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)

Of David.
¹ Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
² he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
³ O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?
⁴ Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
⁵ Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
⁶ Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!
⁷ Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,
⁸ whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
⁹ I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
¹⁰ who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
¹¹ Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
¹² May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace;
¹³ may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;
¹⁴ may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
¹⁵ Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD! (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 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
² And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people
³ and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them,
⁴ for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’
⁵ Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
⁶ And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit.
⁷ And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’
⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’
⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.
¹⁰ “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
¹¹ And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
¹² But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
¹³ And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword,
¹⁴ but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.
¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here.
¹⁶ But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes,
¹⁷ but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded,
¹⁸ that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.
¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?
²⁰ Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls. (ESV)

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
³⁹ But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
⁴⁰ For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
⁴² The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
⁴³ “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.
⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.
⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
⁴⁶ While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.
⁴⁸ But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
⁴⁹ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (ESV)

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.
² About Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
³ “Prepare buckler and shield, and advance for battle!
⁴ Harness the horses; mount, O horsemen! Take your stations with your helmets, polish your spears, put on your armor!
⁵ Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward. Their warriors are beaten down and have fled in haste; they look not back— terror on every side! declares the LORD.
⁶ “The swift cannot flee away, nor the warrior escape; in the north by the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen.
⁷ “Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge?
⁸ Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’
⁹ Advance, O horses, and rage, O chariots! Let the warriors go out: men of Cush and Put who handle the shield, men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.
¹⁰ That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood. For the Lord GOD of hosts holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
¹¹ Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you.
¹² The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for warrior has stumbled against warrior; they have both fallen together.”
¹³ The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:
¹⁴ “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes; say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared, for the sword shall devour around you.’
¹⁵ Why are your mighty ones face down? They do not stand because the LORD thrust them down.
¹⁶ He made many stumble, and they fell, and they said one to another, ‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, because of the sword of the oppressor.’
¹⁷ Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’
¹⁸ “As I live, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.
¹⁹ Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, O inhabitants of Egypt! For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant.
²⁰ “A beautiful heifer is Egypt, but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.
²¹ Even her hired soldiers in her midst are like fattened calves; yes, they have turned and fled together; they did not stand, for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.
²² “She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away; for her enemies march in force and come against her with axes like those who fell trees.
²³ They shall cut down her forest, declares the LORD, though it is impenetrable, because they are more numerous than locusts; they are without number.
²⁴ The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”
²⁵ The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.
²⁶ I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, declares the LORD.
²⁷ “But fear not, O Jacob my servant, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid.
²⁸ Fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck down Gaza.
² “Thus says the LORD: Behold, waters are rising out of the north, and shall become an overflowing torrent; they shall overflow the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. Men shall cry out, and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.
³ At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels, the fathers look not back to their children, so feeble are their hands,
⁴ because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains. For the LORD is destroying the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
⁵ Baldness has come upon Gaza; Ashkelon has perished. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourselves?
⁶ Ah, sword of the LORD! How long till you are quiet? Put yourself into your scabbard; rest and be still!
⁷ How can it be quiet when the LORD has given it a charge? Against Ashkelon and against the seashore he has appointed it.” (ESV)

³ If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,
⁴ he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,
⁵ and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain,
⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
⁸ But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
¹¹ But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
¹⁴ to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
¹⁵ which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
¹⁶ who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
¹⁷ As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
¹⁹ thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
²⁰ O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”
²¹ for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you. (ESV)

Yodh
⁷³ Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
⁷⁴ Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word.
⁷⁵ I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
⁷⁶ Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.
⁷⁷ Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.
⁷⁸ Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
⁷⁹ Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.
⁸⁰ May my heart be blameless in your statutes, that I may not be put to shame! (ESV)