Night Watch Devotion

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
¹ O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?
⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
⁶ I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah; a love song.
¹ My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
² You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.
³ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty!
⁴ In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
⁵ Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.
⁶ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
⁷ you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
⁸ your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
⁹ daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house,
¹¹ and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.
¹² The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.
¹³ All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
¹⁴ In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her.
¹⁵ With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.
¹⁶ In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.
¹⁷ I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. (ESV)

¹ “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’
¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (ESV)

¹ “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
² I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.
³ Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
⁴ Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?
⁵ Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years,
⁶ that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin,
⁷ although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
⁸ Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.
⁹ Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
¹⁰ Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?
¹¹ You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
¹² You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.
¹³ Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose.
¹⁴ If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
¹⁵ If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction.
¹⁶ And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me.
¹⁷ You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.
¹⁸ “Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
¹⁹ and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
²⁰ Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
²¹ before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
²² the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.” (ESV)

¹ After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
³ In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
⁵ One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
⁹ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
¹⁰ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”
¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
¹⁶ And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
¹⁸ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (ESV)

¹ Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
² The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
³ The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.
⁴ “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
⁵ The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.
⁶ Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.
⁷ In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
⁸ At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
⁹ The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
¹⁰ You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
¹¹ “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
¹² You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.
¹³ “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
¹⁴ The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
¹⁵ Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
¹⁶ Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
¹⁷ You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
¹⁸ The LORD will reign forever and ever.”
¹⁹ For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.
²⁰ Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.
²¹ And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
²² Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.
²⁴ And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
²⁵ And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,
²⁶ saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”
²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

¹ They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.
² And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,
³ and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.
⁵ On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”
⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
⁷ and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?”
⁸ And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”
⁹ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’”
¹⁰ And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
¹¹ And the LORD said to Moses,
¹² “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”
¹³ In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp.
¹⁴ And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.
¹⁵ When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.
¹⁶ This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’”
¹⁷ And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less.
¹⁸ But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.
¹⁹ And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.”
²⁰ But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
²¹ Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
²² On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses,
²³ he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’”
²⁴ So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it.
²⁵ Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
²⁶ Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”
²⁷ On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
²⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?
²⁹ See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.
³¹ Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
³² Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
³³ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.”
³⁴ As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.
³⁵ The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
³⁶ (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.) (ESV)

¹ Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
² And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
⁴ And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
⁶ He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
⁸ So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
⁹ And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
¹¹ While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
¹² And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers
¹³ and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’
¹⁴ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”
¹⁵ So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
¹⁷ And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

⁸ Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.
⁹ You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.
¹⁰ You will destroy their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from among the children of man.
¹¹ Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
¹² For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
¹³ Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power. (ESV)