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)

¹ When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
² Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
³ The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
⁴ The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
⁵ What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
⁶ O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
⁸ who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. (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)

⁸ Thus says the LORD: “In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages,
⁹ saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture;
¹⁰ they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.
¹¹ And I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.
¹² Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene.”
¹³ Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
¹⁴ But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.
¹⁹ “Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land— surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰ The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart: ‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?’”
²² Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
²³ Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”
²⁴ Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
²⁵ For thus says the LORD: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
²⁶ I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

¹ Thus says the LORD: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
² Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.
³ I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering.”
⁴ The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
⁵ The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.
⁶ I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
⁷ But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
⁸ He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
⁹ Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
¹⁰ Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
¹¹ Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.

¹ “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
² Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.
³ For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.
⁴ “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
⁵ My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.
⁷ “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”
⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
¹² “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass,
¹³ and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor?
¹⁴ He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.
¹⁵ I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name.
¹⁶ And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” (ESV)

¹ Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
³ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
⁴ But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
⁵ For each will have to bear his own load.
⁶ Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
⁸ For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
⁹ And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
¹⁰ So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
¹¹ See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.
¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
¹³ For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
¹⁴ But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
¹⁵ For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
¹⁶ And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
¹⁷ From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. (ESV)

¹⁰ Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.
¹² Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.
¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.
¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.
¹⁶ My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.
¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.
¹⁸ Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. (ESV)