Theosophical Heart-Devotions Directed to the Highest Sole Jehovah

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Beside them sit the birds of the heavens and sing among the branches.

You water the mountains from above, and make the land full of the fruits that you create.

You cause grass to grow for the cattle, and crops for the use of man, that you may bring bread out of the earth.

And that wine may gladden the heart of man, and his countenance be made beautiful with oil, and that bread may strengthen the heart of man.

That the trees of the LORD may stand full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he has planted.

There the birds build their nests, and the herons dwell upon the fir trees. The German Reiger (heron) is often translated as the stork in English versions of this Psalm.

The high mountains are a refuge for the mountain goats, and the clefts in the rocks for the rabbits. Original: Caninchen. In modern biblical scholarship, this refers to the rock hyrax, but Luther’s translation used the more familiar rabbit.

You made the moon to divide the year; the sun knows its setting.

You make darkness, that it becomes night, then all the wild animals stir.

The young lions that roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.

But when the sun rises, they depart and lay themselves down in their dens.

Then man goes forth to his labor and to his work in the fields until evening. Original: Ackerwerk—specifically agricultural labor or husbandry.

LORD, how great and manifold are your works? You have ordered them all wisely, and the earth is full of your riches.

The sea, which is so great and wide, there it teems without number, both great and small creatures.

There the ships sail, and there are whales, which you have made to frolic therein. Original: Wallfische. This refers to the Leviathan of the Hebrew text, here envisioned as great whales playing in the deep.

They all wait upon you, that you may give them food in its season.

When you give to them, they gather it; when you