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 word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
² “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
³ “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
⁴ “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,
⁵ those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom,
⁶ those who have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him.”
⁷ Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.
⁸ And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice— “I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
⁹ On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.
¹⁰ “On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills.
¹¹ Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut off.
¹² At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.’
¹³ Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.”
¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there.
¹⁵ A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶ a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
¹⁷ I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

¹ Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation,
² before the decree takes effect —before the day passes away like chaff— before there comes upon you the burning anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the LORD.
³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.
⁴ For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted.
⁵ Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
⁶ And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks.
⁷ The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the LORD their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes.
⁸ “I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, how they have taunted my people and made boasts against their territory.
⁹ Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
¹⁰ This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they taunted and boasted against the people of the LORD of hosts.
¹¹ The LORD will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations.
¹² You also, O Cushites, shall be slain by my sword.
¹³ And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert.
¹⁴ Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts; even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation will be on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare.
¹⁵ This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

¹ Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!
² She listens to no voice; she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD; she does not draw near to her God.
³ Her officials within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning.
⁴ Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men; her priests profane what is holy; they do violence to the law.
⁵ The LORD within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.
⁶ “I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant.
⁷ I said, ‘Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.’ But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.
⁸ “Therefore wait for me,” declares the LORD, “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.
⁹ “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord.
¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.
¹¹ “On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain.
¹² But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD,
¹³ those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
¹⁴ Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
¹⁵ The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.
¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.
¹⁷ The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
¹⁸ I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
¹⁹ Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
²⁰ At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the LORD. (ESV)

¹ Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,
⁴ always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,
⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
⁷ It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
⁸ For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
⁹ And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
¹⁰ so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
¹² I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,
¹³ so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
¹⁴ And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.
¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.
¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,
¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance,
²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
²² If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,
²⁶ so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. (ESV)

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰ Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
³² In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.
³⁴ You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.
³⁵ “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.”

¹ Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them,
² for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.
³ By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;
⁴ by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. (ESV)