and lifting up another.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>with foaming wine, well mixed;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">he will pour a draught from it,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and all the wicked of the earth</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>shall drain it down to the dregs.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But I will rejoice* for ever;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 76</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In Judah God is known,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>his name is great in Israel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">His abode has been established in Salem,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>his dwelling-place in Zion.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There he broke the flashing arrows,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Selah</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Glorious are you, more majestic</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>than the everlasting mountains.*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The stout-hearted were stripped of their spoil;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>they sank into sleep;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">none of the troops</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>was able to lift a hand.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>both rider and horse lay stunned.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But you indeed are awesome!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Who can stand before you</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>when once your anger is roused?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From the heavens you uttered judgement;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the earth feared and was still</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">when God rose up to establish judgement,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to save all the oppressed of the earth.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Selah</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Human wrath serves only to praise you,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>when you bind the last bit of your* wrath around you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Make vows to the Lord your God, and perform them;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>let all who are around him bring gifts</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to the one who is awesome,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">who cuts off the spirit of princes,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Evening Psalms: Psalm 23, 27</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 23</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He makes me lie down in green pastures;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">he leads me beside still waters;*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>he restores my soul.*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He leads me in right paths*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for his name’s sake.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even though I walk through the darkest valley,*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I fear no evil;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">for you are with me;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>your rod and your staff—</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>they comfort me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You prepare a table before me</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in the presence of my enemies;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">you anoint my head with oil;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my cup overflows.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Surely* goodness and mercy* shall follow me</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>all the days of my life,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my whole life long.*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Psalm 27</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord is my light and my salvation;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>whom shall I fear?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lord is the stronghold* of my life;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>of whom shall I be afraid?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When evildoers assail me</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to devour my flesh—</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">my adversaries and foes—</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>they shall stumble and fall.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Though an army encamp against me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my heart shall not fear;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">though war rise up against me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>yet I will be confident.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One thing I asked of the Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>that will I seek after:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to live in the house of the Lord</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>all the days of my life,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">to behold the beauty of the Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and to inquire in his temple.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For he will hide me in his shelter</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in the day of trouble;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>he will set me high on a rock.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now my head is lifted up</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>above my enemies all around me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and I will offer in his tent</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>sacrifices with shouts of joy;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I will sing and make melody to the Lord.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>be gracious to me and answer me!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Your face, Lord, do I seek.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Do not hide your face from me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not turn your servant away in anger,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>you who have been my help.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>O God of my salvation!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If my father and mother forsake me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the Lord will take me up.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Teach me your way, O Lord,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and lead me on a level path</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>because of my enemies.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for false witnesses have risen against me,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and they are breathing out violence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in the land of the living.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Wait for the Lord;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>be strong, and let your heart take courage;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>wait for the Lord!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">******************************************************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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