Psalm 104-105

New Living Translation

O Lord my God, how great you are!
    You are robed with honor and majesty.
²     You are dressed in a robe of light.
You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
³     you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
You make the clouds your chariot;
    you ride upon the wings of the wind.
⁴ The winds are your messengers;
    flames of fire are your servants.^[a]

⁵ You placed the world on its foundation
    so it would never be moved.
⁶ You clothed the earth with floods of water,
    water that covered even the mountains.
⁷ At your command, the water fled;
    at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.
⁸ Mountains rose and valleys sank
    to the levels you decreed.
⁹ Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,
    so they would never again cover the earth.

¹⁰ You make springs pour water into the ravines,
    so streams gush down from the mountains.
¹¹ They provide water for all the animals,
    and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds nest beside the streams
    and sing among the branches of the trees.
¹³ You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,
    and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
¹⁴ You cause grass to grow for the livestock
    and plants for people to use.
You allow them to produce food from the earth—
¹⁵     wine to make them glad,
olive oil to soothe their skin,
    and bread to give them strength.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are well cared for—
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests,
    and the storks make their homes in the cypresses.
¹⁸ High in the mountains live the wild goats,
    and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes.^[b]

¹⁹ You made the moon to mark the seasons,
    and the sun knows when to set.
²⁰ You send the darkness, and it becomes night,
    when all the forest animals prowl about.
²¹ Then the young lions roar for their prey,
    stalking the food provided by God.
²² At dawn they slink back
    into their dens to rest.
²³ Then people go off to their work,
    where they labor until evening.

²⁴ O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!
    In wisdom you have made them all.
    The earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ Here is the ocean, vast and wide,
    teeming with life of every kind,
    both large and small.
²⁶ See the ships sailing along,
    and Leviathan,^[c] which you made to play in the sea.

²⁷ They all depend on you
    to give them food as they need it.
²⁸ When you supply it, they gather it.
    You open your hand to feed them,
    and they are richly satisfied.
²⁹ But if you turn away from them, they panic.
    When you take away their breath,
    they die and turn again to dust.
³⁰ When you give them your breath,^[d] life is created,
    and you renew the face of the earth.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord continue forever!
    The Lord takes pleasure in all he has made!
³² The earth trembles at his glance;
    the mountains smoke at his touch.

³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
    I will praise my God to my last breath!
³⁴ May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵ Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth;
    let the wicked disappear forever.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!

⁷ He is the Lord our God.
    His justice is seen throughout the land.
⁸ He always stands by his covenant—
    the commitment he made to a thousand generations.
⁹ This is the covenant he made with Abraham
    and the oath he swore to Isaac.
¹⁰ He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
    and to the people of Israel as a never-ending covenant:
¹¹ “I will give you the land of Canaan
    as your special possession.”

¹² He said this when they were few in number,
    a tiny group of strangers in Canaan.
¹³ They wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.
¹⁴ Yet he did not let anyone oppress them.
    He warned kings on their behalf:
¹⁵ “Do not touch my chosen people,
    and do not hurt my prophets.”

¹⁶ He called for a famine on the land of Canaan,
    cutting off its food supply.
¹⁷ Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them—
    Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They bruised his feet with fetters
    and placed his neck in an iron collar.
¹⁹ Until the time came to fulfill his dreams,^[e]
    the Lord tested Joseph’s character.
²⁰ Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free;
    the ruler of the nation opened his prison door.
²¹ Joseph was put in charge of all the king’s household;
    he became ruler over all the king’s possessions.
²² He could instruct^[f] the king’s aides as he pleased
    and teach the king’s advisers.

²³ Then Israel arrived in Egypt;
    Jacob lived as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
²⁴ And the Lord multiplied the people of Israel
    until they became too mighty for their enemies.
²⁵ Then he turned the Egyptians against the Israelites,
    and they plotted against the Lord’s servants.

²⁶ But the Lord sent his servant Moses,
    along with Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They performed miraculous signs among the Egyptians,
    and wonders in the land of Ham.
²⁸ The Lord blanketed Egypt in darkness,
    for they had defied^[g] his commands to let his people go.
²⁹ He turned their water into blood,
    poisoning all the fish.
³⁰ Then frogs overran the land
    and even invaded the king’s bedrooms.
³¹ When the Lord spoke, flies descended on the Egyptians,
    and gnats swarmed across Egypt.
³² He sent them hail instead of rain,
    and lightning flashed over the land.
³³ He ruined their grapevines and fig trees
    and shattered all the trees.
³⁴ He spoke, and hordes of locusts came—
    young locusts beyond number.
³⁵ They ate up everything green in the land,
    destroying all the crops in their fields.
³⁶ Then he killed the oldest son in each Egyptian home,
    the pride and joy of each family.

³⁷ The Lord brought his people out of Egypt, loaded with silver and gold;
    and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled.
³⁸ Egypt was glad when they were gone,
    for they feared them greatly.
³⁹ The Lord spread a cloud above them as a covering
    and gave them a great fire to light the darkness.
⁴⁰ They asked for meat, and he sent them quail;
    he satisfied their hunger with manna—bread from heaven.
⁴¹ He split open a rock, and water gushed out
    to form a river through the dry wasteland.
⁴² For he remembered his sacred promise
    to his servant Abraham.
⁴³ So he brought his people out of Egypt with joy,
    his chosen ones with rejoicing.
⁴⁴ He gave his people the lands of pagan nations,
    and they harvested crops that others had planted.
⁴⁵ All this happened so they would follow his decrees
    and obey his instructions.

Praise the Lord!