Psalms 104; Job 38; Romans 6

Psalms 104

1 Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

2 The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent

3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.

4 He makes winds his messengers,flames of fire his servants.

5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

6 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

7 But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;

8 they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them.

9 You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains.

11 They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.

13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.

14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth:

15 wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.

16 The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

17 There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers.

18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

19 He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.

20 You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl.

21 The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

22 The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens.

23 Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening.

24 How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

25 There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small.

26 There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

27 All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time.

28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.

30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works—

32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.

35 But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD.

Job 38

1 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

2 “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?

3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—

7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?

12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

19 “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?

20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,

23 which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?

24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,

26 to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,

27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?

29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?

32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasonsor lead out the Bear with its cubs?

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?

35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

36 Who gives the ibis wisdomor gives the rooster understanding?

37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?

39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions

40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?

41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

Romans 6

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.