Midday Devotion

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
¹ O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
² lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
³ O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
⁴ if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
⁵ let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
⁶ Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
⁷ Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.
⁸ The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
⁹ Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!
¹⁰ My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
¹¹ God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
¹² If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;
¹³ he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
¹⁴ Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
¹⁵ He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
¹⁶ His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
¹⁷ I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High. (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David.
¹ I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”
² Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
³ Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together,
⁴ to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
⁵ There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.
⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!
⁷ Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”
⁸ For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!”
⁹ For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. (ESV)

⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,
⁴⁵ while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
⁴⁶ Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (ESV)

¹ The LORD said to Moses,
² “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
³ and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship,
⁴ to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze,
⁵ in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.
⁶ And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
⁷ the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent,
⁸ the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense,
⁹ and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand,
¹⁰ and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests,
¹¹ and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”
¹² And the LORD said to Moses,
¹³ “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.
¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
¹⁵ Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
¹⁶ Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.
¹⁷ It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
¹⁸ And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (ESV)

¹ On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
² But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
³ And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
⁴ how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?”
⁵ And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
⁶ On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.
⁷ And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
⁸ But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there.
⁹ And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”
¹⁰ And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored.
¹¹ But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
¹² In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
¹³ And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
¹⁴ Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
¹⁵ and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,
¹⁶ and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
¹⁷ And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon,
¹⁸ who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
¹⁹ And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. (ESV)

²⁰ As to the rest of the Kohathites belonging to the Kohathite clans of the Levites, the cities allotted to them were out of the tribe of Ephraim.
²¹ To them were given Shechem, the city of refuge for the manslayer, with its pasturelands in the hill country of Ephraim, Gezer with its pasturelands,
²² Kibzaim with its pasturelands, Beth-horon with its pasturelands—four cities;
²³ and out of the tribe of Dan, Elteke with its pasturelands, Gibbethon with its pasturelands,
²⁴ Aijalon with its pasturelands, Gath-rimmon with its pasturelands—four cities;
²⁵ and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its pasturelands, and Gath-rimmon with its pasturelands—two cities.
²⁶ The cities of the clans of the rest of the Kohathites were ten in all with their pasturelands.
²⁷ And to the Gershonites, one of the clans of the Levites, were given out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its pasturelands, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Beeshterah with its pasturelands—two cities;
²⁸ and out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its pasturelands, Daberath with its pasturelands,
²⁹ Jarmuth with its pasturelands, En-gannim with its pasturelands—four cities;
³⁰ and out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its pasturelands, Abdon with its pasturelands,
³¹ Helkath with its pasturelands, and Rehob with its pasturelands—four cities;
³² and out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its pasturelands, the city of refuge for the manslayer, Hammoth-dor with its pasturelands, and Kartan with its pasturelands—three cities.
³³ The cities of the several clans of the Gershonites were in all thirteen cities with their pasturelands.
³⁴ And to the rest of the Levites, the Merarite clans, were given out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its pasturelands, Kartah with its pasturelands,
³⁵ Dimnah with its pasturelands, Nahalal with its pasturelands—four cities;
³⁶ and out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with its pasturelands, Jahaz with its pasturelands,
³⁷ Kedemoth with its pasturelands, and Mephaath with its pasturelands—four cities;
³⁸ and out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its pasturelands, the city of refuge for the manslayer, Mahanaim with its pasturelands,
³⁹ Heshbon with its pasturelands, Jazer with its pasturelands—four cities in all.
⁴⁰ As for the cities of the several Merarite clans, that is, the remainder of the clans of the Levites, those allotted to them were in all twelve cities.
⁴¹ The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasturelands.
⁴² These cities each had its pasturelands around it. So it was with all these cities.
⁴³ Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.
⁴⁴ And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.
⁴⁵ Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

¹ At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,
² and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.
³ You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the LORD your God.
⁴ And now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
⁵ Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
⁶ So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
⁷ Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them,
⁸ he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”
⁹ So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.
¹⁰ And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.
¹¹ And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.”
¹² And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
¹³ Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,
¹⁴ and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.
¹⁵ And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them,
¹⁶ “Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the LORD by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the LORD?
¹⁷ Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the LORD,
¹⁸ that you too must turn away this day from following the LORD? And if you too rebel against the LORD today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.
¹⁹ But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the LORD’s land where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God.
²⁰ Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’”
²¹ Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel,
²² “The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today
²³ for building an altar to turn away from following the LORD. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself take vengeance.
²⁴ No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?
²⁵ For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD.
²⁶ Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,
²⁷ but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’
²⁸ And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’
²⁹ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away this day from following the LORD by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle!”
³⁰ When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.
³¹ And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the LORD. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the LORD.”
³² Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them.
³³ And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled.
³⁴ The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.” (ESV)

¹ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
³ Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (ESV)

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
¹ Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
² Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
³ because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
⁴ My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵ Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
⁶ And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷ yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
⁸ I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”
⁹ Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹ ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace. (ESV)