Night Watch Devotion

A Song of Ascents.
¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
² O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
³ If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
⁶ my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
⁷ O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
⁸ And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
¹ Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
² It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
³ Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (ESV)

¹ “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
² Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
⁵ As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
⁶ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
⁷ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’
¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’
¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
¹³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (ESV)

²¹ Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
²² For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.
²³ Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.
²⁴ For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
²⁵ “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger,
²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.
²⁷ And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.
²⁸ And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
²⁹ But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.
³¹ For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
³² “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.
³³ Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?
³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.
³⁶ Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
³⁷ And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,
³⁸ driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day,
³⁹ know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
⁴⁰ Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.” (ESV)

¹² Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
¹³ And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,
¹⁴ so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
¹⁸ While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
²¹ And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.
²² Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
²³ And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.
²⁵ And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. (ESV)

³⁰ “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.
³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.
³² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere.
³³ And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.
³⁴ And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.

¹ “At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs.
² And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.
³ Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the LORD of hosts.
⁴ “You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵ Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.
⁶ I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the LORD.
⁸ “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.
⁹ The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?
¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.
¹¹ They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
¹² Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.
¹³ When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
¹⁴ Why do we sit still? Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
¹⁶ “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes. They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it.
¹⁷ For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you,” declares the LORD.
¹⁸ My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me.
¹⁹ Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?”
²⁰ “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
²¹ For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

¹ Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
² Oh that I had in the desert a travelers’ lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.
³ They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD.
⁴ Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
⁵ Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.
⁶ Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.
⁷ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?
⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.
⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
¹⁰ “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone.
¹¹ I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
¹² Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
¹³ And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it,
¹⁴ but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.
¹⁵ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink.
¹⁶ I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.” (ESV)

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
⁶ which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
⁷ just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
⁸ and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
⁹ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
¹¹ being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;
¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. (ESV)

¹² What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?
¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,
¹⁴ I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
¹⁶ O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.
¹⁷ I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.
¹⁸ I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,
¹⁹ in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD! (ESV)