Daily Devotions · May 18
Reading for May 18
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
1 Kings 3 · 2 Chronicles 1 · Psalm 78 · 2 Thessalonians 2
1 Kings 3 · 2 Chronicles 1 · Psalm 78 · 2 Thessalonians 2, Berean Standard Bible
1 Kings 3
Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places because a house for the Name of the LORD had not yet been built. 3 And Solomon loved the LORD and walked in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 4 Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for it was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there. 5 One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!” 6 Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 7 And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in. 8 Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number. 9 Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?” 10 Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice— 12 behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been another like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal. 14 So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.” 15 Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants. 16 At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. 18 On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us. 19 During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom. 21 The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne.” 22 “No,” said the other woman, “the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman insisted, “No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” So they argued before the king. 23 Then the king replied, “This woman says, ‘My son is alive and yours is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead and mine is alive.’” 24 The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword, 25 and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!” 27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.” 28 When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
2 Chronicles 1
Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him and highly exalted him. 2 Then Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel—the heads of the families. 3 And Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon because it was the location of God’s Tent of Meeting, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. 4 Now David had brought the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, was in Gibeon before the tabernacle of the LORD. So Solomon and the assembly inquired of Him there. 6 Solomon offered sacrifices there before the LORD on the bronze altar at the Tent of Meeting, where he offered a thousand burnt offerings. 7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!” 8 Solomon replied to God: “You have shown much loving devotion to my father David, and You have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O LORD God, let Your promise to my father David be fulfilled. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Now grant me wisdom and knowledge, so that I may lead this people. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?” 11 God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart instead of requesting riches or wealth or honor for yourself or death for your enemies—and since you have not even requested long life but have asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king— 12 therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.” 13 So Solomon went to Jerusalem from the high place in Gibeon, from before the Tent of Meeting, and he reigned over Israel. 14 Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 15 The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills. 16 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. 17 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. Likewise, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.
Psalm 78
A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning, 3 that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us. 4 We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed. 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children 7 that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments. 8 Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God. 9 The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle. 10 They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law. 11 They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them. 12 He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. 13 He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall. 14 He led them with a cloud by day and with a light of fire all night. 15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas. 16 He brought streams from the stone and made water flow down like rivers. 17 But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. 18 They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved. 19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness? 20 When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?” 21 Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel, 22 because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation. 23 Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens. 24 He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven. 25 Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. 26 He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might. 27 He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea. 28 He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. 29 So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved. 30 Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths, 31 God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel. 32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe. 33 So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror. 34 When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God. 35 And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. 36 But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues. 37 Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant. 38 And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath. 39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. 40 How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! 41 Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel. 42 They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary, 43 when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan. 44 He turned their rivers to blood, and from their streams they could not drink. 45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. 46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust. 47 He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet. 48 He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning. 49 He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity—a band of destroying angels. 50 He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague. 51 He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham. 52 He led out His people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness. 53 He led them safely, so they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies. 54 He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired. 55 He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. 56 But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees. 57 They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow. 58 They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols. 59 On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely. 60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men. 61 He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary. 62 He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged by His heritage. 63 Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs. 64 His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament. 65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine. 66 He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame. 67 He rejected the tent of Joseph and refused the tribe of Ephraim. 68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved. 69 He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth He has established forever. 70 He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; 71 from tending the ewes He brought him to be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance. 72 So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.
2 Thessalonians 2
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. 4 He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6 And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, 10 and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11 For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, 12 in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness. 13 But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth. 14 To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brothers, stand firm and cling to the traditions we taught you, whether by speech or by letter. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.
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
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
Added to your journal. Go to journal
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.