Night Watch Devotion

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
¹ O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
² Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
³ My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?
⁴ Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
⁶ I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
⁹ The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.
¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah; a love song.
¹ My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
² You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.
³ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty!
⁴ In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
⁵ Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.
⁶ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
⁷ you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
⁸ your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;
⁹ daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house,
¹¹ and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.
¹² The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people.
¹³ All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
¹⁴ In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her.
¹⁵ With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.
¹⁶ In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.
¹⁷ I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. (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 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.
² Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”
³ But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
⁴ His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
⁵ Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring.
⁶ Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
⁷ Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.
⁸ After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
⁹ He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.
¹⁰ His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do.
¹¹ As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
¹² And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes,
¹³ but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.”
¹⁴ And he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle.
¹⁵ On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?”
¹⁶ And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?”
¹⁷ She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people.
¹⁸ And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.”
¹⁹ And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house.
²⁰ And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. (ESV)

¹ O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
² Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
⁵ Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
⁶ just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
¹⁰ For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
¹¹ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
¹² But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
¹⁴ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
¹⁵ To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
¹⁷ This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
²⁰ Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
²¹ Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
²² But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (ESV)

¹ Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
⁴ But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
⁶ So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
⁷ And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
⁹ And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
¹² He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
¹³ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
¹⁴ Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”
¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
¹⁶ Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
¹⁷ And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

¹ Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish,
² saying, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
³ For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your breakers and your waves passed over me.
⁴ Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’
⁵ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head.
⁶ To the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.
⁷ When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
⁸ Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
⁹ But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
¹⁰ And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

¹ Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”
³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.
⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
⁶ The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
⁷ And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
⁸ but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
¹⁰ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

¹ But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
² And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
³ Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
⁴ And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
⁵ Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.
⁶ Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
⁷ But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
⁸ When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
¹⁰ And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
¹¹ And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (ESV)

¹ Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
² We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
⁴ Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
⁶ He will render to each one according to his works:
⁷ to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
⁸ but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
⁹ There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
¹¹ For God shows no partiality.
¹² For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
¹⁴ For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
¹⁵ They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
¹⁶ on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
¹ LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
² You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah
³ You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.
⁴ Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us!
⁵ Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
⁶ Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
⁷ Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. (ESV)