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Psalm 104

1  Bless the Lord, O my soul. ♦︎
   O Lord my God, how excellent is your greatness!
2  You are clothed with majesty and honour, ♦︎
   wrapped in light as in a garment.
3  You spread out the heavens like a curtain ♦︎
   and lay the beams of your dwelling place in the waters above.
4  You make the clouds your chariot ♦︎
   and ride on the wings of the wind.
5  You make the winds your messengers ♦︎
   and flames of fire your servants.
6  You laid the foundations of the earth, ♦︎
   that it never should move at any time.
7  You covered it with the deep like a garment; ♦︎
   the waters stood high above the hills.
8  At your rebuke they fled; ♦︎
   at the voice of your thunder they hastened away.
9  They rose up to the hills and flowed down to the valleys beneath, ♦︎
   to the place which you had appointed for them.
10  You have set them their bounds that they should not pass, ♦︎
   nor turn again to cover the earth.
11  You send the springs into the brooks, ♦︎
   which run among the hills.
12  They give drink to every beast of the field, ♦︎
   and the wild asses quench their thirst.
13  Beside them the birds of the air make their nests ♦︎
   and sing among the branches.
14  You water the hills from your dwelling on high; ♦︎
   the earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
15  You make grass to grow for the cattle ♦︎
   and plants to meet our needs,
16  Bringing forth food from the earth ♦︎
   and wine to gladden our hearts,
17  Oil to give us a cheerful countenance ♦︎
   and bread to strengthen our hearts.
18  The trees of the Lord are full of sap, ♦︎
   the cedars of Lebanon which he planted,
19  In which the birds build their nests, ♦︎
   while the fir trees are a dwelling for the stork.
20  The mountains are a refuge for the wild goats ♦︎
   and the stony cliffs for the conies.
21  You appointed the moon to mark the seasons, ♦︎
   and the sun knows the time for its setting.
22  You make darkness that it may be night, ♦︎
   in which all the beasts of the forest creep forth.
23  The lions roar for their prey ♦︎
   and seek their food from God.
24  The sun rises and they are gone ♦︎
   to lay themselves down in their dens.
25  People go forth to their work ♦︎
   and to their labour until the evening.
26  O Lord, how manifold are your works! ♦︎
   In wisdom you have made them all;
      the earth is full of your creatures.
27  There is the sea, spread far and wide, ♦︎
   and there move creatures beyond number, both small and great.
28  There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan ♦︎
   which you have made to play in the deep.
29  All of these look to you ♦︎
   to give them their food in due season.
30  When you give it them, they gather it; ♦︎
   you open your hand and they are filled with good.
31  When you hide your face they are troubled; ♦︎
   when you take away their breath,
      they die and return again to the dust.
32  When you send forth your spirit, they are created, ♦︎
   and you renew the face of the earth.
33  May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; ♦︎
   may the Lord rejoice in his works;
34  He looks on the earth and it trembles; ♦︎
   he touches the mountains and they smoke.
35  I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; ♦︎
   I will make music to my God while I have my being.
36  So shall my song please him ♦︎
   while I rejoice in the Lord.
37  Let sinners be consumed out of the earth
      and the wicked be no more. ♦︎
   Bless the Lord, O my soul.
      Alleluia.

Elijah Predicts a Drought

17Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe^* in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ ²The word of the Lord came to him, saying, ³‘Go from here and turn eastwards, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.’ ⁵So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁶The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi. ⁷But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

The Widow of Zarephath

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁹‘Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.’ ¹⁰So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, ‘Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.’ ¹¹As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, ‘Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ ¹²But she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’ ¹³Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ¹⁵She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

6 I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters,^* so that you may learn through us the meaning of the saying, ‘Nothing beyond what is written’, so that none of you will be puffed up in favour of one against another. ⁷For who sees anything different in you?^* What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?

8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! ⁹For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. ¹⁰We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. ¹¹To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, ¹²and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; ¹³when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Fatherly Admonition

14 I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. ¹⁷For this reason I sent^* you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. ¹⁸But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant. ¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. ²⁰For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. ²¹What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?