O Lord My God, You Are Very Great
1 nBless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, oyou are very great!
You are pclothed with splendor and majesty,
2 qcovering yourself with light as with a garment,
rstretching out the heavens like a tent.
3 He lays the beams of his schambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
4 the makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.
5 He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood uabove the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the vsound of your thunder they took to flight.
8 wThe mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You xset a boundary that they may not pass,
yso that they might not again cover the earth.
10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11 they zgive drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and aplants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
15 and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19 He made the moon bto mark the seasons;1
the sun knows its time for setting.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions roar for their prey,
cseeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work
and to his dlabor until the evening.
24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
eIn wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and fgreat.
26 There go the ships,
27 hThese all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you iopen your hand, they are jfilled with good things.
29 When you khide your face, they are dismayed;
when you ltake away their breath, they die
and mreturn to their dust.
30 When you send forth your Spirit,3 they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord nrejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who otouches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
pI will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 qMay my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
rBless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!
Abraham Justified by Faith
1 lWhat then shall we say was gained by Abraham, mour forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to nboast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? o“Abraham believed God, and it was pcounted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now qto the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but rbelieves in1 him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 s“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not tcount his sin.”
9 Is this ublessing then only for the circumcised, vor also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received wthe sign of circumcision as a seal of the xrighteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
The Promise Realized Through Faith
13 For the ypromise to Abraham and his offspring zthat he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 aFor if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but bwhere there is no law cthere is no transgression.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to dthe one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, e“I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God fin whom he believed, who ggives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, h“So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith iwhen he considered his own body, which was jas good as dead (since he was about ka hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness2 of Sarah’s womb. 20 No lunbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was m“counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but nfor ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in ohim who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up pfor our trespasses and qraised for our rjustification.
