Night Watch Devotion

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
⁹ Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
¹ Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
² Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
³ You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
⁴ You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
⁵ But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
⁶ The righteous shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, saying,
⁷ “See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
⁸ But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
⁹ I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly. (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 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek.
² The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle.
³ And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”
⁴ So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
⁵ As soon as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.
⁶ And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp,
⁷ the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.
⁸ Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.
⁹ Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”
¹⁰ So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.
¹¹ And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
¹² A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head.
¹³ When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out.
¹⁴ When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli.
¹⁵ Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see.
¹⁶ And the man said to Eli, “I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” And he said, “How did it go, my son?”
¹⁷ He who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
¹⁸ As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.
¹⁹ Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.
²⁰ And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention.
²¹ And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
²² And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” (ESV)

²³ And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.
²⁴ Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,
²⁶ and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.
²⁷ When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
²⁹ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.
³⁰ Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
³¹ And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
³² And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.
³⁴ Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
³⁵ But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.”
³⁶ And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.”
³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.”
³⁸ The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.
³⁹ So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.
⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed. (ESV)

¹ And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”
² So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
³ And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
⁴ For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.
⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

¹ Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land;
² there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
³ Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
⁴ Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.
⁵ You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother.
⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
⁷ The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.
⁸ They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹ And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
¹⁰ They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish
¹¹ whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.
¹² My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
¹³ They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery.
¹⁴ I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
¹⁵ Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the LORD lives.”
¹⁶ Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the LORD now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?
¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.
¹⁸ When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame.
¹⁹ A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

¹ Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.
² And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them.
³ I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.
⁴ Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD.
⁵ The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.
⁶ With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
⁷ They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
⁸ Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin!
⁹ Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.
¹⁰ The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.
¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth.
¹² But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
¹³ When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.
¹⁴ For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
¹⁵ I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. (ESV)

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹ Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
² For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
³ Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
⁴ Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (ESV)

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
¹ O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.
² Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!
³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,
⁵ like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
⁶ You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
⁷ Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
⁸ You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
⁹ my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you. (ESV)