The Gifts of Wisdom

⁸Does not wisdom call,   and does not understanding raise her voice?² On the heights, beside the way,   at the crossroads she takes her stand;³ beside the gates in front of the town,   at the entrance of the portals she cries out:⁴ ‘To you, O people, I call,   and my cry is to all that live.

Wisdom’s Part in Creation

²² The ^Lord created me at the beginning of his work,    the first of his acts of long ago.²³ Ages ago I was set up,   at the first, before the beginning of the earth.²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,   when there were no springs abounding with water.²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,   before the hills, I was brought forth—²⁶ when he had not yet made earth and fields,    or the world’s first bits of soil.²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there,   when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,   when he established the fountains of the deep,²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit,   so that the waters might not transgress his command,when he marked out the foundations of the earth,³⁰   then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight,   rejoicing before him always,³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world   and delighting in the human race.

Psalm 8

Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.¹ O ^Lord, our Sovereign,   how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.²   Out of the mouths of babes and infantsyou have founded a bulwark because of your foes,   to silence the enemy and the avenger. ³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,   the moon and the stars that you have established;⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them,   mortals that you care for them? ⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God,    and crowned them with glory and honour.⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;   you have put all things under their feet,⁷ all sheep and oxen,   and also the beasts of the field,⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,   whatever passes along the paths of the seas. ⁹ O ^Lord, our Sovereign,   how majestic is your name in all the earth!