A person told David, “Ahithophel is one of the people who made plans with Absalom.” Then David prayed, “Lord, I ask you to make Ahithophel’s advice useless.”
Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers and read them. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple [236] and laid the letters out in front of the Lord.
Lord, you punish people for doing wrong\par to teach them the right way to live.\par Like a moth destroys cloth,\par you destroy the things people love.\par Yes, our lives are like a small cloud \{that quickly disappears\}.\par \i (SELAH {\cf2\super [240]})\i0 \par
Lord, you gave me only a short life. {\cf2\super [236]} \par My short life is nothing,\par compared to you.\par Every person’s life is only like a cloud\par \{that quickly disappears\}.\par No person lives forever! {\cf2\super [237]} \par \i (SELAH {\cf2\super [238]})\i0 \par
Look, all the nations in the world are like\par one small drop in the bucket.\par If the Lord took all the faraway nations,\par and put them on his weighing scales,\par they would be like small pieces of dust.\par
Saul sent David to fight in many different battles. David was very successful. Then Saul put David in charge of the soldiers. This pleased everyone, even Saul’s officers!