Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c (NRSV)
Read Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c on biblegateway.com
Verse 1Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty,
Verse 2wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
Verse 3you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind,
Verse 4you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.
Verse 5You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.
Verse 6You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
Verse 7At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
Verse 8They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them.
Verse 9You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
Verse 24O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Verse 35Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!
Devotion
Praise the Lord for the many witnesses of God’s boundless generosity! Telling us how God calls everything into being. Calling us to pay attention to God’s fidelity to the world. Reminding us how God’s abundance overrides our scarceness mentality. Bless the Lord, o my soul. For God gives. And we receive.
We are grateful. For the adventure of a new season, even though it is called winter. For everything that sustains life, even in the shadows of death. For grace that will be enough today, even though we demand it for tomorrow too.
And yet, gratitude that is not that readily lived. Gratitude that so quickly turns to resentment. Gratitude that so easily disappear behind the fears of anxieties. Gratitude restrained by self-sufficiency, and forgotten by arrogance. Gratitude confused for the self-indulgence of a consumerist society.
And still, God gives, and we receive. Bless the Lord, o my soul, how great You are, and how manifold are your works!
Prayer
God, maker of heaven and earth, we give thanks for your gift of life to us, for the rhythms that reassure, for the equilibriums that sustain, for the reliabilities that curb our anxieties. Amen.
(From a Walter Brueggemann class prayer on November 12, 1998.)