M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 26
David Spares Saul Again.[a] 1 Now the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?” 2 Saul rose up and went down into the Desert of Ziph. He had three thousand of the chosen men of Israel with him, and he sought David in the Desert of Ziph.
3 Saul camped by the road on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon. David was staying in the desert, and he saw Saul pursuing him in the desert. 4 David had sent out spies and discovered that Saul had indeed come.
5 David arose and went to the place where Saul was camped. David detected the place where Saul was lying, alongside of Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Now Saul was lying within the fortifications, and the people were encamped all around him. 6 David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai, Joab’s brother, the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” Abishai said, “I will go with you.”
7 So David and Abishai went among the people by night, and they found Saul asleep within the fortifications, his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the people were lying all around him. 8 Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hands today. Let me strike him once, pinning him to the ground. I will not have to strike him twice.” 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do no violence to him. Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?” 10 David continued, “As the Lord lives, the Lord himself will strike him down. Either his time will come, or he will simply die, or he will go into battle and be killed. 11 The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Now take the spear that is by his head and the water jar, and let us leave.”
12 David took the spear that was by Saul’s head and the water jar and they left. No one had seen them, and no one knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They all kept sleeping, for the Lord had caused them to fall into a deep sleep.
13 David then crossed over to the other side, and he stood on the top of a distant hill, so that there was quite a space between them. 14 David cried out to the people and to Abner, the son of Ner, “Will you not answer me Abner?” Abner said, “Who are you that you call out to the king?” 15 [b]David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why have you not kept guard over your lord, the king? Someone came in to kill the king, your lord. 16 You have not done well. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, for you have not protected your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look around now for the king’s spear and the water jar that were at his head.”
17 Saul recognized David’s voice, and he said, “Is this the voice of my son David?” David answered, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” 18 He continued, “Why is my lord chasing after his servant? What have I done? What wrongdoing have I committed? 19 Now may my lord, the king, listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may he now accept an offering.[c] If it was done by humans, may they be cursed by the Lord. They have driven me out of the Lord’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go serve other gods.’ 20 Do not let my blood fall to the earth in the presence of the Lord. My king has come out to search for a flea, like one who goes out to hunt a partridge in the mountains.”
21 Saul responded, “I have sinned. Come back, David, my son, for I will not try to harm you again because you considered my life to be precious. I have played the fool and made a terrible mistake.” 22 David said, “Here is the king’s spear. Let one of your young men come over and fetch it. 23 The Lord rewards each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. 24 May the Lord value my life as much as I have valued your life today. May he deliver me from all of my difficulties.” 25 Saul said to David, “May you be blessed David, my son, for you will accomplish many things and you will triumph.” David went his way, and Saul returned to his home.
Marriage and Celibacy among Christians[a]
Chapter 7
Christian Marriage.[b] 1 Now I will move on to the matters about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man to refrain from touching a woman. 2 However, to avoid the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 A husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise a wife should fulfill her conjugal obligations to her husband. 4 For a wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, a husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by mutual consent for a specified time so as to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you by taking advantage of your lack of self-control. 6 I suggest this not as a command but by way of concession. 7 I wish that all of you would be as I myself am. However, each person has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.
8 To the unmarried and to widows, I say that it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do. 9 However, if they are unable to exercise self-control, they should marry, for it is better to be married than to burn with passion.
10 To those who are married, I give this command, which is not mine but the Lord’s: a wife should not separate from her husband— 11 and if she does separate, she must either remain unmarried or become reconciled to her husband—and a husband should not divorce his wife.
12 Living at Peace with an Unbelieving Spouse.[c] To the rest, I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she is willing to remain with him, he should not divorce her. 13 And if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he is willing to remain with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, whereas in fact they are holy.
15 However, if the unbelieving partner chooses to separate, let that person go. The brother or sister is no longer bound in this case. God has called you to live in peace. 16 As a wife, how can you be certain that you will save your husband? As a husband, how can you be certain that you will save your wife?
17 Living Where Christ Calls Us. Everyone should accept the role in life assigned to each one by the Lord, continuing as he was when the Lord called him. This is the rule that I give to all the Churches. 18 Was a man called after he had been circumcised? Then he must remain circumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should remain uncircumcised. 19 To be circumcised is of no importance, and to be uncircumcised is of no importance. What matters is keeping God’s commandments. 20 Everyone should remain as he was when he was called.
21 Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that concern you. But if you have an opportunity to gain your freedom, take it. 22 For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord, just as whoever was free when he was called is a slave of Christ. 23 You were purchased at a price. Do not become slaves of men. 24 Therefore, brethren, everyone should remain before God in the condition in which he was called.
25 Virginity—Total Consecration to Christ.[d] In regard to virgins, I have received no instructions from the Lord, but let me offer my own opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy can be considered trustworthy. 26 I think that in this time of stress, a man should remain in his current state. 27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife. 28 However, if you do marry, you do not sin, nor does a virgin sin if she marries. But those who marry will experience hardships in this life,[e] and from these I would like to spare you.
29 What I am saying, brethren, is that our time is short. From now on, those who have wives should live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had nothing, 31 and those who make use of the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the world as we know it is passing away.
32 It is my wish that you be free of all anxieties. An unmarried man devotes himself to the Lord’s affairs and is concerned as to how he can please the Lord. 33 However, a man who is married devotes himself to worldly matters and is concerned about how he can please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. In the same way, an unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the affairs of the Lord and strives to be holy in both body and spirit, whereas the married woman is concerned about worldly matters and how she may please her husband.
35 I am speaking about this for your own good. I have no intention to impose any restraint upon you, but I wish you to be guided by a sense of propriety, to devote yourself to the Lord free from distraction.
36 Freedom To Marry.[f] If a man feels that he is behaving improperly toward his virgin because a critical moment has come[g] and it seems that something should be done, let him do what he wills. He does not sin if there is a marriage. 37 However, if he stands firm in his resolve and is under no obligation and, being free to carry out his will, decides in his heart to keep his virgin, he also does well. 38 Therefore, the man who gives her in marriage does well, and the one who does not give her in marriage does better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But should the husband die, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only let it be in the Lord. 40 However, in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is, and I believe that I too have the Spirit of God.
Chapter 5
1 Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take scales and divide the hair you have cut off. 2 When the days of the siege come to an end, burn one-third of the hair inside the city. Take another third and cut it up with the sword throughout the city. Scatter the last third to the wind while I pursue it with the sword. 3 In addition, take a few of these hairs and conceal them in a fold of your robe. 4 From these, however, take some and cast them into the fire and burn them completely. A fire will spread from there against the entire house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, which I have established in the midst of the nations and surrounded with foreign countries. 6 But she has rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes more wickedly than all the nations and the countries around her, rejecting my ordinances and refusing to obey my laws.
7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have been more rebellious than the nations that surround you and have not followed my statutes or respected my ordinances and have not even observed the laws of the nations that surround you, 8 therefore, thus says the Lord God: I too am coming against you, and I will execute my judgments on you for all the nations to see. 9 And because of all your abominable offenses, I will inflict punishment on you that I have never done before and the like of which I will never do again. 10 Those of you who are parents will eat your children, and children will eat their parents. I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to the winds.
11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your detestable and vile abominations, I will destroy you. I will not take pity on you or spare you. 12 One-third of you will die of pestilence or perish because of famine, one-third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and one-third I will scatter to the four winds and pursue them with the sword.
13 Then, once my anger has abated and I have vented my wrath against them, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy. 14 I will make you a desolate waste and the object of mockery among the nations that surround you, a fate clearly evident to all those who pass by. 15 You will be an object of mockery and abuse, a frightening warning to the nations that surround you, when I execute my judgment on you in anger and fury and dreadful punishments. I, the Lord, have spoken.
16 When I loose my deadly arrows of famine against you, arrows of destruction which I will send forth to destroy you, and when I afflict you with one famine after another and cut off your supply of food, 17 I will afflict you with even more intense famine and wild beasts, and you will be left childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.
Book II—Psalms 42–72[a]
Psalm 42[b]
Prayer of Longing for God
1 For the director.[c] A maskil of the sons of Korah.
2 As a deer longs for running streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.[d]
3 My soul[e] thirsts for God, the living God.
When shall I come to behold the face of God?
4 My tears have become my food
day and night,
while people taunt me all day long, saying,
“Where is your God?”
5 As I pour out my soul,
I recall those times
when I journeyed with the multitude
and led them in procession to the house of God,
amid loud cries of joy and thanksgiving
on the part of the crowd keeping festival.
6 Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God,
for I will once again praise him,
my Savior and my God.[f]
7 My soul is disheartened within me;
therefore, I remember you
from the land of Jordan and Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.[g]
8 The depths of the sea resound
in the roar of your waterfalls;[h]
all your waves and your breakers
sweep over me.
9 During the day the Lord grants his kindness,
and at night his praise is with me,
a prayer to the living God.[i]
10 I say to God, my Rock,[j]
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about in mourning
while my enemy oppresses me?”
11 It crushes my bones
when my foes taunt me,
jeering at me all day long,
“Where is your God?”[k]
12 Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God;
for I will once again praise him,
my Savior and my God.[l]
Psalm 43[m]
Prayer To Worship God Anew
1 Grant me your justice, O God,
and plead my cause against a godless nation;
rescue me from those who are deceitful and unjust.
2 You, O God, are my refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about in mourning,
while my enemy oppresses me?
3 Send forth your light and your truth;[n]
they will serve as my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place of your dwelling.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to the God of my joy and delight,
and I will praise you[o] with the harp,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you so disheartened, O my soul?
Why do you sigh within me?
Place your hope in God;
for I will once again praise him,
my Savior and my God.[p]
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