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)

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
² Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
³ You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
⁴ For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
⁵ You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:
⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
¹⁰ The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
¹² So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
¹³ Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.
¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV)

¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (ESV)

¹ When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
² And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.”
³ So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
⁴ But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.
⁵ Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
⁶ Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.
⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
⁸ And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
⁹ And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
¹⁰ They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food.
¹¹ We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.”
¹² He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.”
¹³ And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”
¹⁴ But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies.
¹⁵ By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.”
¹⁷ And he put them all together in custody for three days.
¹⁸ On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God:
¹⁹ if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households,
²⁰ and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.
²¹ Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”
²² And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”
²³ They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.
²⁴ Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
²⁵ And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
²⁶ Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed.
²⁷ And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack.
²⁸ He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
²⁹ When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying,
³⁰ “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land.
³¹ But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies.
³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’
³³ Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way.
³⁴ Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”

³⁸ But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” (ESV)

¹ And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
² When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
³ And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
⁴ Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
⁵ And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed.
⁶ He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
⁸ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
¹⁰ Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
¹¹ this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
¹² And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. (ESV)

¹² “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days.
¹³ And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;
¹⁴ and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two tenths for each of the two rams,
¹⁵ and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs;
¹⁶ also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.
¹⁷ “On the second day twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
¹⁸ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
¹⁹ also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
²⁰ “On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
²¹ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
²² also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
²³ “On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
²⁴ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
²⁵ also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.
²⁶ “On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
²⁷ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
²⁸ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
²⁹ “On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
³⁰ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
³¹ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offerings.
³² “On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,
³³ with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
³⁴ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
³⁵ “On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work,
³⁶ but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish,
³⁷ and the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;
³⁸ also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
³⁹ “These you shall offer to the LORD at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.”
⁴⁰ So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹ Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the LORD has commanded.
² If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
³ “If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth,
⁴ and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand.
⁵ But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
⁶ “If she marries a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself,
⁷ and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand.
⁸ But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her vow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. And the LORD will forgive her.
⁹ (But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.)
¹⁰ And if she vowed in her husband’s house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath,
¹¹ and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand.
¹² But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the LORD will forgive her.
¹³ Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her husband may make void.
¹⁴ But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them.
¹⁵ But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”
¹⁶ These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses about a man and his wife and about a father and his daughter while she is in her youth within her father’s house.

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”
³ So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD’s vengeance on Midian.
⁴ You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”
⁵ So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
⁶ And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.
⁷ They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every male.
⁸ They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.
⁹ And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods.
¹⁰ All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire,
¹¹ and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of man and of beast.
¹² Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
¹³ Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.
¹⁴ And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.
¹⁵ Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live?
¹⁶ Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.
¹⁷ Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.
¹⁸ But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
¹⁹ Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.
²⁰ You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”
²¹ Then Eleazar the priest said to the men in the army who had gone to battle: “This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded Moses:
²² only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
²³ everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water.
²⁴ You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. And afterward you may come into the camp.” (ESV)

¹⁹ Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.
²⁰ And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.”
²¹ But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
²² One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out,
²³ and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.
²⁴ And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm.
²⁵ He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
²⁶ Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
²⁷ When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”
²⁹ For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)
³⁰ Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him.
³¹ And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
³² Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.
³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
³⁴ When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
³⁵ Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
³⁶ And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
³⁷ Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,
³⁹ “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
¹ I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
² I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse.
³ My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
⁴ “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
⁵ Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
⁶ Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
⁷ “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
⁹ I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰ Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
¹¹ When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
¹² “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!” (ESV)