Night Watch Devotion

A Song of Ascents.
¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
² O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
³ If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
⁶ my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
⁷ O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
⁸ And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
¹ Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
² Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
³ because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
⁴ My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵ Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
⁶ And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷ yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
⁸ I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”
⁹ Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹ ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
¹² For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.
¹³ But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
¹⁴ We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.
¹⁵ Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
¹⁶ But I call to God, and the LORD will save me.
¹⁷ Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.
¹⁸ He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.
¹⁹ God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah because they do not change and do not fear God.
²⁰ My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant.
²¹ His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
²² Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
²³ But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you. (ESV)

¹ Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
² For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
³ While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
⁴ But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
⁵ For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
⁶ So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. (ESV)

¹ Then Job answered and said:
² “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
⁵ If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,
⁶ know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.
⁷ Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
⁹ He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.
¹² His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

²¹ Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
²³ “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
²⁶ And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (ESV)

¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
⁵ Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
⁶ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
⁹ But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]
¹² Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
¹³ So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”
¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.
¹⁵ You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.
¹⁷ In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.
¹⁸ I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”
¹⁹ They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
²⁰ These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. (ESV)

¹ Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do.
² Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
³ You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”
⁴ Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded.
⁵ Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze;
⁶ blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats’ hair,
⁷ tanned rams’ skins, and goatskins; acacia wood,
⁸ oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
⁹ and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
¹⁰ “Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the LORD has commanded:
¹¹ the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases;
¹² the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the veil of the screen;
¹³ the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence;
¹⁴ the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light;
¹⁵ and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle;
¹⁶ the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin and its stand;
¹⁷ the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court;
¹⁸ the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords;
¹⁹ the finely worked garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests.”
²⁰ Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.
²¹ And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.
²² So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the LORD.
²³ And every one who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goats’ hair or tanned rams’ skins or goatskins brought them.
²⁴ Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the LORD’s contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it.
²⁵ And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.
²⁶ All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats’ hair.
²⁷ And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastpiece,
²⁸ and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.
²⁹ All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD.
³⁰ Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;
³¹ and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship,
³² to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze,
³³ in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.
³⁴ And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.
³⁵ He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

¹ “Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the LORD has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded.”
² And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.
³ And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning,
⁴ so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing,
⁵ and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.”
⁶ So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing,
⁷ for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.
⁸ And all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked.
⁹ The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains were the same size.
¹⁰ He coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another.
¹¹ He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set. Likewise he made them on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set.
¹² He made fifty loops on the one curtain, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite one another.
¹³ And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps. So the tabernacle was a single whole.
¹⁴ He also made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle. He made eleven curtains.
¹⁵ The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains were the same size.
¹⁶ He coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.
¹⁷ And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the other connecting curtain.
¹⁸ And he made fifty clasps of bronze to couple the tent together that it might be a single whole.
¹⁹ And he made for the tent a covering of tanned rams’ skins and goatskins.
²⁰ Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood.
²¹ Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame.
²² Each frame had two tenons for fitting together. He did this for all the frames of the tabernacle.
²³ The frames for the tabernacle he made thus: twenty frames for the south side.
²⁴ And he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons.
²⁵ For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty frames
²⁶ and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one frame and two bases under the next frame.
²⁷ For the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six frames.
²⁸ He made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear.
²⁹ And they were separate beneath but joined at the top, at the first ring. He made two of them this way for the two corners.
³⁰ There were eight frames with their bases of silver: sixteen bases, under every frame two bases.
³¹ He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle,
³² and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward.
³³ And he made the middle bar to run from end to end halfway up the frames.
³⁴ And he overlaid the frames with gold, and made their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.
³⁵ He made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; with cherubim skillfully worked into it he made it.
³⁶ And for it he made four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four bases of silver.
³⁷ He also made a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework,
³⁸ and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals, and their fillets were of gold, but their five bases were of bronze. (ESV)

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

¹ In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them,
² “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
³ And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”
⁴ And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”
⁵ And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.”
⁶ And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.
⁷ And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them.
⁸ And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.
⁹ And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.
¹⁰ And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
¹¹ The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
¹³ And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. (ESV)

¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
¹⁷ The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.
¹⁸ Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
¹⁹ Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.
²⁰ Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
²¹ May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
²² Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. (ESV)