Psalms 103; Psalms 104; 1 Corinthians 2

Psalms 103

1 Let my whole being bless the LORD! Let everything inside me bless his holy name!

2 Let my whole being bless the LORD and never forget all his good deeds:

3 how God forgives all your sins, heals all your sickness,

4 saves your life from the pit, crowns you with faithful love and compassion,

5 and satisfies you with plenty of good things so that your youth is made fresh like an eagle's.

6 The LORD works righteousness; does justice for all who are oppressed.

7 God made his ways known to Moses; made his deeds known to the Israelites.

8 The LORD is compassionate and merciful, very patient, and full of faithful love.

9 God won't always play the judge; he won't be angry forever.

10 He doesn't deal with us according to our sin or repay us according to our wrongdoing,

11 because as high as heaven is above the earth, that's how large God's faithful love is for those who honor him.

12 As far as east is from west— that's how far God has removed our sin from us.

13 Like a parent feels compassion for their children— that's how the LORD feels compassion for those who honor him.

14 Because God knows how we're made, God remembers we're just dust.

15 The days of a human life are like grass: they bloom like a wildflower;

16 but when the wind blows through it, it's gone; even the ground where it stood doesn't remember it.

17 But the LORD's faithful love is from forever ago to forever from now for those who honor him. And God's righteousness reaches to the grandchildren

18 of those who keep his covenant and remember to keep his commands.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

20 You divine messengers, bless the LORD! You who are mighty in power and keep his word, who obey everything he says, bless him!

21 All you heavenly forces, bless the LORD! All you who serve him and do his will, bless him!

22 All God's creatures, bless the LORD! Everywhere, throughout his kingdom, let my whole being bless the LORD!

Psalms 104

1 Let my whole being bless the LORD! LORD my God, how fantastic you are! You are clothed in glory and grandeur!

2 You wear light like a robe; you open the skies like a curtain.

3 You build your lofty house on the waters; you make the clouds your chariot, going around on the wings of the wind.

4 You make the winds your messengers; you make fire and flame your ministers.

5 You established the earth on its foundations so that it will never ever fall.

6 You covered it with the watery deep like a piece of clothing; the waters were higher than the mountains!

7 But at your rebuke they ran away; they fled in fear at the sound of your thunder.

8 They flowed over the mountains, streaming down the valleys to the place you established for them.

9 You set a boundary they cannot cross so they'll never again cover the earth.

10 You put gushing springs into dry riverbeds. They flow between the mountains,

11 providing water for every wild animal— the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 Overhead, the birds in the sky make their home, chirping loudly in the trees.

13 From your lofty house, you water the mountains. The earth is filled full by the fruit of what you've done.

14 You make grass grow for cattle; you make plants for human farming in order to get food from the ground,

15 and wine, which cheers people's hearts, along with oil, which makes the face shine, and bread, which sustains the human heart.

16 The LORD's trees are well watered— the cedars of Lebanon, which God planted,

17 where the birds make their nests, where the stork has a home in the cypresses.

18 The high mountains belong to the mountain goats; the ridges are the refuge of badgers.

19 God made the moon for the seasons, and the sun too, which knows when to set.

20 You bring on the darkness and it is night, when every forest animal prowls.

21 The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.

22 When the sun rises, they gather together and lie down in their dens.

23 Then people go off to their work, to do their work until evening.

24 LORD, you have done so many things! You made them all so wisely! The earth is full of your creations!

25 And then there's the sea, wide and deep, with its countless creatures— living things both small and large.

26 There go the ships on it, and Leviathan, which you made, plays in it!

27 All your creations wait for you to give them their food on time.

28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled completely full!

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

30 When you let loose your breath, they are created, and you make the surface of the ground brand-new again.

31 Let the LORD's glory last forever! Let the LORD rejoice in all he has made!

32 He has only to look at the earth, and it shakes. God just touches the mountains, and they erupt in smoke.

33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I'm still alive.

34 Let my praise be pleasing to him; I'm rejoicing in the LORD!

35 Let sinners be wiped clean from the earth; let the wicked be no more. But let my whole being bless the LORD! Praise the LORD!

1 Corinthians 2

1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn't come preaching God's secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom.

2 I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified.

3 I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking.

4 My message and my preaching weren't presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

5 I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God.

6 What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn't a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today's leaders who are being reduced to nothing.

7 We talk about God's wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory.

8 It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory!

9 But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven't crossed the mind of any human being.

10 God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God.

11 Who knows a person's depths except their own spirit that lives in them? In the same way, no one has known the depths of God except God's Spirit.

12 We haven't received the world's spirit but God's Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God.

13 These are the things we are talking about—not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the Spirit—we are interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.

14 But people who are unspiritual don't accept the things from God's Spirit. They are foolishness to them and can't be understood, because they can only be comprehended in a spiritual way.

15 Spiritual people comprehend everything, but they themselves aren't understood by anyone.

16 Who has known the mind of the Lord, who will advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.