From the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord’s name is to be praised. Psalm 113:3

1 Samuel 20-21

1 Samuel 20

Jonathan Helps David

¹ David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

² He said to him, “Far from it! You will not die. My father does nothing either great or small, without disclosing it to me. Why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.”

³ But David vowed, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved,’  but truly as the Lord lives, and as you live, there is but a step between me and death.”

⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever your heart desires, I will surely do it for you.”

⁵ David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king, but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field until evening of the third day. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city, for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ ⁷ If he says, ‘It is well,” then your servant shall have peace, but if he is angry, then know that evil has been determined by him. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you, but if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹ Jonathan said, “Far be it from you, for if I knew anything about any evil determined by my father for you, then wouldn’t I tell you that?”

¹⁰ Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

Jonathan and David Renew Covenant

¹¹ Jonathan said to David, “Come! Let’s go out into the field.” They both went out into the field.

¹² Jonathan said to David, “By the Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, if there is good concerning David, won’t I then send to you, and disclose it to you? ¹³ The Lord do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do evil to you, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in peace. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. ¹⁴ You shall not only show me the loving kindness of the Lord while I still live, that I not die, ¹⁵ but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not even when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “The Lord will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.” ¹⁷ Jonathan made David swear it again, for the love that he had for him, for he loved him as he loved himself.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹ When you have stayed three days, go down quickly, and come to the place where you hid yourself when this started, and remain by the stone Ezel. ²⁰ I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark. ²¹ I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘The arrows are on this side of you. Take them,’ then come, for it is safe for you and there is no danger, as the Lord lives. ²² But if I say this to the boy, ‘The arrows are beyond you,’ then go your way, for the Lord has sent you away. ²³ Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, the Lord is between you and me forever.”

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon had come, the king sat down to eat food. ²⁵ The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall, and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶ Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.”

²⁷ The next day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why doesn’t the son of Jesse come to eat, either yesterday or today?”

²⁸ Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city. My brother has commanded me to be there. Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the king’s table.”

Saul Seeks to Kill Jonathan

³⁰ Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? ³¹ For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingdom. Therefore now send for him and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!”

³² Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

³³ Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. ³⁴ So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had treated him shamefully.

³⁵ In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him. ³⁶ He said to his boy, “Run, find now the arrows which I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ When the boy had come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸ Jonathan cried after the boy, “Go fast! Hurry! Don’t delay!” Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. ³⁹ But the boy did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. ⁴⁰ Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”

⁴¹ As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of the south and fell on his face to the ground and bowed down three times. They kissed one another and wept one with another, and David wept the most. ⁴² Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’ ” He arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.

1 Samuel 21

David Takes the Consecrated Bread

¹ Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David, and trembling, he said to him, “Why are you alone and no man with you?” ² David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I am sending you and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’ ³ Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.”

⁴ The priest answered David and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread, if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”

⁵ David answered the priest and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then, today, shall their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before the Lord, to replace it with hot bread that day, when it was taken away.

⁷ Now a certain man among the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. ⁸ David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here, under your hand, spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”

⁹ The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you would like to take that, take it, for there is no other except that here.”

David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”

David Flees to Gath

¹⁰ David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹ The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David the king of the land? Didn’t they sing to one another about him in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands?’ ”

¹² David laid up these words in his heart and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ He changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, letting his spittle fall down on his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why then have you brought him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house?”

John 9

Jesus Heals the Man Born Blind

¹ As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³ Jesus answered, “This man did not sin, nor did his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. ⁴  I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud, ⁷ and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing. ⁸ The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, “Isn’t this the man who sat and begged?” ⁹ Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “It looks like him.”
He said, “I am he.” ¹⁰ They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?”

¹¹ He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.”

¹² Then they asked him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”

The Pharisees Investigate

¹³ They brought the man who had been blind, to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵ Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. I washed, and I see.”

¹⁶ Therefore. some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” There was division among them.

¹⁷ Therefore they asked the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”

¹⁸ The Jews, therefore, did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight, ¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

²⁰ His parents answered them, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, ²¹ but how he now sees, we don’t know, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. ²³ Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”

²⁴ So they called the man who was blind a second time and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

²⁵ He therefore answered, “I don’t know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

²⁶ They said to him again, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷ He answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t also want to become his disciples, do you?”

²⁸ They insulted him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.”

³⁰ The man answered them, “How amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he listens to him. ³² Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of someone born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

³⁴ They answered him, “You were altogether born in sin, and do you teach us?” Then they threw him out.

Spiritual Sight and Blindness

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”

³⁶ He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?”

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.”

³⁸ He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him.

³⁹ Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

⁴⁰ Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him, “Are we also blind?”

⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin, but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

Psalm 113-114

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise, you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
² Blessed be the name of the Lord,
from this time forward and forevermore.

³ From the rising of the sun to its going down,
the Lord’s name is to be praised.
⁴ The Lord is high above all nations,
his glory above the heavens.
⁵ Who is like the Lord, our God,
who has his seat on high,
⁶ Who stoops down to see in heaven and on the earth?
⁷ He raises up the poor out of the dust.
Lifts up the needy from the ash heap,
⁸ that he may set him with princes,
with the princes of his people.
⁹ He settles the barren woman in her home
as a joyful mother of children.
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 114

Tremble at the Presence of the Lord

¹ When Israel went out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language,
² Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
³ The sea saw it and fled.
The Jordan was driven back.
⁴ The mountains skipped like rams,
the little hills like lambs.
⁵ What was it, you sea, that you fled?
You Jordan, that you turned back?
⁶ You mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you little hills, like lambs?
⁷ Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
⁸ who turned the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of waters.

Proverbs 15:15-17

¹⁵ All the days of the afflicted are wretched,
but one who has a cheerful heart enjoys a continual feast.
¹⁶ Better is little, with the fear of the Lord,
than great treasure with trouble.
¹⁷ Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is,
than a fattened calf with hatred.

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