The scriptures read are 2 Samuel 22-24, Psalm 97 and Acts 12.
These last 3 chapters of 2 Samuel feel like appendices or a grab bag of David stuff not previously included.
2 Samuel 22, 23. 2 poems by David praising God. The first is about God saving him from Saul and all his other enemies and probably should fit in earlier in his story. The 2nd is supposed to be David's last words, though we haven't yet gotten to his last illness. That said, I could totally see these done as rap. There is a lot of swagger in these.
2 Samuel 24. A very odd story about David taking God's advice to take a census but finding that doing so was a sin! (In 1 Chronicles 21 we are told Satan put David up to this. The two accounts are not irreconcilable. If Satan acts as he does in the first few chapters of Job, he proposes the test but must get God's permission to act. One could argue that it was God who allowed David to be tested and so he is ultimately responsible. There is a train of thought glimpsed in certain passages of the Bible that is so strictly monotheistic that it has no problem seeing God as the author of everything, both good and evil. The traditional position is to distinguish between God's express will and his permissive will, what he permits to happen though he doesn't approve of it. It has to do with giving creatures free will.) Anyway, God gives David a choice of 3 punishments. David demures and gets 3 days of a deadly epidemic. God stops the angel dispensing pestilence when it threatens Jerusalem. David buys the place where he sees the angel stop, sets up an altar and sacrifices to God.
Psalm 97. Another psalm about God reigning. Throws in righteousness and justice, storm imagery, good and evil, Zion and a condemnation of idols, all in a breathless 12 verses.
Acts 12. James becomes the first of the Twelve to be martyred. King Herod plans to follow that up with killing Peter. Till an angel rescues him.
Lots of comedy here. The angel goes on his way and Peter realizes it wasn't a dream, he really is free. But he better find shelter before his escape is noticed. He goes to the door of the mother of John Mark (more on him later) and encounters the worst doorkeeper ever! The servant Rhoda recognizes Peter's voice...and goes to tell others who are praying, leaving Peter out in the street! Then Rhoda and other members of the household argue about whether it really is Peter or not! Finally, they open the door, solve the problem of whether it's him or not and rejoice. Peter gives them a message for the church leaders and then leaves for a better hiding place, presumably with folks who have better sense than to argue about whether a condemned fugitive is really the person hammering on the door, asking to be let in!
Herod gets his comeuppance. And Saul and Barnabas return to Antioch with John Mark, who may be the guy who later acts as secretary to both Peter and Paul and who possibly writes the Gospel of Mark, the first of the canonical gospels to be put to paper.
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