Night Watch Devotion

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
¹ Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
² O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
³ But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.
⁴ Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
⁵ Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.
⁶ There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
⁷ You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
² God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
³ They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
⁴ Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?
⁵ There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
⁶ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. (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 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.
² Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property— the eyes of his children will fail.
⁶ “He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.
¹² They make night into day: ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
¹³ If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?” (ESV)

¹⁴ About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
¹⁵ The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
¹⁶ So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
¹⁷ If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
¹⁸ The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
²⁰ The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
²¹ Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.
²² Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
²³ If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?
²⁴ Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
²⁵ Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
²⁶ And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
²⁷ But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
²⁸ So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.
²⁹ I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
³⁰ So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
³¹ Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?” (ESV)

¹ The LORD said to Moses,
² “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
³ and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship,
⁴ to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze,
⁵ in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.
⁶ And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
⁷ the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent,
⁸ the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense,
⁹ and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand,
¹⁰ and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests,
¹¹ and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”
¹² And the LORD said to Moses,
¹³ “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.
¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
¹⁵ Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
¹⁶ Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.
¹⁷ It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
¹⁸ And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
² So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
³ So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
⁴ And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”
⁶ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
⁷ And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”
⁹ And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
¹¹ But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
¹⁴ And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
¹⁵ Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written.
¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
¹⁸ But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.”
¹⁹ And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
²⁰ He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
²¹ And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?”
²² And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
²³ For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
²⁵ And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies),
²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
²⁷ And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’”
²⁸ And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.
²⁹ And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
³¹ So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold.
³² But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
³³ But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
³⁴ But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
³⁵ Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

¹ The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’
² I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
⁴ When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.
⁵ For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’”
⁶ Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. (ESV)

³⁰ The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
³¹ And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
³² And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
³³ Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.
³⁴ When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
³⁵ And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.
³⁶ Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
³⁷ But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”
³⁸ And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
³⁹ Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.
⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.
⁴¹ And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied.
⁴³ And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
⁴⁴ And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
⁴⁵ Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.
⁴⁶ And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
⁴⁷ And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.
⁴⁸ And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them,
⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out,
⁵⁰ for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
⁵¹ And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded,
⁵² for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.
⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him
⁵⁵ and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.
⁵⁶ And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. (ESV)

Of David.
¹ To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
² O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.
³ Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
⁴ Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
⁵ Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
⁶ Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! (ESV)