How Many Are Your Works, O LORD!
The psalm opens by blessing the LORD for royal majesty expressed through light, clouds, winds, and fire. It then recalls the ordering of the earth and waters, showing the deep retreating at God's rebuke until boundaries are fixed and the flood is kept within limits.
B1less the LORD, O my soul! 2He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; 3laying the beams of His chambers 4He makes the winds His messengers, 5He set the earth on its foundations, 6You covered it with the deep like a garment; 7At Your rebuke the waters fled; 8the mountains rose and the valleys sank 9You set a boundary they cannot cross,
The LORD sends springs, waters mountains, grows grass and cultivated plants, and fills trees so that beasts, birds, livestock, and human beings are supplied. The same created order also gives fitting places of shelter, from birds in the cedars to goats on high mountains and rock badgers in the crags.
10He sends forth springs in the valleys; 11They give drink to every beast of the field; 12The birds of the air nest beside the springs; 13He waters the mountains from His chambers; 14He makes the grass grow for the livestock 15wine that gladdens the heart of man, 16The trees of the LORD have their fill, 17where the birds build their nests; 18The high mountains are for the wild goats,
God appoints moon and sun, night and day, so that different creatures move within their proper times. Lions hunt in the darkness and withdraw at dawn, while human beings then go out to their labor until evening.
19He made the moon to mark the seasons; 20You bring darkness, and it becomes night, 21The young lions roar for their prey 22The sun rises, and they withdraw; 23Man goes forth to his work
The singer pauses in wonder at the LORD's wisdom in the multitude of his works, then turns to the sea with its creatures, ships, and Leviathan. All living things wait on God for food, life, and breath, so that when he gives they are filled, when he withdraws they fail, and when he sends his Spirit the face of the ground is renewed.
24How many are Your works, O LORD! 25Here is the sea, vast and wide, 26There the ships pass, 27All creatures look to You 28When You give it to them, 29When You hide Your face, 30When You send Your Spirit,
The psalm closes with a wish that the LORD's glory endure and that he continue to rejoice in his works, even as his touch shakes earth and mountains. The singer answers with lifelong song and pleasing meditation, then ends by desiring that sinners vanish from the earth so that blessing may rise without distortion.
31May the glory of the LORD endure forever; 32He looks on the earth, 33I will sing to the LORD all my life; 34May my meditation be pleasing to Him, 35May sinners vanish from the earth