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)

A Psalm.
¹ Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
² The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
³ He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
⁴ Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
⁵ Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!
⁶ With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!
⁷ Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!
⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together
⁹ before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. (ESV)

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)

¹¹ For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:
¹² “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
¹³ But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
¹⁴ And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵ And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
¹⁶ Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.
¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
¹⁸ Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
¹⁹ And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
²⁰ To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
²¹ They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.
²² And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

¹ But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
² The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
³ You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
⁵ For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
⁸ The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel;
⁹ and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
¹⁰ “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”
¹¹ But the LORD raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies.
¹² The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
¹³ The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the LORD of hosts.
¹⁴ So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day—
¹⁵ the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
¹⁶ for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
¹⁷ Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
¹⁸ For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
¹⁹ Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.
²⁰ They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm,
²¹ Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹ Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,
² to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
³ What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?
⁴ Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
⁵ Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!
⁶ Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
⁷ But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;
⁸ for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings?
⁹ Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
¹⁰ As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
¹¹ shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?”
¹² When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.
¹³ For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
¹⁴ My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.”
¹⁵ Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
¹⁶ Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.
¹⁷ The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.
¹⁸ The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.
¹⁹ The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down. (ESV)

¹ We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,
² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
³ For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,
⁴ begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—
⁵ and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
⁶ Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.
⁷ But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.
⁸ I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
¹⁰ And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it.
¹¹ So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.
¹² For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.
¹³ For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness
¹⁴ your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.
¹⁵ As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (ESV)

²⁷ The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent.
²⁸ A false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.
²⁹ A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways.
³⁰ No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.
³¹ The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

¹ A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
² The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the Maker of them all.
³ The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.
⁴ The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.
⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.
⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (ESV)