1 Samuel 20, 1 Corinthians 2, Lamentations 5, Psalm 36

1 Samuel 20,

1 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, "What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to take my life?"
 
2 "Never!" Jonathan replied. "You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn't do anything, great or small, without confiding in me. Why would he hide this from me? It's not so!"
 
3 But David took an oath and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, 'Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.' Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."
 
4 Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you."
 
5 So David said, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon festival, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow.
 
6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, 'David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.'
 
7 If he says, 'Very well,' then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.
 
8 As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?"
 
9 "Never!" Jonathan said. "If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?"
 
10 David asked, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?"
 
11 "Come," Jonathan said, "let's go out into the field." So they went there together.
 
12 Then Jonathan said to David: "By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know?
 
13 But if my father is inclined to harm you, may the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away safely. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father.
 
14 But show me unfailing kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed,
 
15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family-not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
 
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the LORD call David's enemies to account."
 
17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
 
18 Then Jonathan said to David: "Tomorrow is the New Moon festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty.
 
19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel.
 
20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target.
 
21 Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, because, as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe; there is no danger.
 
22 But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then you must go, because the LORD has sent you away.
 
23 And about the matter you and I discussed-remember, the LORD is witness between you and me forever."
 
24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon festival came, the king sat down to eat.
 
25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty.
 
26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean-surely he is unclean."
 
27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
 
28 Jonathan answered, "David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem.
 
29 He said, 'Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
 
30 Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?
 
31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he must die!"
 
32 "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his father.
 
33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.
 
34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the month he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father's shameful treatment of David.
 
35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him,
 
36 and he said to the boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
 
37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?"
 
38 Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don't stop!" The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master.
 
39 (The boy knew nothing of all this; only Jonathan and David knew.)
 
40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, "Go, carry them back to town."
 
41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together-but David wept the most.
 
42 Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.' " Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.
 

1 Corinthians 2,

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
 
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
 
3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
 
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,
 
5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
 
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
 
7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
 
8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
 
9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"-
 
10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
 
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
 
12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
 
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
 
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
 
15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
 
16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
 

Lamentations 5,

1 Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.
 
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners.
 
3 We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers like widows.
 
4 We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.
 
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest.
 
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
 
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment.
 
8 Slaves rule over us, and there is none to free us from their hands.
 
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.
 
10 Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.
 
11 Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah.
 
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect.
 
13 Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
 
14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
 
15 Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
 
16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
 
17 Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim
 
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.
 
19 You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.
 
20 Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?
 
21 Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old
 
22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.
 

Psalm 36

1 An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.
 
2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.
 
3 The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.
 
4 Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.
 
5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.
 
6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.
 
7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
 
8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
 
9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
 
10 Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.
 
11 May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
 
12 See how the evildoers lie fallen-thrown down, not able to rise!