Meditate
with a daily devotion
Daily Light's Evening Reading
[Jesus] prayed the third time, saying the same words.—MATT. 26:44.
Who in the days of his flesh . . . offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death.
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.—Continuing instant in prayer.—Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication.—By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.—This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.
Delight thyself . . . in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
Heb. 5:7.Hos. 6:3. -Rom. 12:12. -Eph. 6:18. -Phi. 4:6,7.Matt. 26:39. -I John 5:14.Psa. 37:4,5.
Spurgeon's Evening Reading
“Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.”
Psalm 28:1
A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and a suitable utterance when all other modes of appeal fail us; but the cry must be alone directed to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our entreaties upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and his ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our Rock attends to our cries.
“Be not silent to me.” Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will—they must go further, and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, they dread even a little of God’s silence. God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but his silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close his ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, he will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become forever silent to our prayers? “Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” Deprived of the God who answers prayer, we should be in a more pitiable plight than the dead in the grave, and should soon sink to the same level as the lost in hell. We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for he never can find it in his heart to permit his own elect to perish.
Old Testament Chapter a Day - Numbers 31
31. Vengeance on the Midianites
War against Midian
31
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,2“Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites; afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”3So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your number for the war, so that they may go against Midian, to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian.4You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”5So out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe were conscripted, twelve thousand armed for battle.6Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his hand.7They did battle against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male.8They killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian, in addition to others who were slain by them; and they also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.9The Israelites took the women of Midian and their little ones captive; and they took all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods as booty.10All their towns where they had settled, and all their encampments, they burned,11but they took all the spoil and all the booty, both people and animals.12Then they brought the captives and the booty and the spoil to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the Israelites, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
Return from the War
13 Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.14Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.15Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live?16These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.17Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him.18But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves.19Camp outside the camp seven days; whoever of you has killed any person or touched a corpse, purify yourselves and your captives on the third and on the seventh day.20You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, everything made of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”
21 Eleazar the priest said to the troops who had gone to battle: “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded Moses:22gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead—23everything that can withstand fire, shall be passed through fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless it shall also be purified with the water for purification; and whatever cannot withstand fire, shall be passed through the water.24You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; afterward you may come into the camp.”
Disposition of Captives and Booty
25 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,26“You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the ancestral houses of the congregation make an inventory of the booty captured, both human and animal.27Divide the booty into two parts, between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation.28From the share of the warriors who went out to battle, set aside as tribute for the Lord, one item out of every five hundred, whether persons, oxen, donkeys, sheep, or goats.29Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the Lord.30But from the Israelites’ half you shall take one out of every fifty, whether persons, oxen, donkeys, sheep, or goats—all the animals—and give them to the Levites who have charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.”
31 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord had commanded Moses:
32 The booty remaining from the spoil that the troops had taken totaled six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,33seventy-two thousand oxen,34sixty-one thousand donkeys,35and thirty-two thousand persons in all, women who had not known a man by sleeping with him.
36 The half-share, the portion of those who had gone out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and goats,37and the Lord’s tribute of sheep and goats was six hundred seventy-five.38The oxen were thirty-six thousand, of which the Lord’s tribute was seventy-two.39The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, of which the Lord’s tribute was sixty-one.40The persons were sixteen thousand, of which the Lord’s tribute was thirty-two persons.41Moses gave the tribute, the offering for the Lord, to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
42 As for the Israelites’ half, which Moses separated from that of the troops,43the congregation’s half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and goats,44thirty-six thousand oxen,45thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,46and sixteen thousand persons.47From the Israelites’ half Moses took one of every fifty, both of persons and of animals, and gave them to the Levites who had charge of the tabernacle of the Lord; as the Lord had commanded Moses.
48 Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, approached Moses,49and said to Moses, “Your servants have counted the warriors who are under our command, and not one of us is missing.50And we have brought the Lord’s offering, what each of us found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and pendants, to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”51Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from them, all in the form of crafted articles.52And all the gold of the offering that they offered to the Lord, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels.53(The troops had all taken plunder for themselves.)54So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.
New Testament in Four Years - 1 Corinthians 15:50-53
15. Resurrection of Christ and the Dead
50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.51Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.53For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Psalm a Day - Psalm 134
134. Psalm 134
Psalm 134
Praise in the Night
A Song of Ascents.
1
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
2
Lift up your hands to the holy place,
and bless the Lord.
3
May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,
bless you from Zion.