Midday Devotion

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
¹ Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
² O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
³ But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.
⁴ Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
⁵ Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.
⁶ There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
⁷ You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
⁸ In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (ESV)

¹ Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
² Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.
³ Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
⁴ He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful.
⁵ He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.
⁶ He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
⁷ The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy;
⁸ they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
⁹ He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! (ESV)

¹⁷ Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

²³ You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
²⁴ So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God. (ESV)

¹ The LORD said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
² Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
³ No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.”
⁴ So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone.
⁵ The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
⁶ The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
⁷ keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
⁸ And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
⁹ And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
¹⁰ And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
¹¹ “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
¹² Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst.
¹³ You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim
¹⁴ (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
¹⁵ lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice,
¹⁶ and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
¹⁷ “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.
¹⁸ “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.
¹⁹ All that open the womb are mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
²⁰ The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.
²¹ “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
²² You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.
²³ Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
²⁴ For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.
²⁵ “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning.
²⁶ The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
²⁷ And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
²⁸ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (ESV)

¹⁸ The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John,
¹⁹ calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
²⁰ And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’”
²¹ In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.
²² And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
²³ And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
²⁴ When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
²⁵ What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts.
²⁶ What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
²⁷ This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
²⁸ I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
²⁹ (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John,
³⁰ but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
³¹ “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?
³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’
³³ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’
³⁴ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
³⁵ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” (ESV)

¹ This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death.
² He said, “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.
³ Yes, he loved his people, all his holy ones were in his hand; so they followed in your steps, receiving direction from you,
⁴ when Moses commanded us a law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.
⁵ Thus the LORD became king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.
⁶ “Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his men be few.”
⁷ And this he said of Judah: “Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries.”
⁸ And of Levi he said, “Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;
⁹ who said of his father and mother, ‘I regard them not’; he disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For they observed your word and kept your covenant.
¹⁰ They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
¹¹ Bless, O LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of his adversaries, of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”
¹² Of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety. The High God surrounds him all day long, and dwells between his shoulders.”
¹³ And of Joseph he said, “Blessed by the LORD be his land, with the choicest gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that crouches beneath,
¹⁴ with the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the months,
¹⁵ with the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills,
¹⁶ with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwells in the bush. May these rest on the head of Joseph, on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.
¹⁷ A firstborn bull—he has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”
¹⁸ And of Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents.
¹⁹ They shall call peoples to their mountain; there they offer right sacrifices; for they draw from the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.”
²⁰ And of Gad he said, “Blessed be he who enlarges Gad! Gad crouches like a lion; he tears off arm and scalp.
²¹ He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander’s portion was reserved; and he came with the heads of the people, with Israel he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments for Israel.”
²² And of Dan he said, “Dan is a lion’s cub that leaps from Bashan.”
²³ And of Naphtali he said, “O Naphtali, sated with favor, and full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the lake and the south.”
²⁴ And of Asher he said, “Most blessed of sons be Asher; let him be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil.
²⁵ Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be.
²⁶ “There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty.
²⁷ The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, ‘Destroy.’
²⁸ So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew.
²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs.”

¹ Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan,
² all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,
³ the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
⁴ And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
⁵ So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD,
⁶ and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.
⁷ Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.
⁸ And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
⁹ And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
¹⁰ And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
¹¹ none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,
¹² and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (ESV)

²⁷ There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
²⁸ and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children.
³⁰ And the second
³¹ and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.
³² Afterward the woman also died.
³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
³⁴ And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,
³⁵ but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,
³⁶ for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
³⁸ Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”
³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”
⁴⁰ For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
⁴¹ But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?
⁴² For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,
⁴³ until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
⁴⁴ David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
⁴⁵ And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples,
⁴⁶ “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,
⁴⁷ who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

¹ Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box,
² and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
³ And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
¹ Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
² both low and high, rich and poor together!
³ My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
⁴ I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.
⁵ Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
⁶ those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?
⁷ Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,
⁸ for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,
⁹ that he should live on forever and never see the pit.
¹⁰ For he sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.
¹¹ Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.
¹² Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.
¹³ This is the path of those who have foolish confidence; yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah
¹⁴ Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
¹⁵ But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah
¹⁶ Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases.
¹⁷ For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.
¹⁸ For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed— and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
¹⁹ his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light.
²⁰ Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish. (ESV)