Study Desk

Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted.

I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering."

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished.

And you forget the LORD your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth; You have feared continually every day Because of the fury of the oppressor, When he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?

And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, And say to Zion, "You are My people."'

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence--

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

"For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me," says the LORD, "So shall your descendants and your name remain.

Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate," says the LORD.

I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; And the heavens, they had no light.

I beheld, and indeed there was no man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled.

For this shall the earth mourn, And the heavens above be black, Because I have spoken. I have purposed and will not relent, Nor will I turn back from it.

"Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, Because they are burned up, So that no one can pass through; Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; They are gone.

Thus you shall say to them: "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens."

He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

When He utters His voice,There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:"And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.He makes lightning for the rain,He brings the wind out of His treasuries." Psalms 135:7 ">[fn]

Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for You, Since You have made all these.

"And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction," says the LORD: "the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.