Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ You made the earth,
    and You made its frame stable forever.
Never will it be shaken.
⁶ You wrapped it in a gown of waters—
    ancient mountains under layers of sky.
⁷ But when You reprimanded those waters, they fled;
    the thunder of Your voice sent them running away.
^8-9 They hammered out new depths, heaved up new heights,
    and swallowed up whatever You commanded.
At first, they covered the earth,
    but now You have bound them,
    and they know their appointed place.

¹⁰ You send fresh streams that spring up in the valleys,
    in the cracks between hills.
¹¹ Every animal of the open field makes its journey there for drink:
    wild donkeys lap at the brooks’ edges.
¹² Birds build their nests by the streams,
    singing among the branches.
¹³ And the clouds, too, drink up their share,
    raining it back down on the mountains from the upper reaches of Your home,
Sustaining the whole earth with what comes from You.
    And the earth is satisfied.

^14-15 Thus You grow grain for bread, grapes for wine, grass for cattle—
    all of this for us.
And so we have bread to make our bodies strong,
    wine to make our hearts happy,
    oil to make our faces shine.
Every good thing we need, Your earth provides;
    our faces grow flush with Your life in them.
¹⁶ The forests are Yours, Eternal One—stout hardwoods watered deeply, swollen with sap—
    like the great cedars of Lebanon You planted,
¹⁷ Where many birds nest.
    There are fir trees for storks,
¹⁸ High hills for wild goats,
    stony cliffs for rock badgers.
For each place, a resident,
    and for each resident, a home.
¹⁹ The moon strides through her phases, marking seasons as she goes.
    The sun hides at his appointed time,
²⁰ And with the darkness You bring, so comes night—
    when the prowling animals of the forest move about.
²¹ It is then that lions seek the food You, the True God, give them,
    roaring after their prey.
²² At sunrise, they disappear
    and sleep away the day in their dens.
²³ Meanwhile, the people take to the fields and to the shops and to the roads,
    to all the places that people work, until evening when they rest.

²⁴ There is so much here, O Eternal One, so much You have made.
    By the wise way in which You create, riches and creatures fill the earth.
²⁵ Of course, the sea is vast and stretches like the heavens beyond view,
    and numberless creatures inhabit her.
    From the tiny to the great, they swarm beneath her waves.
²⁶ Our ships skim her surface
    while the monsters of the sea play beneath.

²⁷ And all of these look to You
    to give them food when the time is right.
²⁸ When You feed, they gather what You supply.
    When You open Your hand, they are filled with good food.
²⁹ When You withdraw Your presence, they are dismayed.
    When You revoke their breath, the life goes out of them,
    and they become, again, the dust of the earth from which You formed them at the start.
³⁰ When You send out Your breath, life is created,
    and the face of the earth is made beautiful and is renewed.

³¹ May the glorious presence of the Eternal linger among us forever.
    And may He rejoice in the greatness of His own works—
³² He, who rattles the earth with a glance;
    He, who sets mountains to smoking with a touch.
³³ I will sing to the Eternal all of my life;
    I will call my God good as long as I live.

³⁴ May the thoughts of my mind be pleasing to Him,
    for the Eternal has become my happiness.
³⁵ But may those who hate Him, who act against Him,
    disappear from the face of this beautiful planet.
As for the Eternal, call Him good, my soul.
Praise the Eternal!

32 Moses: Listen, O sky, so I may speak!
        Pay attention, O earth, to what I say!
²     Let my teaching fall on you like raindrops;
        let what I say collect like the dew,
    Like rain sprinkling the grass,
        like showers on the green plants.
³     I will proclaim the name of the Eternal;
        I will utter greatness to our God.
⁴     He’s the Rock, and His work is perfect; everything He does is right.
    He’s the God who can be trusted, who never does wrong
        because He’s righteous and upright.
⁵     But a perverse and crooked generation has broken its word to Him.
        They are not counted as His children—not with such deficiencies.
⁶     Is this how you repay the Eternal,
        you foolish, unwise people?
    Isn’t He your Father who produced you,
        who made you and established you?
⁷     Remember the days long ago;
        consider the years of past generations.
    Ask your father, and he’ll explain it to you;
        ask the elders, and they’ll tell you:
⁸     When God, the Most High in heaven gave all the nations their inherited territory,
        when He divided the descendants of Adam into nations,
    When He established the boundaries of the peoples,
        as the number of the sons of God,
⁹     Because the Eternal’s territory is His people;
        and Jacob is the territory of God’s inheritance.
¹⁰     The Eternal found Jacob out in the wilderness,
        out in an empty, windswept desert wasteland.
    He put His arms around him and took care of him;
        He protected him as the apple of His eye.
¹¹     Just as an eagle stirs up its nest, encouraging its young to fly,
        and then hovers over them in case they need help,
    And spreads its wings and catches them if they fall,
        and carries them up high on its wings;
¹²     So the Eternal guided Jacob through the wilderness
        without the help of any foreign god.
¹³     He set him on the heights of the land
        and fed him from the produce of the fields.
    He even fed him honey from the rocks
        and oil from flinty stones,
¹⁴     Butter from his cows and milk from his flocks,
        fattened young lambs, rams raised in Bashan, and goats,
        the finest fatty kernels of wheat, and wine from the lifeblood of grapes.

In a little while, only a little longer,
    the One who is coming will come without delay.
³⁸ But My righteous one must live by faith,
    for if he gives up his commitment,
My soul will have no pleasure in him.^[a]