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)

¹ Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.
² Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
³ Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
⁴ For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
⁶ By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.
⁸ Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
⁹ For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
¹⁰ The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹ The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
¹³ The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
¹⁴ from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
¹⁵ he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
¹⁶ The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
¹⁷ The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹ that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
²⁰ Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
²¹ For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
²² Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you. (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 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
² He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
³ And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
⁵ And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
⁶ I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
⁸ Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
⁹ The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
¹⁰ For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
¹¹ Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!
¹² They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.
¹³ Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.
¹⁴ Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her.
¹⁵ Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
¹⁶ But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
¹⁷ Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
¹⁸ Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
¹⁹ who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!”
²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!
²⁴ Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
²⁵ Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. (ESV)

¹ So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
⁶ For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
⁸ and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
¹² Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (ESV)

¹⁹ Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!
²⁰ The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth,
²¹ whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived—
²² it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.
²³ And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,’
²⁴ this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king,
²⁵ that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.
²⁶ And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules.
²⁷ Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”
²⁸ All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.
²⁹ At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,
³⁰ and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
³¹ While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you,
³² and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”
³³ Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.
³⁴ At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
³⁵ all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
³⁶ At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.
³⁷ Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

¹ King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.
² Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
³ Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
⁴ They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
⁵ Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.
⁶ Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
⁷ The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”
⁸ Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation.
⁹ Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
¹⁰ The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change.
¹¹ There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers,
¹² because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”
¹³ Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, “You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah.
¹⁴ I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.
¹⁵ Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter.
¹⁶ But I have heard that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.” (ESV)

¹ This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
² that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
³ knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
⁴ They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
⁵ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
⁶ and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
⁷ But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
¹¹ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
¹² waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
¹³ But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (ESV)

¹³ Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.
¹⁴ For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.
¹⁵ The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
¹⁶ They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see;
¹⁷ they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.
¹⁸ Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
¹⁹ O house of Israel, bless the LORD! O house of Aaron, bless the LORD!
²⁰ O house of Levi, bless the LORD! You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!
²¹ Blessed be the LORD from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the LORD! (ESV)