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)

To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.
² In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.
³ When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah
⁴ You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
⁵ I consider the days of old, the years long ago.
⁶ I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search:
⁷ “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
⁸ Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah
¹⁰ Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
¹² I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.
¹³ Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?
¹⁴ You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.
¹⁵ You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
¹⁶ When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.
¹⁷ The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side.
¹⁸ The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹ Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
²⁰ You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (ESV)

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)

¹ After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.
² And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.
³ David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”
⁴ And David said to him, “How did it go? Tell me.” And he answered, “The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”
⁵ Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
⁶ And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him.
⁷ And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’
⁸ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
⁹ And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’
¹⁰ So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”
¹¹ Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.
¹² And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
¹³ And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.”
¹⁴ David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”
¹⁵ Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died.
¹⁶ And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the LORD’s anointed.’”
¹⁷ And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son,
¹⁸ and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar. He said:
¹⁹ “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!
²⁰ Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.
²¹ “You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.
²² “From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.
²³ “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.
²⁴ “You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
²⁵ “How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! “Jonathan lies slain on your high places.
²⁶ I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.
²⁷ “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!” (ESV)

¹ Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
² If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
³ But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
⁴ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
⁵ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
⁷ However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
⁸ Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
⁹ But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
¹⁰ For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
¹¹ And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
¹² Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
¹³ Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (ESV)

¹ Now Solomon purposed to build a temple for the name of the LORD, and a royal palace for himself.
² And Solomon assigned 70,000 men to bear burdens and 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 to oversee them.
³ And Solomon sent word to Hiram the king of Tyre: “As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedar to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me.
⁴ Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God and dedicate it to him for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him, and for the regular arrangement of the showbread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and the new moons and the appointed feasts of the LORD our God, as ordained forever for Israel.
⁵ The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.
⁶ But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?
⁷ So now send me a man skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to be with the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.
⁸ Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. And my servants will be with your servants,
⁹ to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the house I am to build will be great and wonderful.
¹⁰ I will give for your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, 20,000 cors of crushed wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil.”
¹¹ Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon, “Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them.”
¹² Hiram also said, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the LORD and a royal palace for himself.
¹³ “Now I have sent a skilled man, who has understanding, Huram-abi,
¹⁴ the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your craftsmen, the craftsmen of my lord, David your father.
¹⁵ Now therefore the wheat and barley, oil and wine, of which my lord has spoken, let him send to his servants.
¹⁶ And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may take it up to Jerusalem.”
¹⁷ Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600.
¹⁸ Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work.

¹ Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
² He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.
³ These are Solomon’s measurements for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
⁴ The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold.
⁵ The nave he lined with cypress and covered it with fine gold and made palms and chains on it.
⁶ He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim.
⁷ So he lined the house with gold—its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors—and he carved cherubim on the walls.
⁸ And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length, corresponding to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and its breadth was twenty cubits. He overlaid it with 600 talents of fine gold.
⁹ The weight of gold for the nails was fifty shekels. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
¹⁰ In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold.
¹¹ The wings of the cherubim together extended twenty cubits: one wing of the one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub;
¹² and of this cherub, one wing, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, also of five cubits, was joined to the wing of the first cherub.
¹³ The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. The cherubim stood on their feet, facing the nave.
¹⁴ And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and he worked cherubim on it.
¹⁵ In front of the house he made two pillars thirty-five cubits high, with a capital of five cubits on the top of each.
¹⁶ He made chains like a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars, and he made a hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains.
¹⁷ He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south, the other on the north; that on the south he called Jachin, and that on the north Boaz.

¹ He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.
² Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.
³ Under it were figures of gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast.
⁴ It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward.
⁵ Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths.
⁶ He also made ten basins in which to wash, and set five on the south side, and five on the north side. In these they were to rinse off what was used for the burnt offering, and the sea was for the priests to wash in.
⁷ And he made ten golden lampstands as prescribed, and set them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north.
⁸ He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. And he made a hundred basins of gold.
⁹ He made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court and overlaid their doors with bronze.
¹⁰ And he set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.
¹¹ Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God:
¹² the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals on the top of the pillars; and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;
¹³ and the 400 pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.
¹⁴ He made the stands also, and the basins on the stands,
¹⁵ and the one sea, and the twelve oxen underneath it.
¹⁶ The pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the equipment for these Huram-abi made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the LORD.
¹⁷ In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.
¹⁸ Solomon made all these things in great quantities, for the weight of the bronze was not sought.
¹⁹ So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God: the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the Presence,
²⁰ the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary, as prescribed;
²¹ the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of purest gold;
²² the snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and fire pans, of pure gold, and the sockets of the temple, for the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and for the doors of the nave of the temple were of gold.

¹ Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God. (ESV)

¹⁹ For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

¹ For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
³ and all ate the same spiritual food,
⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
⁷ Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
⁸ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
⁹ We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,
¹⁰ nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
¹² Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (ESV)

¹ The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
² Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
³ Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.
⁴ His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
⁵ The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
⁶ The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.
⁷ All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!
⁸ Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O LORD.
⁹ For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
¹⁰ O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
¹¹ Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
¹² Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (ESV)