Caring for Creation

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!