The Lord’s Goodness to His People

106 * Praise the Lord!

Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good;

his love is eternal.

2 Who can tell all the great things he has done?

Who can praise him enough?

3 Happy are those who obey his commands,

who always do what is right.

4 Remember me, Lord, when you help your people;

include me when you save them.

5 Let me see the prosperity of your people

and share in the happiness of your nation,

in the glad pride of those who belong to you.

6 We have sinned as our ancestors did;

we have been wicked and evil.

7* Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God’s wonderful acts;

they forgot the many times he showed them his love,

and they rebelled against the Almightym at the Red Sea.

8 But he saved them, as he had promised,

in order to show his great power.

9* He gave a command to the Red Sea,

and it dried up;

he led his people across on dry land.

10* He saved them from those who hated them;

he rescued them from their enemies.

11* But the water drowned their enemies;

not one of them was left.

12* Then his people believed his promises

and sang praises to him.

13 But they quickly forgot what he had done

and acted without waiting for his advice.

14* They were filled with craving in the desert

and put God to the test;

15* so he gave them what they asked for,

but also sent a terrible disease among them.

16* There in the desert they were jealous of Moses

and of Aaron, the Lord’s holy servant.

17* Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan

and buried Abiram and his family;

18* fire came down on their followers

and burnt up those wicked people.

19* They made a gold bull calf at Sinai

and worshipped that idol;

20* they exchanged the glory of God

for the image of an animal that eats grass.

21* They forgot the God who had saved them

by his mighty acts in Egypt.

22* What wonderful things he did there!

What amazing things at the Red Sea!

23* When God said that he would destroy his people,

his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God

and prevented his anger from destroying them.

24* Then they rejected the pleasant land,

because they did not believe God’s promise.

25* They stayed in their tents and grumbled

and would not listen to the Lord.

26* So he gave them a solemn warning

that he would make them die in the desert

27* and scatter their descendants among the heathen,

letting them die in foreign countries.

28* Then at Peor, God’s people joined in the worship of Baal,

and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.

29* They stirred up the Lord’s anger by their actions,

and a terrible disease broke out among them.

30* But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,

and the plague was stopped.

31* This has been remembered in his favour ever since

and will be for all time to come.

32* At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry,

and Moses was in trouble on their account.

33* They made him so bitter

that he spoke without stopping to think.

34* They did not kill the heathen,

as the Lord had commanded them to do,

35* but they intermarried with them

and adopted their pagan ways.

36* God’s people worshipped idols,

and this caused their destruction.

37* They offered their own sons and daughters

as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.

38* They killed those innocent children,

and the land was defiled by those murders.

39 They made themselves impure by their actions

and were unfaithful to God.

40* So the Lord was angry with his people;

he was disgusted with them.

41* He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,

and their enemies ruled over them.

42* They were oppressed by their enemies

and were in complete subjection to them.

43* Many times the Lord rescued his people,

but they chose to rebel against him

and sank deeper into sin.

44* Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out,

and he took notice of their distress.

45* For their sake he remembered his covenant,

and because of his great love he relented.

46* He made all their oppressors

feel sorry for them.

47* Save us, O Lord our God,

and bring us back from among the nations,

so that we may be thankful

and praise your holy name.

48* Praise the Lord, the God of Israel;

praise him now and for ever!

Let everyone say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord!