Song of Solomon 6–7:10 (Listen)

Others

6:1   Where has your beloved gone,
    O most beautiful among women?
  Where has your beloved turned,
    that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

She

2   My beloved has gone down to his garden
    to the beds of spices,
  to graze in the gardens
    and to gather lilies.
3   I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
    he grazes among the lilies.

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

4   You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
    lovely as Jerusalem,
    awesome as an army with banners.
5   Turn away your eyes from me,
    for they overwhelm me—
  Your hair is like a flock of goats
    leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
6   Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
    that have come up from the washing;
  all of them bear twins;
    not one among them has lost its young.
7   Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
    behind your veil.
8   There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
    and virgins without number.
9   My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
    the only one of her mother,
    pure to her who bore her.
  The young women saw her and called her blessed;
    the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
10   “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
    beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
    awesome as an army with banners?”

She

11   I went down to the nut orchard
    to look at the blossoms of the valley,
  to see whether the vines had budded,
    whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
12   Before I was aware, my desire set me
    among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

Others

13   Return, return, O Shulammite,
    return, return, that we may look upon you.

He

  Why should you look upon the Shulammite,
    as upon a dance before two armies?
  7:1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
    O noble daughter!
  Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
    the work of a master hand.
2   Your navel is a rounded bowl
    that never lacks mixed wine.
  Your belly is a heap of wheat,
    encircled with lilies.
3   Your two breasts are like two fawns,
    twins of a gazelle.
4   Your neck is like an ivory tower.
  Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
    by the gate of Bath-rabbim.
  Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,
    which looks toward Damascus.
5   Your head crowns you like Carmel,
    and your flowing locks are like purple;
    a king is held captive in the tresses.
6   How beautiful and pleasant you are,
    O loved one, with all your delights!
7   Your stature is like a palm tree,
    and your breasts are like its clusters.
8   I say I will climb the palm tree
    and lay hold of its fruit.
  Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
    and the scent of your breath like apples,
9   and your mouth like the best wine.

She

  It goes down smoothly for my beloved,
    gliding over lips and teeth.
10   I am my beloved’s,
    and his desire is for me.

Psalm 21 (Listen)

The King Rejoices in the Lord’s Strength

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

21:1   O LORD, in your strength the king rejoices,
    and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
2   You have given him his heart’s desire
    and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3   For you meet him with rich blessings;
    you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
4   He asked life of you; you gave it to him,
    length of days forever and ever.
5   His glory is great through your salvation;
    splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6   For you make him most blessed forever;
    you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7   For the king trusts in the LORD,
    and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8   Your hand will find out all your enemies;
    your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9   You will make them as a blazing oven
    when you appear.
  The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath,
    and fire will consume them.
10   You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
    and their offspring from among the children of man.
11   Though they plan evil against you,
    though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12   For you will put them to flight;
    you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13   Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength!
    We will sing and praise your power.

Matthew 12:1–14 (Listen)

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand

9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.