Evening Devotion

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
¹ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
² Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
⁷ all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
⁹ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (ESV)

A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.
¹ Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you!
² Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!
³ For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
⁴ My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread.
⁵ Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.
⁶ I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;
⁷ I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
⁸ All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.
⁹ For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink,
¹⁰ because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
¹¹ My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
¹² But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.
¹³ You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come.
¹⁴ For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.
¹⁵ Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
¹⁶ For the LORD builds up Zion; he appears in his glory;
¹⁷ he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.
¹⁸ Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
¹⁹ that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die,
²¹ that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise,
²² when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
²³ He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days.
²⁴ “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!”
²⁵ Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
²⁷ but you are the same, and your years have no end.
²⁸ The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you. (ESV)

⁶ On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (ESV)

¹ And God spoke all these words, saying,
² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
³ “You shall have no other gods before me.
⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
⁶ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
⁷ “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
¹³ “You shall not murder.
¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.
¹⁵ “You shall not steal.
¹⁶ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
¹⁸ Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off
¹⁹ and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”
²⁰ Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
²¹ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
²² And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.
²³ You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.
²⁴ An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. (ESV)

¹ And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
⁵ And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
⁶ and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
⁸ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
⁹ And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
¹⁰ for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’
¹¹ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
¹² And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
¹³ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
¹⁴ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.
¹⁵ And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. (ESV)

²¹ “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the LORD your God that you shall make.
²² And you shall not set up a pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

¹ “You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.
² “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant,
³ and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden,
⁴ and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel,
⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.
⁶ On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
⁷ The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
⁸ “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose.
⁹ And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision.
¹⁰ Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the LORD will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you.
¹¹ According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left.
¹² The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
¹³ And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.
¹⁴ “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’
¹⁵ you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’
¹⁷ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.
¹⁹ And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,
²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

¹ “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their inheritance.
² They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
³ And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.
⁴ The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.
⁵ For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time.
⁶ “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires—to the place that the LORD will choose,
⁷ and ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD,
⁸ then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.
⁹ “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer
¹¹ or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,
¹² for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.
¹³ You shall be blameless before the LORD your God,
¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.
¹⁵ “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
¹⁶ just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’
¹⁷ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.
¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
¹⁹ And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
²⁰ But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—
²² when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (ESV)

¹⁵ When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
¹⁶ But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
¹⁷ And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’
¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’
²⁰ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
²¹ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
²² And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
²³ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,
²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
³⁴ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (ESV)

¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face
¹⁶ at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
¹⁷ All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way;
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
²³ Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (ESV)