Psalm 118

A Song of Victory

²⁰ And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.^{(A) 22} God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”^{(B) 23} And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.^(C)

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humans^[a] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth^[b] and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”^(D)

²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”^{(F) 29} God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.^{(G) 30} And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.^{(H) 31} God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.^(I)

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude.^{(J) 2} On the sixth^[e] day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.^{(K) 3} So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.^(L)

⁴ These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Another Account of the Creation

In the day that the Lord^[f] God made the earth and the heavens,

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.^{(A) 51} Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,^[a] but we will all be changed,^{(B) 52} in 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.^{(C) 53} For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.^{(E) 57} But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.^(F)