Evening Devotion

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
¹ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
² Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
⁹ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
¹ Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
² Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
³ May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts,
⁴ those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?”
⁵ “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
⁶ The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
⁷ You, O LORD, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever.
⁸ On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man. (ESV)

⁶ On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (ESV)

¹ The word of the LORD came to me:
² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?
³ You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.
⁴ The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
⁵ So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered;
⁶ they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
⁷ “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
⁸ As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep,
⁹ therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
¹⁰ Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.
¹¹ “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.
¹² As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
¹³ And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
¹⁴ I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.
¹⁵ I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.
¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
¹⁷ “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.
¹⁸ Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet?
¹⁹ And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
²⁰ “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
²¹ Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad,
²² I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.
²³ And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.
²⁴ And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. (ESV)

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
³⁰ since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. (ESV)

¹ Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.
² She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
³ Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
⁴ The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
⁵ Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.
⁶ But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.
⁷ These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, 175 years.
⁸ Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
⁹ Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre,
¹⁰ the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.
¹¹ After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.
¹² These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.
¹³ These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
¹⁶ These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.
¹⁷ (These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.)
¹⁸ They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen.
¹⁹ These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac,
²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.
²¹ And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
²² The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.
²³ And the LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
²⁴ When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.
²⁵ The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau.
²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
²⁸ Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.
³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)
³¹ Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”
³² Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”
³³ Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

¹ Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
² And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.
³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.
⁴ I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
⁵ because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
⁶ So Isaac settled in Gerar.
⁷ When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.
⁸ When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife.
⁹ So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”
¹⁰ Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
¹¹ So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
¹² And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him,
¹³ and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.
¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.
¹⁵ (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.)
¹⁶ And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.
¹⁸ And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.
¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water,
²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.
²² And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
²³ From there he went up to Beersheba.
²⁴ And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
²⁵ So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
²⁶ When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army,
²⁷ Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
²⁸ They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,
²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.”
³⁰ So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
³¹ In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.
³² That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.”
³³ He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite,
³⁵ and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. (ESV)

¹ And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
² The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
⁴ Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,
⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
⁷ And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.
⁹ Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts,
¹⁰ no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.
¹¹ And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.
¹² As you enter the house, greet it.
¹³ And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
¹⁴ And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.
¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
¹⁶ “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
¹⁷ Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues,
¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.
¹⁹ When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
²⁰ For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
²¹ Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,
²² and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
²⁵ It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
²⁶ “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
²⁸ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
³¹ Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (ESV)

²⁰ Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice;
²¹ at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
²³ If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.
²⁴ Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
²⁵ because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,
²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you,
²⁷ when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
²⁹ Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
³⁰ would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof,
³¹ therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.
³² For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;
³³ but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (ESV)