Friday, June 5 — Psalm 89:48–52 · John 11:1–26 · 2 Samuel 15–16
Three short readings a day — a Psalm or Proverb, the New Testament, and the Old Testament — about 15 minutes. Day by day, you’ll read every book.
48What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah 49Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old, which You faithfully swore to David? 50Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people— 51how Your enemies have taunted, O LORD, and have mocked every step of Your anointed one! 52Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and amen.
1At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.) 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.” 4When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days, 7and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 8“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?” 9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world. 10But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.” 11After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.” 12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.” 13They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus. 14So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.” 17When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother. 20So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.” 23“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her. 24Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. 26And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
1Some time later, Absalom provided for himself a chariot with horses and fifty men to run ahead of him. 2He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a grievance to bring before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out and ask, “What city are you from?” And if he replied, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,” 3Absalom would say, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king has no deputy to hear you.” 4And he would add, “If only someone would appoint me judge in the land, then everyone with a grievance or dispute could come to me, and I would give him justice.” 5Also, when anyone approached to bow down to him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him, and kiss him. 6Absalom did this to all the Israelites who came to the king for justice. In this way he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. 7After four years had passed, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron to fulfill a vow I have made to the LORD. 8For your servant made a vow while dwelling in Geshur of Aram, saying: ‘If indeed the LORD brings me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the LORD in Hebron.’” 9“Go in peace,” said the king. So Absalom got up and went to Hebron. 10Then Absalom sent spies throughout the tribes of Israel with this message: “When you hear the sound of the horn, you are to say, ‘Absalom reigns in Hebron!’” 11Two hundred men from Jerusalem accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and they went along innocently, for they knew nothing about the matter. 12While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from his hometown of Giloh. So the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept increasing. 13Then a messenger came to David and reported, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.” 14And David said to all the servants with him in Jerusalem, “Arise and let us flee, or we will not escape from Absalom! We must leave quickly, or he will soon overtake us, heap disaster on us, and put the city to the sword.” 15The king’s servants replied, “Whatever our lord the king decides, we are your servants.” 16Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace. 17So the king set out with all the people following him. He stopped at the last house, 18and all his servants marched past him—all the Cherethites and Pelethites, and six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath. 19Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you also go with us? Go back and stay with the new king, since you are both a foreigner and an exile from your homeland. 20In fact, you arrived only yesterday; should I make you wander around with us today while I do not know where I am going? Go back and take your brothers with you. May the LORD show you loving devotion and faithfulness.” 21But Ittai answered the king, “As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be!” 22“March on then,” said David to Ittai. So Ittai the Gittite marched past with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. 23Everyone in the countryside was weeping loudly as all the people passed by. And as the king crossed the Kidron Valley, all the people also passed toward the way of the wilderness. 24Zadok was also there, and all the Levites with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until the people had passed out of the city. 25Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again. 26But if He should say, ‘I do not delight in you,’ then here I am; let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.” 27The king also said to Zadok the priest, “Are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace—you with your son Ahimaaz, and Abiathar with his son Jonathan. 28See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.” 29So Zadok and Abiathar returned the ark of God to Jerusalem and stayed there. 30But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went up. His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot. And all the people with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went. 31Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!” 32When David came to the summit, where he used to worship God, Hushai the Archite was there to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his head. 33David said to him, “If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me. 34But you can thwart the counsel of Ahithophel for me if you return to the city and say to Absalom: ‘I will be your servant, my king; in the past I was your father’s servant, but now I will be your servant.’ 35Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you? Report to them everything you hear from the king’s palace. 36Indeed, their two sons, Ahimaaz son of Zadok and Jonathan son of Abiathar, are there with them. Send them to me with everything you hear.” 37So David’s friend Hushai arrived in Jerusalem just as Absalom was entering the city.
16When David had gone a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a pair of saddled donkeys loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred clusters of raisins, a hundred summer fruits, and a skin of wine. 2“Why do you have these?” asked the king. Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride, the bread and summer fruit are for the young men to eat, and the wine is to refresh those who become exhausted in the wilderness.” 3“Where is your master’s grandson?” asked the king. And Ziba answered, “Indeed, he is staying in Jerusalem, for he has said, ‘Today, the house of Israel will restore to me the kingdom of my grandfather.’” 4So the king said to Ziba, “All that belongs to Mephibosheth is now yours!” “I humbly bow before you,” said Ziba. “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord the king!” 5As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the family of the house of Saul was just coming out. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and as he approached, he kept yelling out curses. 6He threw stones at David and at all the servants of the king, though the troops and all the mighty men were on David’s right and left. 7And as he yelled curses, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you worthless man of bloodshed! 8The LORD has paid you back for all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, you have come to ruin because you are a man of bloodshed!” 9Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!” 10But the king replied, “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses me because the LORD told him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why did you do this?’” 11Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son, my own flesh and blood, seeks my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone and let him curse me, for the LORD has told him so. 12Perhaps the LORD will see my affliction and repay me with good for the cursing I receive today.” 13So David and his men proceeded along the road as Shimei went along the ridge of the hill opposite him. As Shimei went, he yelled curses, threw stones, and flung dust at David. 14Finally, the king and all the people with him arrived, exhausted. And there he refreshed himself. 15Then Absalom and all the men of Israel came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him. 16And David’s friend Hushai the Archite went to Absalom and said to him, “Long live the king! Long live the king!” 17“Is this the loyalty you show your friend?” Absalom replied. “Why did you not go with your friend?” 18“Not at all,” Hushai answered. “For the one chosen by the LORD, by the people, and by all the men of Israel—his I will be, and with him I will remain. 19Furthermore, whom should I serve if not the son? As I served in your father’s presence, so also I will serve in yours.” 20Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give me counsel. What should we do?” 21Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.” 22So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel. 23Now in those days the advice of Ahithophel was like the consultation of the word of God. Such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice.
What does today’s reading reveal about the human heart — and about yours?
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain.