Midday Devotion

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)

¹ Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD!
² Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore!
³ From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised!
⁴ The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!
⁵ Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
⁶ who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
⁷ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
⁸ to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
⁹ He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD! (ESV)

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV)

¹³ In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp.
¹⁴ And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.
¹⁵ When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.
¹⁶ This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’”
¹⁷ And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less.
¹⁸ But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.
¹⁹ And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.”
²⁰ But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
²¹ Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
²² On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,
²³ he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’”
²⁴ So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it.
²⁵ Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
²⁶ Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
²⁷ On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
²⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?
²⁹ See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.
³¹ Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
³² Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
³³ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.”
³⁴ As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.
³⁵ The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (ESV)

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
³² But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
³⁴ For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
³⁸ but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (ESV)

¹ Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
² At the end of three days the officers went through the camp
³ and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
⁴ Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”
⁵ Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
⁶ And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
⁷ The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
⁸ And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”
⁹ And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”
¹⁰ And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
¹¹ Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.
¹² Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.
¹³ And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”
¹⁴ So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,
¹⁵ and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest),
¹⁶ the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.
¹⁷ Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

¹ When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,
² “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man,
³ and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’”
⁴ Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe.
⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel,
⁶ that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’
⁷ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
⁸ And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the LORD told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there.
⁹ And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.
¹⁰ For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste.
¹¹ And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the LORD and the priests passed over before the people.
¹² The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had told them.
¹³ About 40,000 ready for war passed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho.
¹⁴ On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.
¹⁵ And the LORD said to Joshua,
¹⁶ “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.”
¹⁷ So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”
¹⁸ And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.
¹⁹ The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.
²⁰ And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.
²¹ And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’
²² then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
²³ For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over,
²⁴ so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

¹ As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.
² At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.”
³ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.
⁴ And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt.
⁵ Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.
⁶ For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD; the LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
⁷ So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.
⁸ When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.
⁹ And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
¹⁰ While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.
¹¹ And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
¹² And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. (ESV)

¹ Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.
² And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.
³ Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.
⁴ He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them.
⁵ And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.
⁶ So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
⁷ Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
⁸ So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”
⁹ They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?”
¹⁰ He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters
¹¹ and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’
¹² And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.”
¹³ And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
¹⁴ And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him.
¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
¹⁶ For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
¹⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves.
¹⁸ For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
²¹ But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.
²² For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”
²³ And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.
²⁴ A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
²⁵ And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.
²⁶ But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.
²⁷ For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
²⁸ “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials,
²⁹ and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom,
³⁰ that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
³¹ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
³² but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
³³ Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”
³⁴ Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
³⁵ And he said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.”
³⁶ He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
³⁷ For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.”
³⁸ And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.” (ESV)

A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
³ Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah
⁷ “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (ESV)