1 Samuel 21, 22, 1 Corinthians 3, Ezekiel 1, Psalm 37

1 Samuel 21, 22,

1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"
 
2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, 'No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.
 
3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."
 
4 But the priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here-provided the men have kept themselves from women."
 
5 David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!"
 
6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
 
7 Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd.
 
8 David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king's business was urgent."
 
9 The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one." David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."
 
10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.
 
11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: " 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"
 
12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.
 
13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
 
14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?
 
15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there.
 
2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
 
3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, "Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?"
 
4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.
 
5 But the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah." So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.
 
6 Now Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul, spear in hand, was seated under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with all his officials standing around him.
 
7 Saul said to them, "Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?
 
8 Is that why you have all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today."
 
9 But Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul's officials, said, "I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.
 
10 Ahimelech inquired of the LORD for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
 
11 Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and his father's whole family, who were the priests at Nob, and they all came to the king.
 
12 Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." "Yes, my lord," he answered.
 
13 Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him, so that he has rebelled against me and lies in wait for me, as he does today?"
 
14 Ahimelech answered the king, "Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household?
 
15 Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father's family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair."
 
16 But the king said, "You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and your father's whole family."
 
17 Then the king ordered the guards at his side: "Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me." But the king's officials were not willing to raise a hand to strike the priests of the LORD.
 
18 The king then ordered Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priests." So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
 
19 He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.
 
20 But Abiathar, a son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub, escaped and fled to join David.
 
21 He told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD.
 
22 Then David said to Abiathar: "That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your father's whole family.
 
23 Stay with me; don't be afraid; the man who is seeking your life is seeking mine also. You will be safe with me."
 

1 Corinthians 3,

1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ.
 
2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
 
3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
 
4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
 
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
 
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
 
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
 
8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
 
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
 
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.
 
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
 
12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
 
13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
 
14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
 
15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
 
16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
 
17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
 
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.
 
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness";
 
20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."
 
21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours,
 
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future-all are yours,
 
23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
 

Ezekiel 1,

1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
 
2 On the fifth of the month-it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin-
 
3 the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was upon him.
 
4 I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north-an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal,
 
5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man,
 
6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.
 
7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze.
 
8 Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings,
 
9 and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.
 
10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.
 
11 Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward; each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body.
 
12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went.
 
13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it.
 
14 The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.
 
15 As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces.
 
16 This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.
 
17 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went.
 
18 Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.
 
19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose.
 
20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
 
21 When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
 
22 Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like an expanse, sparkling like ice, and awesome.
 
23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body.
 
24 When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.
 
25 Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings.
 
26 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man.
 
27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.
 
28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
 

Psalm 37

1 Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
 
2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
 
3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
 
4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
 
5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:
 
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
 
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
 
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil.
 
9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
 
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
 
11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
 
12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
 
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
 
14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
 
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.
 
16 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked;
 
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
 
18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever.
 
19 In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
 
20 But the wicked will perish: The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish-vanish like smoke.
 
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously;
 
22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off.
 
23 If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm;
 
24 though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
 
25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
 
26 They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.
 
27 Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.
 
28 For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off;
 
29 the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
 
30 The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just.
 
31 The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip.
 
32 The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives;
 
33 but the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
 
34 Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
 
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil,
 
36 but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found.
 
37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace.
 
38 But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
 
39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
 
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.