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)

¹ Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
² Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or declare all his praise?
³ Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!
⁴ Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them,
⁵ that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.
⁶ Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.
⁷ Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
⁸ Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.
⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
¹⁰ So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.
¹¹ And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left.
¹² Then they believed his words; they sang his praise.
¹³ But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.
¹⁴ But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert;
¹⁵ he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.
¹⁶ When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the LORD,
¹⁷ the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.
¹⁸ Fire also broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.
¹⁹ They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image.
²⁰ They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
²¹ They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
²² wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
²³ Therefore he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
²⁴ Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise.
²⁵ They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the LORD.
²⁶ Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
²⁷ and would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands.
²⁸ Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;
²⁹ they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
³⁰ Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed.
³¹ And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.
³² They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account,
³³ for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.
³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them,
³⁵ but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.
³⁶ They served their idols, which became a snare to them.
³⁷ They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;
³⁸ they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
³⁹ Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.
⁴⁰ Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage;
⁴¹ he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them.
⁴² Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power.
⁴³ Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.
⁴⁴ Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry.
⁴⁵ For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
⁴⁶ He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive.
⁴⁷ Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
⁴⁸ Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD! (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)

¹⁹ For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.
²⁰ And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
²² Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
²³ And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,
²⁴ and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
²⁵ And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
²⁶ Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
²⁷ Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
²⁸ his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
²⁹ You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
³⁰ And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.
³¹ The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod.
³² And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.
³³ For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

¹ Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!
² And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
³ The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.
⁴ For thus the LORD said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
⁵ Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.”
⁶ Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
⁷ For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
⁸ “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
⁹ His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

¹ Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.
² Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
³ Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
⁴ The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
⁵ The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
⁶ For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷ As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.
⁸ But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.
⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
¹⁰ In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.
¹¹ Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist.
¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
¹³ for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city.
¹⁴ For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
¹⁷ And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
¹⁸ My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
¹⁹ And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰ Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free. (ESV)

¹ This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
² I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—
³ since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.
⁴ For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
⁵ Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
⁶ I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.
⁷ But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.
⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
⁹ For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.
¹⁰ For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
¹¹ Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
¹² Greet one another with a holy kiss.
¹³ All the saints greet you.
¹⁴ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (ESV)

¹⁷ Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge,
¹⁸ for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.
¹⁹ That your trust may be in the LORD, I have made them known to you today, even to you.
²⁰ Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge,
²¹ to make you know what is right and true, that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?
²² Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate,
²³ for the LORD will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.
²⁴ Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man,
²⁵ lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
²⁶ Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts.
²⁷ If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you? (ESV)