Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 8
God’s Glory, Man’s Dignity
For the choir director: on the Gittith.(A) A Davidic psalm.
1 Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!(B)
You have covered the heavens with Your majesty.[a](C)
2 Because of Your adversaries,
You have established a stronghold[b]
from the mouths of children and nursing infants(D)
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I observe Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You set in place,(E)
4 what is man that You remember him,
the son of man that You look after him?(F)
5 You made him little less than God[c][d]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him lord over the works of Your hands;
You put everything under his feet:[e](G)
7 all the sheep and oxen,
as well as the animals in the wild,
8 the birds of the sky,
and the fish of the sea
that pass through the currents of the seas.(H)
9 Yahweh, our Lord,
how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
22 Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,(A)
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?(B)
24 What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?[a]
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,
26 to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
on a desert with no human life,[b]
27 to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout?(C)
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?(D)
29 Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven
30 when water becomes as hard as stone,[c]
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?(E)
31 Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you bring out the constellations[d] in their season
and lead the Bear[e] and her cubs?(F)
33 Do you know the laws(G) of heaven?
Can you impose its[f] authority on earth?
34 Can you command[g] the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?(H)
35 Can you send out lightning(I) bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: “Here we are”?
Another Counselor Promised
15 “If you love Me, you will keep[a] My commands.(A) 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor(B) to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit(C) of truth.(D) The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be[b] in you.(E)
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