Midday Devotion

A Song of Ascents.
¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
² My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
³ He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
⁵ The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
⁷ The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
⁸ The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.
¹ Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.
² O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.
³ When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.
⁴ Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!
⁵ By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;
⁶ the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;
⁷ who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,
⁸ so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
⁹ You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
¹⁰ You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
¹² The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,
¹³ the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. (ESV)

²⁴ “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵ and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
²⁶ And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
²⁷ And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (ESV)

¹ Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
² For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
³ And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
⁴ Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
⁵ Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
⁶ A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.
⁷ All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house.
⁸ Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?
⁹ For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.
¹⁰ Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
¹¹ Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.
¹² For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
¹³ The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
¹⁴ The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.
¹⁶ You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
¹⁷ Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.
¹⁸ Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
¹⁹ The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
²⁰ Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
²¹ Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.
²² The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it. (ESV)

³⁹ In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah,
⁴⁰ and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
⁴¹ And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,
⁴² and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
⁴³ And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
⁴⁴ For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
⁴⁵ And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
⁴⁶ And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
⁴⁹ for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
⁵⁰ And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
⁵² he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
⁵³ he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
⁵⁵ as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
⁵⁶ And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (ESV)

¹ On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,
² for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.
³ As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
⁴ Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah,
⁵ prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
⁶ While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king
⁷ and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
⁸ And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.
⁹ Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
¹⁰ I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field.
¹¹ So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.
¹² Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.
¹³ And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers.
¹⁴ Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.
¹⁵ In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food.
¹⁶ Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself!
¹⁷ Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
¹⁸ Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
¹⁹ As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day.
²⁰ Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.
²¹ But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.
²² Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.
²³ In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
²⁴ And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.
²⁵ And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
²⁶ Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin.
²⁷ Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
²⁸ And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me.
²⁹ Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
³⁰ Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;
³¹ and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. (ESV)

¹ Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
² through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
³ No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
⁵ And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
⁶ And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
⁷ “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
⁸ I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
⁹ but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
¹⁰ And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
¹¹ Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
¹² “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
¹⁷ The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
¹⁸ I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
¹⁹ and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. (ESV)

¹ Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!
² Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!
³ Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
⁴ Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
⁵ Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD! (ESV)