Evening Devotion

Opening

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The sign of the cross may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism.

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Let my prayer rise before You as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2

Joyous light of glory:
of the immortal Father;
heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ.
We have come to the setting of the sun,
and we look to the evening light.
We sing to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of life: the universe proclaims Your glory.

Psalmody

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Psalm 91

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹ Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (ESV)

Psalmody Plan:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Reading

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Matthew 14:15-21

¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
¹⁶ But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”
¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.”
¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (ESV)

Old Testament

Exodus 4, Exodus 5, Exodus 6:1-12

¹ Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”
² The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”
³ And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
⁴ But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—
⁵ “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
⁶ Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
⁷ Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
⁸ “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
⁹ If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
¹⁰ But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
¹¹ Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
¹² Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
¹³ But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
¹⁴ Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
¹⁵ You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
¹⁶ He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
¹⁷ And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
¹⁸ Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
¹⁹ And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”
²⁰ So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
²¹ And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
²² Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son,
²³ and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
²⁴ At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.
²⁵ Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
²⁶ So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
²⁷ The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
²⁸ And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.
²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
³⁰ Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.
³¹ And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”
² But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
³ Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
⁴ But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.”
⁵ And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!”
⁶ The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen,
⁷ “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.
⁸ But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’
⁹ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.”
¹⁰ So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw.
¹¹ Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’”
¹² So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
¹³ The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.”
¹⁴ And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”
¹⁵ Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this?
¹⁶ No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.”
¹⁷ But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
¹⁸ Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”
¹⁹ The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.”
²⁰ They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh;
²¹ and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
²² Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?
²³ For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

¹ But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
² God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD.
³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.
⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.
⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.
⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
⁷ I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
⁸ I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’”
⁹ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
¹⁰ So the LORD said to Moses,
¹¹ “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”
¹² But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” (ESV)

New Testament

Matthew 26:31-46

³¹ Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
³² But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
³³ Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
³⁴ Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”
³⁵ Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”
³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”
³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
⁴⁰ And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?
⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
⁴² Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
⁴³ And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
⁴⁴ So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.
⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
⁴⁶ Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (ESV)

Psalms & Proverbs

Proverbs 4:10-19

¹⁰ Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.
¹¹ I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
¹² When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.
¹³ Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
¹⁴ Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.
¹⁵ Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
¹⁸ But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. (ESV)

James 5, 1 Thessalonians 1-3

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
² Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
³ Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
⁴ Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
⁶ You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
⁷ Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
⁸ You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
⁹ Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
¹⁰ As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
¹¹ Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
¹² But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
¹³ Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
²⁰ let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
² We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
³ remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁴ For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,
⁵ because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
⁷ so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
⁸ For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
⁹ For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
¹ For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.
² But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.
³ For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive,
⁴ but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
⁵ For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness.
⁶ Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
⁷ But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
⁸ So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
⁹ For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
¹⁰ You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.
¹¹ For you know how, like a father with his children,
¹² we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
¹³ And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
¹⁴ For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind
¹⁶ by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
¹⁷ But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,
¹⁸ because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.
¹⁹ For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?
²⁰ For you are our glory and joy.
¹ Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,
² and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,
³ that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.
⁴ For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.
⁵ For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
⁶ But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—
⁷ for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.
⁸ For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.
⁹ For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,
¹⁰ as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,
¹² and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,
¹³ so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (ESV)

Reading Plan:

Catechism: Table of Duties: Concerning Civil Government

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Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For the power which exists anywhere is ordained of God. Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Rom. 13:1-4.

Catechism source: bookofconcord.org

Prayers

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The Lord's Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13

(You may offer your own prayers at this time)

Prayer Request from :

Concluding Prayer

O Lord Jesus Christ, heavenly Light, whom we acknowledge as our constant Companion and Guide. As the day is past and the eventide draws near, we humbly pray that You would abide with us. Direct us from error's gloomy night, and send forth Your beams divine on our dark souls to shine. Kindle our hearts by the Word of Your promise, and awaken within us the good hope of everlasting life. Grant us eyes of faith that we may recognize Your presence, as You are revealed when the Holy Scriptures are opened and in the mystical union of the breaking of the bread. Be our Solace, Strength, and Stay, that we may be preserved in body and in soul. Hear us for Your name's sake, O Lord, our Savior. Amen.

Conclusion

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Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.