Meditate

19. Saul Tries to Kill David

Jonathan Intercedes for David

19

Saul spoke with his son Jonathan and with all his servants about killing David. But Saul’s son Jonathan took great delight in David.²Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying to kill you; therefore be on guard tomorrow morning; stay in a secret place and hide yourself.³I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you; if I learn anything I will tell you.”⁴Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul, saying to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you;⁵for he took his life in his hand when he attacked the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against an innocent person by killing David without cause?”⁶Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan; Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.”⁷So Jonathan called David and related all these things to him. Jonathan then brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.

Michal Helps David Escape from Saul

⁸ Again there was war, and David went out to fight the Philistines. He launched a heavy attack on them, so that they fled before him.⁹Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music.¹⁰Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear; but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.

¹¹ Saul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch over him, planning to kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”¹²So Michal let David down through the window; he fled away and escaped.¹³Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed; she put a net of goats’ hair on its head, and covered it with the clothes.¹⁴When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”¹⁵Then Saul sent the messengers to see David for themselves. He said, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”¹⁶When the messengers came in, the idol was in the bed, with the covering of goats’ hair on its head.¹⁷Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go; why should I kill you?’ ”

David Joins Samuel in Ramah

¹⁸ Now David fled and escaped; he came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and settled at Naioth.¹⁹Saul was told, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.”²⁰Then Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of the prophets in a frenzy, with Samuel standing in charge of them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also fell into a prophetic frenzy.²¹When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also fell into a frenzy. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also fell into a frenzy.²²Then he himself went to Ramah. He came to the great well that is in Secu; he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.”²³He went there, toward Naioth in Ramah; and the spirit of God came upon him. As he was going, he fell into a prophetic frenzy, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.²⁴He too stripped off his clothes, and he too fell into a frenzy before Samuel. He lay naked all that day and all that night. Therefore it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

6. Relationships and Final Greetings

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ;⁶not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.⁷Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women,⁸knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.

⁹ And, masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.

79. Psalm 79

Psalm 79

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

1

O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

they have defiled your holy temple;

they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

2

They have given the bodies of your servants

to the birds of the air for food,

the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.

3

They have poured out their blood like water

all around Jerusalem,

and there was no one to bury them.

4

We have become a taunt to our neighbors,

mocked and derided by those around us.

5

How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?

Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?

6

Pour out your anger on the nations

that do not know you,

and on the kingdoms

that do not call on your name.

7

For they have devoured Jacob

and laid waste his habitation.

8

Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;

let your compassion come speedily to meet us,

for we are brought very low.

9

Help us, O God of our salvation,

for the glory of your name;

deliver us, and forgive our sins,

for your name’s sake.

10

Why should the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants

be known among the nations before our eyes.

11

Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;

according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.

12

Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors

the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!

13

Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,

will give thanks to you forever;

from generation to generation we will recount your praise.