Daily Lectionary in Poetry Saturday 20th December 2014

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

God’s Covenant with David
A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

1 I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord,[a] forever;
    with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
2 I declare that your steadfast love is established forever;
    your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
    I have sworn to my servant David:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants forever,
    and build your throne for all generations.

19 Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said:
    “I have set the crown[a] on one who is mighty,
    I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found my servant David;
    with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21 my hand shall always remain with him;
    my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him,
    the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him
    and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him;
    and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea
    and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
    my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’

__________________________________________________________________________

I will sing of your love forever

I will declare you to all I meet

I will build a throne for you

There you will have a seat

God crowned his servant David

He was anointed

Strengthened

And brought free by God

__________________________________________________________________________

Judges 13:2-24

2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children. 3 And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, or to eat anything unclean, 5 for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite[a] to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” 6 Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel[b] of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name; 7 but he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite[c] to God from birth to the day of his death.’”

8 Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, “O Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.” 9 God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” 11 Manoah got up and followed his wife, and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.” 12 Then Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s rule of life; what is he to do?” 13 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Let the woman give heed to all that I said to her. 14 She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. She is not to drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. She is to observe everything that I commanded her.”

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Allow us to detain you, and prepare a kid for you.” 16 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food; but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) 17 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?” 18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”

19 So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works[d] wonders.[e] 20 When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 The angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” 23 But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

24 The woman bore a son, and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.

__________________________________________________________________________

Manoah had no child
His wife had born him none
One day out in the fields
She was overcome

An angel did appear
Told her she'd have a son
She went to tell her husband
He couldn't believe her tale at once

He asked God to come again
So the angel came to her one more
Confirmed what he had said
She believed him even more

Again her husband doubted
Called to God again
He was told to give an offering
This he did with grain

Now they both believed
Their son would be called Samson
He would have a great life
This gift from good, a son.



__________________________________________________________________________

John 7:40-52

Division among the People
40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.”[a] But some asked, “Surely the Messiah[b] does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah[c] is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The Unbelief of Those in Authority
45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” 46 The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” 47 Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus[d] before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52 They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”

__________________________________________________________________________

Jesus spoke
All heard
But some doubted
Others believed

Those who doubted
Wouldn't change
They were in conflict
With those who followed

The police went to the temple leaders
Should of what they had seen
The leaders there were furious
Why had arrests not been?

The police didn't know what to do
They'd never seen the like before
The temple leaders told them plain
From Galilee can come no leader
__________________________________________________________________________