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. A Psalm of David.
¹ Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men,
² who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually.
³ They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
⁴ Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet.
⁵ The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net; beside the way they have set snares for me. Selah
⁶ I say to the LORD, You are my God; give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD!
⁷ O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle.
⁸ Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah
⁹ As for the head of those who surround me, let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!
¹⁰ Let burning coals fall upon them! Let them be cast into fire, into miry pits, no more to rise!
¹¹ Let not the slanderer be established in the land; let evil hunt down the violent man speedily!
¹² I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.
¹³ Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence. (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)

¹ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.
³ “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
⁴ “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.
⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’s Passover.
⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.
⁸ But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
⁹ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest,
¹¹ and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
¹² And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD.
¹³ And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the LORD with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.
¹⁴ And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
¹⁵ “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.
¹⁶ You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD.
¹⁷ You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD.
¹⁸ And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
¹⁹ And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.
²⁰ And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
²¹ And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
²² “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” (ESV)

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
¹⁴ But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
¹⁶ And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,
¹⁷ and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
¹⁸ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’
²⁰ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
²¹ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
²² And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.
²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
²⁵ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
²⁶ If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
²⁹ And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
³⁰ For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
³¹ Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
³² “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
³³ Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
³⁴ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (ESV)

¹ When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
² Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.
³ And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.
⁴ But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
⁵ This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
⁶ The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.
⁷ And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.”
⁸ So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there.
⁹ But after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.
¹⁰ So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.”
¹¹ They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
¹² The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

¹ The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
² And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us with what we shall send it to its place.”
³ They said, “If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.”
⁴ And they said, “What is the guilt offering that we shall return to him?” They answered, “Five golden tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords.
⁵ So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land.
⁶ Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed?
⁷ Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them.
⁸ And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way
⁹ and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”
¹⁰ The men did so, and took two milk cows and yoked them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.
¹¹ And they put the ark of the LORD on the cart and the box with the golden mice and the images of their tumors.
¹² And the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh along one highway, lowing as they went. They turned neither to the right nor to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
¹³ Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it.
¹⁴ The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
¹⁵ And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the LORD.
¹⁶ And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.
¹⁷ These are the golden tumors that the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron,
¹⁸ and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the LORD is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
¹⁹ And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow.
²⁰ Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”
²¹ So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to you.”

¹ And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the LORD.
² From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
³ And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
⁴ So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only.
⁵ Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.”
⁶ So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
⁷ Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
⁸ And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
⁹ So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. And Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him.
¹⁰ As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.
¹¹ And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car.
¹² Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.”
¹³ So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
¹⁴ The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.
¹⁵ Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
¹⁶ And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places.
¹⁷ Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the LORD. (ESV)

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him,
⁴⁶ but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all.
⁵⁰ Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”
⁵¹ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,
⁵² and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
⁵³ So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
⁵⁴ Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.
⁵⁵ Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”
⁵⁷ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

¹ Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
² So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
³ Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
⁴ But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said,
⁵ “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”
⁶ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
⁷ Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.
⁸ For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
⁹ When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
¹⁰ So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well,
¹¹ because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. (ESV)

¹⁸ There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
¹⁹ Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
²⁰ Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.
²¹ No ill befalls the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble.
²² Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are his delight.
²³ A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly.
²⁴ The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.
²⁵ Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
²⁶ One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
²⁷ Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. (ESV)