Daily Devotions · May 20
Reading for May 20
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
1 Kings 6 · 2 Chronicles 3 · Psalm 97 · Romans 1
1 Kings 6 · 2 Chronicles 3 · Psalm 97 · Romans 1, Berean Standard Bible
1 Kings 6
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD. 2 The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple. 4 He also had narrow windows framed high in the temple. 5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms. 6 The bottom floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits, and the third floor seven cubits. He also placed offset ledges around the outside of the temple, so that nothing would be inserted into its walls. 7 The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. 8 The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor. 9 So Solomon built the temple and finished it, roofing it with beams and planks of cedar. 10 He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar. 11 Then the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying: 12 “As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David. 13 And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.” 14 So Solomon built the temple and finished it. 15 He lined the interior walls with cedar paneling from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he covered the floor with cypress boards. 16 He partitioned off the twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 17 And the main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. 18 The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen. 19 Solomon also prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. 21 So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold. 22 So he overlaid with gold the whole interior of the temple, until everything was completely finished. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary. 23 In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim, each ten cubits high, out of olive wood. 24 One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was five cubits long as well. So the full wingspan was ten cubits. 25 The second cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubim had the same size and shape, 26 and the height of each cherub was ten cubits. 27 And he placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple. Since their wings were spread out, the wing of the first cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the second cherub touched the other wall, and in the middle of the room their wingtips touched. 28 He also overlaid the cherubim with gold. 29 Then he carved the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. 30 And he overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and outer sanctuaries. 31 For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, Solomon constructed doors of olive wood with five-sided doorposts. 32 The double doors were made of olive wood, and he carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. 33 In the same way he made four-sided doorposts of olive wood for the sanctuary entrance. 34 The two doors were made of cypress wood, and each had two folding panels. 35 He carved into them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and he overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings. 36 Solomon built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and one row of trimmed cedar beams. 37 The foundation of the house of the LORD was laid in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in every detail and according to every specification. So he built the temple in seven years.
2 Chronicles 3
Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 Solomon began construction on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. 3 The foundation that Solomon laid for the house of God was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide, according to the old standard. 4 The portico at the front, extending across the width of the temple, was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. 5 He paneled the main room with cypress, which he overlaid with fine gold and decorated with palm trees and chains. 6 He adorned the temple with precious stones for beauty, and its gold was from Parvaim. 7 He overlaid its beams, thresholds, walls, and doors with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls. 8 Then he made the Most Holy Place; its length corresponded to the width of the temple—twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. And he overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold. 9 The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold. 10 In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of sculptured work, and he overlaid them with gold. 11 The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the wall of the temple, and its other wing was five cubits long and touched the wing of the other cherub. 12 The wing of the second cherub also measured five cubits and touched the wall of the temple, while its other wing measured five cubits and touched the wing of the first cherub. 13 So the total wingspan of these cherubim was twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, facing the main room. 14 He made the veil of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim woven into it. 15 In front of the temple he made two pillars, which together were thirty-five cubits high, each with a capital on top measuring five cubits. 16 He made interwoven chains and put them on top of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and fastened them into the chainwork. 17 Then he set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south and one on the north. The pillar on the south he named Jachin, and the pillar on the north he named Boaz.
Psalm 97
The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the distant shores be glad. 2 Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation. 3 Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. 4 His lightning illuminates the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens proclaim His righteousness; all the peoples see His glory. 7 All worshipers of images are put to shame—those who boast in idols. Worship Him, all you gods! 8 Zion hears and rejoices, and the towns of Judah exult because of Your judgments, O LORD. 9 For You, O LORD, are Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods. 10 Hate evil, O you who love the LORD! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light shines on the righteous, gladness on the upright in heart. 12 Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones, and praise His holy name.
Romans 1
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3 regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times, asking that now at last by God’s will I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visiting until now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek. 17 For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. 31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.
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.
-
Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
-
Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
-
Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
-
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.