Night Watch Devotion

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹ then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.
¹ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
² Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might and come to save us!
³ Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!
⁴ O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
⁵ You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure.
⁶ You make us an object of contention for our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves.
⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!
⁸ You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹ You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.
¹¹ It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River.
¹² Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
¹³ The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
¹⁴ Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
¹⁵ the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
¹⁶ They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
¹⁷ But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
¹⁸ Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name!
¹⁹ Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved! (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)

³² So the man came to the house and unharnessed the camels, and gave straw and fodder to the camels, and there was water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
³³ Then food was set before him to eat. But he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.” He said, “Speak on.”
³⁴ So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant.
³⁵ The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys.
³⁶ And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has.
³⁷ My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell,
³⁸ but you shall go to my father’s house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.’
³⁹ I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’
⁴⁰ But he said to me, ‘The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house.
⁴¹ Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my clan. And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’
⁴² “I came today to the spring and said, ‘O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, if now you are prospering the way that I go,
⁴³ behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,”
⁴⁴ and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,” let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’
⁴⁵ “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’
⁴⁶ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also.
⁴⁷ Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms.
⁴⁸ Then I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son.
⁴⁹ Now then, if you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”
⁵⁰ Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good.
⁵¹ Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.”
⁵² When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the LORD.

⁶¹ Then Rebekah and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed the man. Thus the servant took Rebekah and went his way.
⁶² Now Isaac had returned from Beer-lahai-roi and was dwelling in the Negeb.
⁶³ And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming.
⁶⁴ And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel
⁶⁵ and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.
⁶⁶ And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.
⁶⁷ Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. (ESV)

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.
¹⁴ Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
¹⁵ And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
¹⁶ And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.
¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?
¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?
¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.”
²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.”
²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (ESV)

⁴ Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat!
⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
⁶ But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
⁷ Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium.
⁸ The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil.
⁹ When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
¹⁰ Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.
¹¹ Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
¹² Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?
¹³ Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
¹⁴ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me.
¹⁵ If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”
¹⁶ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.
¹⁷ And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.
¹⁸ And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.
¹⁹ You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,
²⁰ but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
²¹ But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’
²² Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?”
²³ And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent.
²⁵ Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.
²⁶ Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.
²⁷ And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
²⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.”
²⁹ But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”
³⁰ And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
³¹ Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.
³² And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
³³ While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague.
³⁴ Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
³⁵ From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.

¹ Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
² And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it.
³ Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
⁴ And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out.
⁵ And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.
⁶ And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.
⁷ Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.
⁸ With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
⁹ And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.
¹⁰ When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.
¹¹ And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned.
¹² Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”
¹³ And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her—please.”
¹⁴ But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.”
¹⁵ So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.
¹⁶ After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”
³ So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.
⁴ And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
⁵ from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;
⁶ from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
⁷ from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
⁸ from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;
⁹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;
¹⁰ from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
¹¹ from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi;
¹² from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
¹³ from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;
¹⁴ from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
¹⁵ from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
¹⁶ These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
¹⁷ Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country,
¹⁸ and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,
¹⁹ and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds,
²⁰ and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
²¹ So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
²² They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
²³ And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs.
²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.
²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. (ESV)

²³ Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
²⁴ the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
²⁵ the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,
²⁶ the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
²⁸ the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
²⁹ the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,
³⁰ the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
³¹ the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon,
³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,
³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,
³⁵ the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,
³⁶ the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
³⁷ the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,
³⁸ the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

¹ And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
⁵ And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
⁶ and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
⁸ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
⁹ And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
¹⁰ for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’
¹¹ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
¹² And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
¹³ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. (ESV)

²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
²² All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
²³ till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
²⁴ And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths,
²⁶ for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. (ESV)