Night Watch Devotion

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.
¹ It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
² to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
³ to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
⁴ For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
⁵ How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!
⁶ The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:
⁷ that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;
⁸ but you, O LORD, are on high forever.
⁹ For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
¹⁰ But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³ They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,
¹⁵ to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (ESV)

Of Solomon.
¹ Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!
² May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!
³ Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness!
⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!
⁵ May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
⁶ May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth!
⁷ In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
⁸ May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!
⁹ May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust!
¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!
¹¹ May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!
¹² For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
¹³ He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴ From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
¹⁵ Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day!
¹⁶ May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field!
¹⁷ May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!
¹⁸ Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
¹⁹ Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!
²⁰ The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. (ESV)

²³ Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (ESV)

²⁷ Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.
²⁸ Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
²⁹ And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.
³⁰ Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
³¹ Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
³² The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
¹ Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
⁸ From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.
⁹ And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
¹¹ When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,
¹² and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.
¹³ Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
¹⁴ When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
¹⁵ And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
¹⁶ And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
¹⁷ But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
¹⁸ So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”
²⁰ And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. (ESV)

²¹ And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?
²² For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.
²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
²⁴ And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
²⁵ For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
²⁶ And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
²⁷ He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
²⁸ The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
³⁰ And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?
³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,
³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
³⁴ He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (ESV)

¹⁴ “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,
¹⁵ if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
¹⁷ I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.
¹⁸ And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,
¹⁹ and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
²⁰ And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
²¹ “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.
²² And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
²³ “And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me,
²⁴ then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
²⁵ And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
²⁶ When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
²⁷ “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me,
²⁸ then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.
²⁹ You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
³⁰ And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.
³¹ And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas.
³² And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.
³³ And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
³⁴ “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.
³⁵ As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.
³⁶ And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.
³⁷ They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
³⁸ And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
³⁹ And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.
⁴⁰ “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,
⁴¹ so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,
⁴² then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
⁴³ But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.
⁴⁴ Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.
⁴⁵ But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.”
⁴⁶ These are the statutes and rules and laws that the LORD made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the valuation of persons,
³ then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
⁴ If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels.
⁵ If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels.
⁶ If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
⁷ And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.
⁸ And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford.
⁹ “If the vow is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the LORD, all of it that he gives to the LORD is holy.
¹⁰ He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy.
¹¹ And if it is any unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the LORD, then he shall stand the animal before the priest,
¹² and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be.
¹³ But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation.
¹⁴ “When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the LORD, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand.
¹⁵ And if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.
¹⁶ “If a man dedicates to the LORD part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
¹⁷ If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation shall stand,
¹⁸ but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation.
¹⁹ And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain his.
²⁰ But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore.
²¹ But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the LORD, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it.
²² If he dedicates to the LORD a field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession,
²³ then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on that day as a holy gift to the LORD.
²⁴ In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession.
²⁵ Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.
²⁶ “But a firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD’s.
²⁷ And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the valuation, and add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at the valuation.
²⁸ “But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD.
²⁹ No one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.
³⁰ “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s; it is holy to the LORD.
³¹ If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it.
³² And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the LORD.
³³ One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”
³⁴ These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. (ESV)

¹ Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,
² just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,
³ it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
⁴ that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
⁵ In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
⁸ Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty,
⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
¹¹ And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
¹² And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
¹⁵ for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,
¹⁷ and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
¹⁸ And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
¹⁹ And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
²⁰ And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”
²¹ And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple.
²² And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute.
²³ And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
²⁴ After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying,
²⁵ “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” (ESV)

¹ My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
² keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
³ bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,
⁵ to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. (ESV)