Evening Devotion

A Song of Ascents.
¹ Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
² Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!
³ May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth! (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
¹ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
² Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
³ There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
⁴ Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
⁵ which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
⁶ Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸ the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹ the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹ Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
¹² Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
¹³ Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. (ESV)

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
²⁷ Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
²⁸ Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
³⁰ So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
³² Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
³³ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
³⁴ They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (ESV)

⁵ The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
⁶ Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?
⁷ The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!
⁸ A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes.
⁹ Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?
¹⁰ Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
¹¹ Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.
¹² The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both.
¹³ Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
¹⁴ “Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts.
¹⁵ There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
¹⁶ Take a man’s garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.
¹⁷ Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
¹⁸ Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.
¹⁹ Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
²⁰ If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.
²¹ An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.
²² Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.
²³ Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.
²⁴ A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?
²⁵ It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,” and to reflect only after making vows. (ESV)

¹ When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
⁶ “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
⁸ For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (ESV)

¹⁶ Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
¹⁷ The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.
¹⁸ Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house.
¹⁹ And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him.
²⁰ And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.
²¹ When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.”
²² But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.
²³ Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’”
²⁴ And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king.
²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”
²⁶ Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.”
²⁷ Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”
²⁸ And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

¹ King Solomon was king over all Israel,
² and these were his high officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest;
³ Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;
⁴ Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
⁵ Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and king’s friend;
⁶ Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram the son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.
⁷ Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for one month in the year.
⁸ These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
⁹ Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elonbeth-hanan;
¹⁰ Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher);
¹¹ Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife);
¹² Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean that is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam;
¹³ Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);
¹⁴ Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
¹⁵ Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife);
¹⁶ Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;
¹⁷ Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
¹⁸ Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;
¹⁹ Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. And there was one governor who was over the land.
²⁰ Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy.
²¹ Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
²² Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal,
²³ ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.
²⁴ For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him.
²⁵ And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.
²⁶ Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.
²⁷ And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking.
²⁸ Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty.
²⁹ And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore,
³⁰ so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.
³¹ For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations.
³² He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.
³³ He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.
³⁴ And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

¹ Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David.
² And Solomon sent word to Hiram,
³ “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.
⁴ But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune.
⁵ And so I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’
⁶ Now therefore command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. And my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
⁷ As soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.”
⁸ And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message that you have sent to me. I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber.
⁹ My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct. And I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it. And you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household.”
¹⁰ So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired,
¹¹ while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, and 20,000 cors of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.
¹² And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
¹³ King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men.
¹⁴ And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft.
¹⁵ Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country,
¹⁶ besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.
¹⁷ At the king’s command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.
¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of Gebal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house. (ESV)

¹⁹ And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.
²⁰ Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food.
²¹ On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.
²² And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
²⁴ But the word of God increased and multiplied.
²⁵ And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

¹ Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
² While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
⁵ When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.
⁶ When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
⁷ He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
⁸ But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
⁹ But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
¹⁰ and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
¹¹ And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.
¹² Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. (ESV)

¹⁸ Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.
¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
²⁰ Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
²¹ Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
²³ Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually! (ESV)