Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

^22 (A)“The Lord created me first of all,
    the first of his works, long ago.
²³ I was made in the very beginning,
    at the first, before the world began.
²⁴ I was born before the oceans,
    when there were no springs of water.
²⁵ I was born before the mountains,
    before the hills were set in place,
²⁶ before God made the earth and its fields
    or even the first handful of soil.
^27 (B)I was there when he set the sky in place,
    when he stretched the horizon across the ocean,
²⁸ when he placed the clouds in the sky,
    when he opened the springs of the ocean
²⁹ and ordered the waters of the sea
    to rise no further than he said.
I was there when he laid the earth's foundations.
³⁰ I was beside him like an architect,^[a]
    I was his daily source of joy,
    always happy in his presence—
³¹ happy with the world
    and pleased with the human race.

³ When I look at the sky, which you have made,
    at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
^4 (B)what are human beings, that you think of them;
    mere mortals, that you care for them?

^5 (C)Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;^[b]
    you crowned them with glory and honor.
^6 (D)You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
    you placed them over all creation:
⁷     sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
⁸     the birds and the fish
    and the creatures in the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord,
    your greatness is seen in all the world!