Daily Devotions · May 11
Reading for May 11
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
2 Samuel 19–20 · Psalm 55 · Matthew 28
2 Samuel 19–20 · Psalm 55 · Matthew 28, Berean Standard Bible
2 Samuel 19
Then it was reported to Joab, “The king is weeping and mourning over Absalom.” 2 And that day’s victory was turned into mourning for all the people, because on that day they were told, “The king is grieving over his son.” 3 So they returned to the city quietly that day, as people steal away in humiliation after fleeing a battle. 4 But the king covered his face and cried out at the top of his voice, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!” 5 Then Joab went into the house and said to the king, “Today you have disgraced all your servants who have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, of your wives, and of your concubines. 6 You love those who hate you and hate those who love you! For you have made it clear today that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. I know today that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would have pleased you! 7 Now therefore get up! Go out and speak comfort to your servants, for I swear by the LORD that if you do not go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the adversity that has befallen you from your youth until now!” 8 So the king got up and sat in the gate, and all the people were told: “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” So they all came before the king. Meanwhile, the Israelites had fled, each man to his home. 9 And all the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing, “The king rescued us from the hand of our enemies and delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom. 10 But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?” 11 Then King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace, since the talk of all Israel has reached the king at his quarters? 12 You are my brothers, my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’ 13 And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’” 14 So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man, and they sent word to the king: “Return, you and all your servants.” 15 So the king returned, and when he arrived at the Jordan, the men of Judah came to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the Jordan. 16 Then Shimei son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David, 17 along with a thousand men of Benjamin, as well as Ziba the steward of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan before the king 18 and crossed at the ford to carry over the king’s household and to do what was good in his sight. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king 19 and said, “My lord, do not hold me guilty, and do not remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart. 20 For your servant knows that I have sinned, so here I am today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.” 21 But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?” 22 And David replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, what have I to do with you, that you should be my adversaries today? Should any man be put to death in Israel today? Am I not indeed aware that today I am king over Israel?” 23 So the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king swore an oath to him. 24 Then Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king had left until the day he returned safely. 25 And he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, who asked him, “Mephibosheth, why did you not go with me?” 26 “My lord the king,” he replied, “because I am lame, I said, ‘I will have my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ But my servant Ziba deceived me, 27 and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes. 28 For all the house of my grandfather deserves death from my lord the king, yet you have set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right, then, do I have to keep appealing to the king?” 29 The king replied, “Why say any more? I hereby declare that you and Ziba are to divide the land.” 30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Instead, since my lord the king has safely come to his own house, let Ziba take it all!” 31 Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and send him on his way from there. 32 Barzillai was quite old, eighty years of age, and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the king while he stayed in Mahanaim. 33 The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.” 34 But Barzillai replied, “How many years of my life remain, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? 35 I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 36 Your servant will go with the king only a short distance past the Jordan; why should the king repay me with such a reward? 37 Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight.” 38 The king replied, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what is good in your sight, and I will do for you whatever you desire of me.” 39 So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned home. 40 Then the king crossed over to Gilgal, and Chimham crossed over with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel escorted the king. 41 Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David’s men?” 42 And all the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “We did this because the king is our relative. Why does this anger you? Have we ever eaten at the king’s expense or received anything for ourselves?” 43 “We have ten shares in the king,” answered the men of Israel, “so we have more claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of restoring our king?” But the men of Judah spoke more fiercely than the men of Israel.
2 Samuel 20
Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!” 2 So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem. 3 When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows. 4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.” 5 So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time allotted him. 6 And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.” 7 So Joab’s men, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, marched out of Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri. 8 And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath. 9 “Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him. 10 Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri. 11 One of Joab’s young men stood near Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!” 12 But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the road, and when the man saw that all the troops were stopping there, he dragged the body off the road into a field and threw a garment over it. 13 As soon as Amasa’s body was removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri. 14 Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him. 15 And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it, 16 a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him.” 17 When he had come near to her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “I am,” he replied. “Listen to the words of your servant,” she said. “I am listening,” he answered. 18 Then the woman said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Seek counsel at Abel,’ and that is how disputes were settled. 19 I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?” 20 “Far be it!” Joab declared. “Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy! 21 That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city.” “Look,” the woman replied, “his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” 22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem. 23 Now Joab was over the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; 24 Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; 25 Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 26 and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.
Psalm 55
For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Maskil of David. Listen to my prayer, O God, and do not ignore my plea. 2 Attend to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and distraught 3 at the voice of the enemy, at the pressure of the wicked. For they bring down disaster upon me and resent me in their anger. 4 My heart pounds within me, and the terrors of death assail me. 5 Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me. 6 I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest. 7 How far away I would flee! In the wilderness I would remain. Selah 8 I would hurry to my shelter, far from this raging tempest.” 9 O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within. 11 Destruction is within; oppression and deceit never leave the streets. 12 For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide. 13 But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend. 14 We shared sweet fellowship together; we walked with the crowd into the house of God. 15 Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes. 16 But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. 17 Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice. 18 He redeems my soul in peace from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. 19 God will hear and humiliate them—the One enthroned for the ages—Selah because they do not change and they have no fear of God. 20 My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. 21 His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed. 22 Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken. 23 But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
Matthew 28
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards trembled in fear of him and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell His disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ See, I have told you.” 8 So they hurried away from the tomb in fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him. 10 “Do not be afraid,” said Jesus. “Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see Me.” 11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. 12 And after the chief priests had met with the elders and formed a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money 13 and instructed them: “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report reaches the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the guards took the money and did as they were instructed. And this account has been circulated among the Jews to this very day. 16 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had designated. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
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Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
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Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
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Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
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Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
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Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.