Friday • 8/4/2023
Friday of the Ninth Week After Pentecost (Proper 12)
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69; 2 Samuel 5:1–12; Acts 17:1–15; Mark 7:24–37
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6–11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday in the Season After Pentecost. We are in Proper 12 of Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.
2 Samuel and David’s elevation. At this his third anointing David (finally) becomes king over God’s united people. Samuel first anointed him in promise (1 Samuel 16). Judah anointed him as king in the south (2 Samuel 2). Now “all the tribes of Israel (the northern tribes) came to David … and said, … ‘The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel’” (2 Samuel 5:1–2). The leaders of the northern tribes make a covenant with David, “and they anointed David king over Israel” (2 Samuel 5:3).
Image: "King David Statue-4" by zeevveez is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The next few chapters of 2 Samuel recount the measures by which David secures his reign. David wins Jerusalem as capital and center of worship (2 Samuel 5:6–6:23). Yahweh promises an everlasting dynasty (2 Samuel 7). And David suppresses attacks by Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Amalek, and Zobah (2 Samuel 8–10).
It’s been a long and winding road, as Paul McCartney might have put it: from shepherding on the family homestead, to receiving Samuel’s promissory anointing, to taking out Goliath, to singing to soothe Saul’s soul, to bonding with Jonathan, to running from Saul, to receiving Judah’s anointing, to lamenting Saul’s demise, and now to being anointed by Israel as king over a united nation. David’s life takes on the cruciform shape the New Testament describes for the Lord’s anointed, his Messiah: “…it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead” (Acts 17:3; and see also Luke 24:26; 1 Peter 1:11).
Today’s Psalm 69, “A psalm of David,” is a reminder of just how aware David himself was of the way Yahweh had called him to this pattern of life. This psalm is also a reminder to us of how David sang and worshiped and prayed his way through it all — and how, in worship, the Lord gave him glimpses of the greater Son who would follow (see verse 23, below)!
1 Save me, O God, *
for the waters have risen up to my neck.
2 I am sinking in deep mire, *
and there is no firm ground for my feet.
3 I have come into deep waters, *
and the torrent washes over me.
13 Those who sit at the gate murmur against me, *
and the drunkards make songs about me.
14 But as for me, this is my prayer to you, *
at the time you have set, O Lord:
15 “In your great mercy, O God, *
answer me with your unfailing help.
16 Save me from the mire; do not let me sink; *
let me be rescued from those who hate me
and out of the deep waters….”
23 They gave me gall to eat, *
and when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.
31 As for me, I am afflicted and in pain; *
your help, O God, will lift me up on high.
32 I will praise the Name of God in song; *
I will proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving.
33 This will please the Lord more than an offering of oxen, *
more than bullocks with horns and hoofs.
34 The afflicted shall see and be glad; *
you who seek God, your heart shall live.
35 For the Lord listens to the needy, *
and his prisoners he does not despise.
36 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, *
the seas and all that moves in them;
37 For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; *
they shall live there and have it in possession.
38 The children of his servants will inherit it, *
and those who love his Name will dwell therein.
Each of us is offered our share in “the fellowship of his sufferings,” in promise of “the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). The privilege, in a word, is to join David in being formed in the likeness of his greater Son, and in singing, praying, and worshiping our way through it all.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+