Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God is great![a]
104 I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord!’
Lord, my God, you are very great!
You rule with authority as a great king.
2 Light is all round you,
like the clothes that you wear.
You have put the skies as a roof over the earth.
3 You have built the beams of your home
on the clouds of rain.
The clouds carry you as you travel,
and you ride on the wind.
4 You use the winds to carry your messages.
Flames of fire are your servants.
5 You, Lord, built the earth
on its strong foundations.
Nothing will ever shake it from its place.
6 You covered the earth with deep water,
like a coat.
The water covered the tops of the mountains.
7 But when you shouted,
the water went back.
It ran away,
when you shouted like thunder.
8 The water poured down from the mountains,
and it went down into the valleys.
It went to stay in the place that you had chosen for it.
9 You made a border for the water
so that it could not cross.
Never again will the water cover the earth.[b]
10 You cause springs of water
to pour along the valleys.
Streams of water run between the hills.
11 They give water to all the wild animals.
Wild donkeys drink from them.
12 The birds make their homes beside the streams.
They sing from the branches of the trees.
13 You pour down rain on the mountains
from your home above the sky.
You cause many fruits to grow on the earth.
14 You give grass for farm animals to eat.
You give crops for people to plant.
In that way, people get food from the ground.
15 They grow grapes for wine,
which makes them happy.
They grow olive trees for oil,
which makes their faces shine.
They grow grain for bread,
which makes them strong.
16 The Lord's own trees receive plenty of rain.
They are the cedar trees
that he planted in Lebanon.
17 The birds make their nests there.
Storks live there in the fir trees.
18 The wild goats live high up in the mountains.
Rock badgers hide among the rocks.
19 You made the moon
to tell us the months and seasons.
The sun also knows the right time for sunset.
20 At night you make it dark,
so that the forest animals come out.
21 The lions roar
while they look for animals to kill.
They look for the food that God gives to them.
22 At sunrise, they go back to their homes,
and they lie down to rest.
23 During the day, people go out to work.
They work at their jobs until it is evening.
24 Lord, you have made very many different things!
You were very wise in the way that you have made them all.
The earth is full of the living things
that you have made.[c]
25 Look at the sea, which is deep and wide!
It is full of living things,
that are both large and small.
They are more than anyone can count.
26 Ships travel on the sea.
You made the monster, Leviathan,
to swim and to play in the sea.
27 All these living things wait for you
to give them their food when they need it.
28 When you give it to them, they take it.
You open your hand to feed them,
and they have plenty of good things.
29 When you turn away from them,
they become very afraid.
When you take away their breath,
they die and they return to the dust.
30 But when you breathe into anything,
it receives life.
In that way, you bring new life to the earth.
31 I pray that the glory of the Lord
will continue for ever!
I pray that the Lord will be happy
with everything that he has made!
32 When he looks down at the earth,
it shakes!
When he touches the mountains,
they pour out smoke!
33 All my life, I will sing to praise the Lord.
I will always sing songs to praise my God,
for as long as I live.
34 I want my song to make him happy.
I will be happy,
because of what the Lord has done.
35 I pray that wicked people will disappear from the earth.
May they disappear for ever!
I say to myself, ‘Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!’
Moses' song
32 Sky and earth, listen to my words! Hear what I am saying!
2 My teaching will be like the rain that falls.
My messages will help the people who hear them,
as rain helps new grass to grow.
3 I will praise the Lord's name.
Everyone must know that our God is very great!
4 He is the strong Rock where we can be safe.
Everything that he does is perfect.
He only does what is right and fair.
We can trust him to be faithful.
5 But you, his people, have not served him faithfully.
Because of your sins, you cannot continue to be his children.
You have turned against him.
You enjoy doing bad things.
6 You are fools who do not understand what is right.
You should not do these things against the Lord.
He is your Father, the one who created you.
He made you become a strong nation.
7 Remember what happened a long time ago.
Think about the lives of your ancestors.
Ask your father or the old men.
They will tell you what happened in the past.
8 The Most High God gave land to be the home of each nation.
When he made people into separate groups,
he decided where their borders should be.[a]
He did that to match the number of angels in heaven.[b]
9 But the Lord himself takes care of his own people.
Jacob's descendants are his special people.
10 The Lord found them in a desert place.
It was a place where strong winds blew and nobody lived.
He took care of them and he kept them safe.
He protected them, like someone protects their own eyes.
11 The Lord took care of his people,
like an eagle takes care of its babies.
As an eagle flies with its babies on its back,
the Lord helped his people to be safe.
12 The Lord alone was a guide for his people.
He needed no foreign god to help him.
13 The Lord helped them to travel over the high places in the land.
He fed them with food from the fields.
He made them strong with honey from the rocks.
He gave them olive oil from trees in ground with many stones.
14 Their cows and their goats gave them plenty of milk and butter.
Their lambs, sheep and goats became fat,
so they ate the best meat.
They ate the best bread from their wheat.
They drank the best wine from their grapes.
32 Remember what happened to you in those early days. When you first understood the message about Christ, you had many troubles. But you continued to be strong. 33 Sometimes people insulted you. They made you ashamed in front of other people. Sometimes you chose to help other Christians who had trouble like that. Their troubles became your troubles. 34 You were kind to Christians who were in prison. When people took away your own things, you still chose to be happy. You knew that you had something better that would belong to you for ever.[a]
35 So continue to be strong in your thoughts. If you continue to trust God, you will receive great things. 36 You need to be patient and strong. Then you will continue to do what God wants. As a result, you will receive what God has promised. 37 This is what the Bible says:
‘In a very short time,
my special servant will come.
He is the one that I promised to send to you.
He will not be late.[b]
38 The person that I have accepted as right will live.
That person will live because he trusts me.
But if anyone is afraid and he turns back,
I will not be happy with that person.’[c]
39 But we are not like those people who are afraid and who turn back. If we were, God would destroy us. But we are people who continue to trust God. And so, our lives are safe with God.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.