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Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for the Morning

Heavenly Father, this morning I pray for those who are beginning to know Christ: may You strengthen them on their journey. I pray for all children, and for those who take care of them, especially those who awaken them to faith. I pray for the ill and those who are ending their lives in loneliness: Oh Lord, give them the strength they need. I pray for those who are condemned to prison or exile: Lord, sustain their hope. I pray that the fire of your Spirit may renew the energies of all your saints and enable us to welcome those who do not know you. And finally, Lord, may your Church be constantly renewed, in prayer, in your Word and in your worship; in Christ’s name, this I ask,

Mason Barge, adapted from Taize liturgy 6/22/2014

For Workers in Foreign Lands

O  God our Saviour, who wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, prosper, I pray thee, our brethren who labour in distant lands. Protect them in all perils by land and sea, support them in loneliness and in the hour of trial; give them grace to bear faithful witness unto thee, and endue them with burning zeal and love, that they may turn many to righteousness and finally obtain a crown of glory; through Jesus Christ,

Scottish Bk. of Common Prayer, 1912

Blessing

May God the Father bless us; may Christ take care of us; the Holy Ghost enlighten us all the days of our life. The Lord be our defender and keeper of body and soul, both now and for ever, to the ages of ages.

by Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, 958 A.D.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Psalm 89:1-4 (NKJV)

2 Samuel 5:6-16 (NLT)

David Defeats the Philistines

David then led his men to Jerusalem to fight against the Jebusites, the original inhabitants of the land who were living there. The Jebusites taunted David, saying, “You’ll never get in here! Even the blind and lame could keep you out!” For the Jebusites thought they were safe. But David captured the fortress of Zion, which is now called the City of David.

On the day of the attack, David said to his troops, “I hate those ‘lame’ and ‘blind’ Jebusites. Whoever attacks them should strike by going into the city through the water tunnel.” That is the origin of the saying, “The blind and the lame may not enter the house.”

So David made the fortress his home, and he called it the City of David. He extended the city, starting at the supporting terraces and working inward. And David became more and more powerful, because the Lord God of Hosts was with him.

Then King Hiram of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar timber and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built David a palace. And David realized that the Lord had confirmed him as king over Israel and had blessed his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

After moving from Hebron to Jerusalem, David married more concubines and wives, and they had more sons and daughters. These are the names of David’s sons who were born in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

Notes on the Scripture

he Jebusites pop up repeatedly in the historical parts of the Old Testament, although nobody is exactly sure who they are. In Genesis (Genesis 14:18-20), they are mentioned as having a mysterious, possibly divine, high priest named “Melchizedek”; this name pops up again, repeatedly, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Anyway, Jerusalem is a very ancient city and interacted with Abram before he became Abraham; the city was called “Salem” at that time.

When David conquered the city, it had come to be called “Jebus.” The Jebusites were a native Canaanite people and possibly founded the city originally, naming it “Jebus” after themselves. This is also the earliest reference to “Zion,” apparently a name given by the Jebusites to the fortress of the city.

At any rate, it was a mighty fortress for its place and time; the Jebusites thought it immune from conquest, so impenetrable that it could be defended by the blind and lame. Other Hebrew texts flesh out David’s strategy to take this impossible fortress: One account is that the city had little natural water, and thus the water shaft was very large; David sent the redoubtable Joab and a sizable force to climb up the water shaft and open one of the city gates.

I have included the list of David’s sons only so that we can appreciate that Solomon was, by no means, the senior “heir apparent” to the throne. We will keep this in mind when we see his struggle for precedence in the future.

Daily Inspiration

“ Defining Moments ”

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