Midday Devotion

A Song of Ascents.
¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
² My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
³ He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
⁵ The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
⁷ The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
⁸ The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (ESV)

¹ Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
² Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
³ Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
⁴ Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
⁵ They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
⁶ They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
⁷ They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
⁸ Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
⁹ O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
¹⁰ O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
¹¹ You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
¹² The LORD has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;
¹³ he will bless those who fear the LORD, both the small and the great.
¹⁴ May the LORD give you increase, you and your children!
¹⁵ May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth!
¹⁶ The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
¹⁷ The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.
¹⁸ But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD! (ESV)

²⁴ “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵ and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
²⁶ And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
²⁷ And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (ESV)

⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God.
⁶ And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,”
⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.
⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.
⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
¹⁰ Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
¹¹ Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”
¹² And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
¹³ The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening.
¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?”
¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God;
¹⁶ when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.”
¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.
¹⁸ You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.
¹⁹ Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God,
²⁰ and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.
²¹ Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
²² And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.
²³ If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
²⁶ And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.
²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country. (ESV)

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
¹¹ For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
¹⁸ For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest
¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.
²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
²¹ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
²³ and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (ESV)

¹ And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land.
² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”
³ So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night.
⁴ And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready.
⁵ And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them.
⁶ And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them.
⁷ Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will give it into your hand.
⁸ And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the LORD. See, I have commanded you.”
⁹ So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people.
¹⁰ Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
¹¹ And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai.
¹² He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
¹³ So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley.
¹⁴ And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
¹⁵ And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness.
¹⁶ So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.
¹⁷ Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.
¹⁸ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
¹⁹ And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire.
²⁰ So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.
²¹ And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.
²² And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped.
²³ But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua.
²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword.
²⁵ And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai.
²⁶ But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.
²⁷ Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the LORD that he commanded Joshua.
²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.
²⁹ And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
³⁰ At that time Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
³¹ just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings.
³² And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
³³ And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.
³⁴ And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.
³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

¹ As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of this,
² they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.
³ But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
⁴ they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,
⁵ with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly.
⁶ And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.”
⁷ But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant with you?”
⁸ They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?”
⁹ They said to him, “From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
¹⁰ and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.
¹¹ So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, “We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us.”’
¹² Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you, but now, behold, it is dry and crumbly.
¹³ These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.”
¹⁴ So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the LORD.
¹⁵ And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them. (ESV)

⁶³ Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him.
⁶⁴ They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?”
⁶⁵ And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.
⁶⁶ When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said,
⁶⁷ “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe,
⁶⁸ and if I ask you, you will not answer.
⁶⁹ But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
⁷⁰ So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.”
⁷¹ Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

¹ Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate.
² And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
³ And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.”
⁴ Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.”
⁵ But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.”
⁶ When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean.
⁷ And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
⁸ When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him.
⁹ So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer.
¹⁰ The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.
¹¹ And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.
¹² And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
¹³ Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people,
¹⁴ and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.
¹⁵ Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.
¹⁶ I will therefore punish and release him.”
¹⁸ But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”—
¹⁹ a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder.
²⁰ Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus,
²¹ but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”
²² A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.”
²³ But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.
²⁴ So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.
²⁵ He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. (ESV)