Evening Devotion

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
¹ O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
² many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah
³ But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
⁴ I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
⁵ I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
⁷ Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
⁸ Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah (ESV)

A Miktam of David.
¹ Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
² I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
³ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
⁴ The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
⁵ The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
⁷ I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
⁸ I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
¹¹ You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (ESV)

²⁸ So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther,
²⁹ but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them.
³⁰ When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
³¹ And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. (ESV)

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),
² which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
³ “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.
⁴ You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,
⁵ saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.
⁶ Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’
⁷ Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.
⁸ “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words,
⁹ behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
¹⁰ Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
¹¹ This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste.
¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.
¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”
¹⁵ Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
¹⁶ They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”
¹⁷ So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it:
¹⁸ Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day; (ESV)

¹ When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,
² “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
³ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
⁴ and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
⁵ But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
⁶ Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
⁷ a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.
⁸ And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?
⁹ For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”
¹⁰ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.
¹¹ For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
¹² In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.
¹³ Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
¹⁴ Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
¹⁵ and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
¹⁶ And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
¹⁷ Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
¹⁸ He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”
¹⁹ And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. (ESV)

²³ And the word of the LORD came to me:
²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation.
²⁵ The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.
²⁶ Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
²⁷ Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.
²⁸ And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken.
²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice.
³⁰ And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
³¹ Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹ The word of the LORD came to me:
² “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.
³ They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled.
⁴ Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
⁵ “Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors
⁶ clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
⁷ She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted.
⁸ She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her.
⁹ Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.
¹⁰ These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.
¹¹ “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.
¹² She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.
¹⁴ But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,
¹⁵ wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea.
¹⁶ When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.
¹⁷ And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust.
¹⁸ When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister.
¹⁹ Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt
²⁰ and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.
²¹ Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.”
²² Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:
²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
²⁴ And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.
²⁵ And I will direct my jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire.
²⁶ They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels.
²⁷ Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.
²⁸ “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust,
²⁹ and they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring
³⁰ have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.
³¹ You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.
³² Thus says the Lord GOD: “You shall drink your sister’s cup that is deep and large; you shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;
³³ you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria;
³⁴ you shall drink it and drain it out, and gnaw its shards, and tear your breasts; for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.
³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”
³⁶ The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations.
³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.
³⁸ Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths.
³⁹ For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house.
⁴⁰ They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.
⁴¹ You sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil.
⁴² The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort, drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
⁴³ “Then I said of her who was worn out by adultery, ‘Now they will continue to use her for a whore, even her!’
⁴⁴ For they have gone in to her, as men go in to a prostitute. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, lewd women!
⁴⁵ But righteous men shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteresses, and with the sentence of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”
⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord GOD: “Bring up a vast host against them, and make them an object of terror and a plunder.
⁴⁷ And the host shall stone them and cut them down with their swords. They shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses.
⁴⁸ Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done.
⁴⁹ And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” (ESV)

¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
² For by it the people of old received their commendation.
³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
⁵ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
⁷ By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
¹¹ By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
¹² Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (ESV)

¹⁵ A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike;
¹⁶ to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one’s right hand.
¹⁷ Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
¹⁸ Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored.
¹⁹ As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.
²⁰ Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.
²¹ The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.
²² Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him. (ESV)