Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 104
God the Creator
1 My soul, praise Yahweh!
Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with majesty and splendor.(A)
2 He wraps Himself in light as if it were a robe,
spreading out the sky like a canopy,(B)
3 laying the beams of His palace
on the waters above,(C)
making the clouds His chariot,(D)
walking on the wings of the wind,(E)
4 and making the winds His messengers,[a]
flames of fire His servants.(F)
5 He established the earth on its foundations;
it will never be shaken.(G)
6 You covered it with the deep
as if it were a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.(H)
7 At Your rebuke the waters fled;
at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away(I)—
8 mountains rose and valleys sank[b]—
to the place You established for them.(J)
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
they will never cover the earth again.(K)
10 He causes the springs to gush into the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.(L)
11 They supply water for every wild beast;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.(M)
12 The birds of the sky live beside the springs;
they sing among the foliage.(N)
13 He waters the mountains from His palace;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of Your labor.(O)
14 He causes grass to grow for the livestock
and provides crops for man to cultivate,
producing food from the earth,(P)
15 wine that makes man’s heart glad—
making his face shine with oil—
and bread that sustains man’s heart.(Q)
16 The trees of the Lord flourish,[c]
the cedars of Lebanon that He planted.(R)
17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork makes its home in the pine trees.(S)
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the cliffs are a refuge for hyraxes.(T)
19 He made the moon to mark the[d] festivals;[e]
the sun knows when to set.(U)
20 You bring darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the forest animals stir.(V)
21 The young lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.(W)
22 The sun rises; they go back
and lie down in their dens.(X)
23 Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until evening.(Y)
24 How countless are Your works, Lord!
In wisdom You have made them all;
the earth is full of Your creatures.[f](Z)
25 Here is the sea, vast and wide,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.(AA)
26 There the ships move about,
and Leviathan, which You formed to play there.(AB)
27 All of them wait for You
to give them their food at the right time.(AC)
28 When You give it to them,
they gather it;
when You open Your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.(AD)
29 When You hide Your face,
they are terrified;
when You take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.(AE)
30 When You send Your breath,[g]
they are created,
and You renew the face of the earth.(AF)
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in His works.(AG)
32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the mountains,
and they pour out smoke.(AH)
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.(AI)
34 May my meditation be pleasing to Him;
I will rejoice in the Lord.(AJ)
35 May sinners vanish from the earth
and wicked people be no more.(AK)
My soul, praise Yahweh!
Hallelujah!
7 Before Zion was in labor, she gave birth;
before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.
8 Who has heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day
or a nation be delivered in an instant?
Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,
she gave birth to her sons.
9 “Will I bring a baby to the point of birth
and not deliver it?”
says the Lord;
“or will I who deliver, close the womb?”
says your God.
10 Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her,
all who love her.(A)
Rejoice greatly with her,
all who mourn over her—
11 so that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her comforting breast
and drink deeply and delight yourselves
from her glorious breasts.
12 For this is what the Lord says:
The Cure for Anxiety
22 Then He said to His disciples: “Therefore I tell you,(A) don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear.(B) 23 For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens:(C) They don’t sow or reap; they don’t have a storeroom or a barn; yet God feeds them.(D) Aren’t you worth much more than the birds? 25 Can any of you add a cubit to his height[a] by worrying?(E) 26 If then you’re not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the wildflowers grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon(F) in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! 28 If that’s how God clothes the grass, which is in the field today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will He do for you—you of little faith?(G) 29 Don’t keep striving for what you should eat and what you should drink, and don’t be anxious. 30 For the Gentile world eagerly seeks(H) all these things, and your Father(I) knows that you need them.
31 “But seek His kingdom,(J) and these things will be provided for you.(K)
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