Poetry for a New Month - Psalm 104

(1) Bless the Eternal, O my soul. The Eternal, my God, you have have become grand; You have dressed up in radiance and majesty,

(2) wrapped in a robe of light; You spread the heavens like a curtain.

(3) The One who sets the upper chambers upon the water, who makes the clouds a chariot,

that moves on the wings of the wind.

(4) The One who makes angels of the winds, and servants of the blazing fires.

(5) Who established the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never topple.

(6) With the depths, like clothing, You covered it;

the waters stood above the mountains.

(7) They fled at Your blast, rushed away at the sound of Your thunder,

(8) —mountains rising, valleys sinking— to the place You established for them.

(9) You set boundaries they must not pass so that they never again cover the earth.

(10) You send forth your springs to gush in torrents;

they make their way between the hills,

(11) giving drink to all the wild beasts;

the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

(12) The birds of the sky dwell beside them and sing among the foliage.

(13) You water the mountains from Your upper chambers; the earth is sated from the fruit of Your work.

(14) You make the grass grow for the cattle, and herbage for a person's labor, to bring forth food from the earth—

(15) wine to cheer the human heart, oil that makes the face shine, and bread that sustains the human heart.

(16) The trees of the Eternal drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon that God planted,

(17) where birds make their nests;

the stork has her home in the junipers.

(18) The high mountains are for wild goats; the crags are a refuge for rock-badgers.

(19) God made the moon to mark the seasons;

the sun knows when to set.

(20) You bring on darkness and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest stir.

(21) The lions roar for prey,

seeking their food from God.

(22) When the sun rises, they come home and crouch in their dens.

(23) A person goes out to work,

to labor until the evening.

(24) How many are the things You have made, Eternal One; You have made them all with wisdom;

the earth is full of Your creations.

(25) There is the sea, vast and wide, with its creatures beyond number, living things, small and great.

(26) There go the ships, and Leviathan that You formed to sport with.

(27) All of them look to You to give them their food when it is due.

(28) Give it to them, they gather it up;

open Your hand, they are well satisfied;

(29) hide Your face, they are terrified; take away their breath, they perish

and return to dust;

(30) send back Your breath, they are created,

and You renew the face of the earth.

(31) May the glory of the Eternal endure forever; may the Eternal rejoice in the Creation!

(32) God looks at the earth and it trembles; touches the mountains and they smoke.

(33) I will give poetry to the Eternal as long as I live;

all my life I will sing to my God.

(34) May my prayer be pleasing to God;

I will rejoice in the Eternal.

(35) May sins disappear from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the Eternal, O my soul. Hallelujah.