Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
104 Bless Adonai, my soul!
Adonai, my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with glory and majesty,
2 wrapped in light as with a robe.
You spread out the heavens like a curtain,
3 you laid the beams of your palace on the water.
You make the clouds your chariot,
you ride on the wings of the wind.
4 You make winds your messengers,
fiery flames your servants.
5 You fixed the earth on its foundations,
never to be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep like a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they rushed away,
8 flowing over hills, pouring into valleys,
down to the place you had fixed for them.
9 You determined a boundary they could not cross;
they were never to cover the earth again.
10 You make springs gush forth in the vadis;
they flow between the hills,
11 supplying water to all the wild animals;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 On their banks the birds of the air build their nests;
among the branches they sing.
13 You water the mountains from your palace;
the earth is satisfied with how you provide —
14 You grow grass for the cattle;
and for people you grow the plants they need
to bring forth bread from the earth,
15 wine that gladdens the human heart,
oil to make faces glow,
and food to sustain their strength.
16 Adonai’s trees are satisfied —
the cedars of the L’vanon, which he has planted.
17 In them sparrows build their nests,
while storks live in the fir trees.
18 For the wild goats there are the high mountains,
while the coneys find refuge in the rocks.
19 You made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to set.
20 You bring darkness, and it is night,
the time when all forest animals prowl.
21 The young lions roar after their prey
and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, they slink away
and lie down to rest in their dens;
23 while people go out to their work,
laboring on till evening.
24 What variety there is in your works, Adonai!
How many [of them there are]!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creations.
25 Look at the sea, so great, so wide!
It teems with countless creatures,
living beings, both large and small.
26 The ships are there, sailing to and fro;
Livyatan, which you formed to play there.
27 All of them look to you
to give them their food when they need it.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are well satisfied.
29 If you hide your face, they vanish;
if you hold back their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
30 If you send out your breath, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of Adonai last forever!
May Adonai rejoice in his works!
32 When he looks at the earth, it trembles;
when he touches the mountains, they pour out smoke.
33 I will sing to Adonai as long as I live,
sing praise to my God all my life.
34 May my musings be pleasing to him;
I will rejoice in Adonai.
35 May sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more!
Bless Adonai, my soul!
Halleluyah!
Parashah 53: Ha’azinu (Hear) 32:1–52
32 “Hear, oh heavens, as I speak!
Listen, earth, to the words from my mouth!
2 May my teaching fall like rain.
May my speech condense like dew,
like light rain on blades of grass,
or showers on growing plants.
3 “For I will proclaim the name of Adonai.
Come, declare the greatness of our God!
4 The Rock! His work is perfect,
for all his ways are just.
A trustworthy God who does no wrong,
he is righteous and straight.
5 “He is not corrupt; the defect is in his children,
a crooked and perverted generation.
6 You foolish people, so lacking in wisdom,
is this how you repay Adonai?
He is your father, who made you his!
It was he who formed and prepared you!
(ii) 7 “Remember how the old days were;
think of the years through all the ages.
Ask your father — he will tell you;
your leaders too — they will inform you.
8 “When ‘Elyon gave each nation its heritage,
when he divided the human race,
he assigned the boundaries of peoples
according to Isra’el’s population;
9 but Adonai’s share was his own people,
Ya‘akov his allotted heritage.
10 “He found his people in desert country,
in a howling, wasted wilderness.
He protected him and cared for him,
guarded him like the pupil of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up her nest,
hovers over her young,
spreads out her wings, takes them
and carries them as she flies.
12 “Adonai alone led his people;
no alien god was with him.
(iii) 13 He made them ride on the heights of the earth.
They ate the produce of the fields.
He had them suck honey from the rocks
and olive oil from the crags,
14 curds from the cows and milk from the sheep,
with lamb fat, rams from Bashan and goats,
with the finest wheat flour;
and you drank sparkling wine from the blood of grapes.
32 But remember the earlier days, when, after you had received the light, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. 33 Sometimes you were publicly disgraced and persecuted, while at other times you stood loyally by those who were treated this way. 34 For you shared the sufferings of those who had been put in prison. Also when your possessions were seized, you accepted it gladly; since you knew that what you possessed was better and would last forever.
35 So don’t throw away that courage of yours, which carries with it such a great reward. 36 For you need to hold out; so that, by having done what God wills, you may receive what he has promised. 37 For
“There is so, so little time!
The One coming will indeed come,
he will not delay.
38 But the person who is righteous
will live his life by trusting,
and if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”[a]
39 However, we are not the kind who shrink back and are destroyed; on the contrary, we keep trusting and thus preserve our lives!
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.