July 28th 10th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 11:1-15 & Psalm 14
2 Samuel 11:1-15
11:1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
11:2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
11:3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
11:4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house.
11:5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
11:6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.
11:7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going.
11:8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.
11:9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
11:10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?”
11:11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.”
11:12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day,
11:13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
11:15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
Psalm 14
14:1 Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.
14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.
14:3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
14:4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the LORD?
14:5 There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous.
14:6 You would confound the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.
14:7 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
August 4th 11th Sunday after Pentecost & Communion Sunday
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a & Psalm 51: 1-12
2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a
11:26When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him.
11:27When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD,
12:1and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
12:2The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
12:3but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare and drink from his cup and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.
12:4Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.”
12:5Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die;
12:6he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
12:7Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul;
12:8I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.
12:9Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
12:10Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
12:11Thus says the LORD: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.
12:12For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and in broad daylight.”
12:13aDavid said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Psalm 51:1-12
Create in me a clean heart
51:1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
51:2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
51:3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
51:4Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
51:5Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
51:6You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
51:7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
51:8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
51:9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
51:11Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
51:12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
August 11th 12th Sunday after Pentecost & Mission Sunday
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 & John 6:35, 41-51