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)

To the choirmaster. A Song. A Psalm.
¹ Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
² sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!
³ Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
⁴ All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” Selah
⁵ Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
⁶ He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him,
⁷ who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations— let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
⁸ Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard,
⁹ who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.
¹⁰ For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
¹¹ You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
¹² you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
¹³ I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you,
¹⁴ that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
¹⁵ I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
¹⁶ Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
¹⁷ I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.
¹⁸ If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
¹⁹ But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
²⁰ Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me! (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)

¹⁰ The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand.
¹¹ And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.
¹² Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul.
¹³ So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people.
¹⁴ And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him.
¹⁵ And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him.
¹⁶ But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
¹⁷ Then Saul said to David, “Here is my elder daughter Merab. I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD’s battles.” For Saul thought, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”
¹⁸ And David said to Saul, “Who am I, and who are my relatives, my father’s clan in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?”
¹⁹ But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.
²⁰ Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
²¹ Saul thought, “Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.”
²² And Saul commanded his servants, “Speak to David in private and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now then become the king’s son-in-law.’”
²³ And Saul’s servants spoke those words in the ears of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a little thing to become the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man and have no reputation?”
²⁴ And the servants of Saul told him, “Thus and so did David speak.”
²⁵ Then Saul said, “Thus shall you say to David, ‘The king desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
²⁶ And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the time had expired,
²⁷ David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.
²⁸ But when Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him,
²⁹ Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually.
³⁰ Then the commanders of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out David had more success than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed. (ESV)

²⁷ When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.
²⁸ So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.
²⁹ And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.
³⁰ And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow,
³¹ Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.
³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.
³⁴ Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.”
³⁵ And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat.
³⁶ Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.
³⁷ (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.)
³⁸ And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
³⁹ Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore.
⁴⁰ So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach.
⁴¹ But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.
⁴² The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.
⁴³ But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land,
⁴⁴ and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land. (ESV)

³⁷ So David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister regularly before the ark as each day required,
³⁸ and also Obed-edom and his sixty-eight brothers, while Obed-edom, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah were to be gatekeepers.
³⁹ And he left Zadok the priest and his brothers the priests before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon
⁴⁰ to offer burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening, to do all that is written in the Law of the LORD that he commanded Israel.
⁴¹ With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of those chosen and expressly named to give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever.
⁴² Heman and Jeduthun had trumpets and cymbals for the music and instruments for sacred song. The sons of Jeduthun were appointed to the gate.
⁴³ Then all the people departed each to his house, and David went home to bless his household.

¹ Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.”
² And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”
³ But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan,
⁴ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in.
⁵ For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling.
⁶ In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’
⁷ Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel,
⁸ and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
⁹ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly,
¹⁰ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the LORD will build you a house.
¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.
¹³ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you,
¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’”
¹⁵ In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
¹⁷ And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations, O LORD God!
¹⁸ And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant.
¹⁹ For your servant’s sake, O LORD, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things.
²⁰ There is none like you, O LORD, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
²¹ And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and awesome things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt?
²² And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God.
²³ And now, O LORD, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken,
²⁴ and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you.
²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you.
²⁶ And now, O LORD, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
²⁷ Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you, for it is you, O LORD, who have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”

¹ After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Gath and its villages out of the hand of the Philistines.
² And he defeated Moab, and the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.
³ David also defeated Hadadezer king of Zobah-Hamath, as he went to set up his monument at the river Euphrates.
⁴ And David took from him 1,000 chariots, 7,000 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left enough for 100 chariots.
⁵ And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 men of the Syrians.
⁶ Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.
⁷ And David took the shields of gold that were carried by the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.
⁸ And from Tibhath and from Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took a large amount of bronze. With it Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze.
⁹ When Tou king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah,
¹⁰ he sent his son Hadoram to King David, to ask about his health and to bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him; for Hadadezer had often been at war with Tou. And he sent all sorts of articles of gold, of silver, and of bronze.
¹¹ These also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he had carried off from all the nations, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek.
¹² And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
¹³ Then he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David’s servants. And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.
¹⁴ So David reigned over all Israel, and he administered justice and equity to all his people.
¹⁵ And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;
¹⁶ and Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests; and Shavsha was secretary;
¹⁷ and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David’s sons were the chief officials in the service of the king. (ESV)

¹ Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
⁵ that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—
⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—
⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
¹¹ For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
¹² What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
¹⁵ so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
¹⁶ (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (ESV)

³ When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.
⁴ Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.
⁵ A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.
⁶ Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.
⁷ All a poor man’s brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.
⁸ Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.
⁹ A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.
¹⁰ It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, much less for a slave to rule over princes.
¹¹ Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
¹² A king’s wrath is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. (ESV)