Psalm 106–107

The ’s Goodness to His People

106^*Praise the Lord!

Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good;

his love is eternal.

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

Who can praise him enough?

³Happy are those who obey his commands,

who always do what is right.

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

include me when you save them.

⁵Let 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.

⁶We 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 Almighty^m at the Red Sea.

⁸But 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.

¹³But 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.

³⁹They 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!

BOOK FIVE

In Praise of God’s Goodness

107^*“Give thanks to the Lord,

because he is good;

his love is eternal!”

²Repeat these words in praise to the Lord,

all you whom he has saved.

He has rescued you from your enemies ³and has brought you back from foreign countries,

from east and west, from north and south.ⁿ

⁴Some wandered in the trackless desert

and could not find their way to a city to live in.

⁵They were hungry and thirsty

and had given up all hope.

⁶Then in their trouble they called to the Lord,

and he saved them from their distress.

⁷He led them by a straight road

to a city where they could live.

⁸They must thank the Lord for his constant love,

for the wonderful things he did for them.

⁹He satisfies those who are thirsty

and fills the hungry with good things.

¹⁰Some were living in gloom and darkness,

prisoners suffering in chains,

¹¹because they had rebelled against the commands of Almighty God

and had rejected his instructions.

¹²They were worn out from hard work;

they would fall down, and no one would help.

¹³Then in their trouble they called to the Lord,

and he saved them from their distress.

¹⁴He brought them out of their gloom and darkness

and broke their chains in pieces.

¹⁵They must thank the Lord for his constant love,

for the wonderful things he did for them.

¹⁶He breaks down doors of bronze

and smashes iron bars.

¹⁷Some were fools, suffering because of their sins

and because of their evil;

¹⁸they couldn’t stand the sight of food

and were close to death.

¹⁹Then in their trouble they called to the Lord,

and he saved them from their distress.

²⁰He healed them with his command

and saved them from the grave.

²¹They must thank the Lord for his constant love,

for the wonderful things he did for them.

²²They must thank him with sacrifices,

and with songs of joy must tell all that he has done.

²³Some sailed over the ocean in ships,

earning their living on the seas.

²⁴They saw what the Lord can do,

his wonderful acts on the seas.

²⁵He commanded, and a mighty wind began to blow

and stirred up the waves.

²⁶The ships were lifted high in the air

and plunged down into the depths.

In such danger the sailors lost their courage;

²⁷they stumbled and staggered like drunken men—

all their skill was useless.

²⁸Then in their trouble they called to the Lord,

and he saved them from their distress.

²⁹He calmed the raging storm,

and the waves became quiet.

³⁰They were glad because of the calm,

and he brought them safe to the port they wanted.

³¹They must thank the Lord for his constant love,

for the wonderful things he did for them.

³²They must proclaim his greatness in the assembly of the people

and praise him before the council of the leaders.

³³The Lord made rivers dry up completely

and stopped springs from flowing.

³⁴He made rich soil become a salty wilderness

because of the wickedness of those who lived there.

³⁵He changed deserts into pools of water

and dry land into flowing springs.

³⁶He let hungry people settle there,

and they built a city to live in.

³⁷They sowed the fields and planted grapevines

and reaped an abundant harvest.

³⁸He blessed his people, and they had many children;

he kept their herds of cattle from decreasing.

³⁹When God’s people were defeated and humiliated

by cruel oppression and suffering,

⁴⁰he showed contempt for their oppressors

and made them wander in trackless deserts.

⁴¹But he rescued the needy from their misery

and made their families increase like flocks.

⁴²The righteous see this and are glad,

but all the wicked are put to silence.

⁴³May those who are wise think about these things;

may they consider the Lord’s constant love.