Salmo 104

The Creator’s world, full of creatures

¹Bless the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, how great you are! Splendor and majesty are the robes you wear, ²you wrap yourself in light as in a cloak and spread out the sky like a tent cloth, ³who builds his upper rooms with beams set in the waters above, who turns the clouds into his chariot and travels on the wings of the wind, ⁴who makes the winds his messengers and flames of fire his servants.^{a 5}He fixed the earth on its bases, never to be toppled, for all time to come. ⁶The deep was the robe you put over it; the waters rose and stood above the mountains. ⁷When you rebuked them, the waters ran; at the roar of your thunder they rushed off, ⁸they went up over the mountains and down into the valleys, to the place you had fixed for them.^{b 9}You fixed a limit they may not pass; they will not come back to cover the land. ¹⁰You let springs loose into the stream beds; they find their way between the mountains. ¹¹Every creature of the open country drinks from them; there the wild donkeys satisfy their thirst. ¹²Close by them the birds of the air settle and call out from the leafy branches. ¹³From his rooms on high he waters the mountains, and the earth has its fill of the fruit of your work. ¹⁴He makes grass spring up for the herds and plants for people to tend, so that food comes out of the ground, ¹⁵wine that brings joy to human hearts, oil that makes faces glow, and bread that keeps people strong. ¹⁶The LORD’s trees have all the water they need, the cedars he planted on Lebanon, ¹⁷where birds build their nests, and the stork lives high in the cypress trees. ¹⁸The wild goats have the high mountains, and the hyraxes take shelter in the crags. ¹⁹He made the moon for keeping the feasts and seasons; the sun knows the hour it should set. ²⁰You send darkness, night comes, and every animal of the woods steals out. ²¹The young lions roar as they hunt, asking God for their meal. ²²At sunrise they draw back together and settle down to rest in their lairs. ²³Then human beings head out to their work and keep at their tasks till evening. ²⁴LORD, how many and varied your works are! You made them all with skill and wisdom; the earth is crowded with what you have made. ²⁵Look at the sea, so vast and reaching out on every side! It swarms with countless creatures, living things tiny and huge. ²⁶Ships travel across it, and so does Leviathan, the creature you shaped to play in its waves. ²⁷Every one of them waits for you to give them food when it is needed. ²⁸You hand it out and they pick it up; you open your hand, and they eat their fill of good things. ²⁹If you turn your face away, they panic; if you withdraw their breath, they breathe their last and go back to the dust they came from. ³⁰When you send your spirit out, they come into being, and you make the face of the land new. ³¹Let the glory of the LORD stand forever; let the LORD be glad in the things he has made, ³²who glances at the earth and it quakes, who touches the mountains and they send up smoke. ³³All my life long I will sing to the LORD; while I am still here I will make music to my God. ³⁴Let what I ponder bring him pleasure; as for me, my joy is in the LORD. ³⁵Let sinners be wiped out from the earth, and let no wicked people be left. Bless the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD!