Lesson 23: “The Lord Be Between Thee and Me For Ever”

Lesson 23: “The Lord Be Between Thee and Me For Ever”

Reading 1 – 1 Samuel 18:1-4

Reading 2 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote:  "When we are struggling to learn to love, we can have faith in God's developmental plans for others as well as for ourselves. Then we do not feel threatened by those who are our superiors or who are becoming such. The more unselfish we are, the more able we are to find joy in their successes, all the while rejoicing without comparing. In any case, our only valid spiritual competition is with our old selves, not with each other. True love and friendship enable us to keep that perspective. The things about other people that truly matter are their qualities such as love, mercy, justice, and patience, and their service to others." (Not My Will, But Thine, p70)

Reading 3 – 1 Samuel 18:5-12

Reading 4 - President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Saul became an enemy to David through pride. He was jealous because the crowds of Israelite women were singing that ‘Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’ (1 Samuel 18:7; see also 1 Samuel 18:6, 8).

1 Samuel 18:28-29

Reading 5 - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, speaking of the resentment of the older son when the prodigal son returns and was welcomed by his father, said:  "Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that a gift given to another somehow diminishes the blessings we have received? Who makes us feel that if God is smiling on another, then He surely must somehow be frowning on us? You and I both know who does this - it is the father of all lies. It is Lucifer, our common enemy, whose cry down through the corridors of time is always and to everyone, "Give me thine honor."

It has been said that envy is the one sin to which no one readily confesses, but just how widespread that tendency can be is suggested in the old Danish proverb, "If envy were a fever, all the world would be ill" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Other Prodigal," Ensign, May 2002, pp. 62,63).

1 Samuel 19:6

Reading 6 – 1 Samuel 20:1

1 Samuel 20:3

Reading 7 – 1 Samuel 20:4, 16-17

1 Samuel 20:23

Reading 8 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote: Can one expect human relationships to be deep and lasting sources of purpose and meaning without having truth at their center? Can there be friendships such as the friendship of Jonathan and David outside the context of absolute values? We read that "Jonathan was knit with the soul of David"; these two individuals "made a covenant." (See 1 Samuel 18:1-3.)

Reading 9 – 1 Samuel 23:7-10

1 Samuel 24:3-7,10,12

Reading 10: President Spencer W. Kimball said: "The spirit of revenge, of retaliation, of bearing a grudge, is entirely foreign to the gospel of the gentle, forgiving Jesus Christ." (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p105)