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)

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
² God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
³ They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
⁴ Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?
⁵ There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
⁶ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. (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)

¹ When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
² Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.
³ And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.
⁴ But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
⁵ This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
⁶ The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.
⁷ And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.”
⁸ So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there.
⁹ But after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.
¹⁰ So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.”
¹¹ They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
¹² The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
¹ The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
² And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.”
³ They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.”

¹⁰ So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.”
¹¹ They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
¹² The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. (ESV)

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
² And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them,
³ and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.
⁴ And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
⁵ When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
⁶ And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
⁷ And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.
⁸ Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
⁹ And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,
¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”
¹¹ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

²³ After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
²⁴ Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.
²⁵ He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
²⁷ And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed,
²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. (ESV)

¹ “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
² After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
³ Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
⁴ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
⁵ Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.
⁶ For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.
⁹ As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
¹¹ For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I restore the fortunes of my people,

¹ when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside.
² But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.
³ By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery.
⁴ They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
⁵ On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers.
⁶ For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me.
⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
⁹ Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.
¹⁰ The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this.
¹¹ Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
¹² As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.
¹³ Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.
¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me.
¹⁵ Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.
¹⁶ They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. (ESV)

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
¹⁷ So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (ESV)

⁹ my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
¹⁰ Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
¹¹ Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
¹² Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
¹³ But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
¹⁴ O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?
¹⁵ Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.
¹⁷ They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.
¹⁸ You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness. (ESV)