Saturday July 24 Pentecost 8
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Psalm 138
I praise God because God helped me, even though I am one of the lowly.
Psalm 139
God, you know everything about me, even when I was still in my mother’s womb, and I am amazed at your knowledge. Help me to remove all evil from the world.
2 Samuel 1: 1-16 What’s Samuel about?
In a different version of how Saul died, David hears from a resident foreigner that Saul had asked the foreigner to kill him so he would not have to undergo humiliation and torture by the Philistines. David is deeply distressed and has the foreigner killed because he killed the king God had anointed. These stories show David as utterly determined to respect God’s original choice of king.
Originally the stories of the first two kings were in a single book, called Samuel because it began with the birth and life of Samuel who anointed Saul, the first king. But later, because it was so long, the book was divided at the point at which David’s reign began. Today we begin reading the second part, now called Second Samuel.
Mark 6:1-13 What’s Mark about?
The opposition to Jesus is starting to grow. First his own home town rejects him, and when he sends out his disciples they are prepared for rejection on their travels even though the kingdom is breaking in around them. As we will read tomorrow, the opposition is becoming very serious indeed. Very soon this gospel will focus, in its second half, on Jesus’ approaching death.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence.
Give us pure hearts and constant wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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