Psalm 113:9–116:9

⁹He honours the childless wife in her home;

he makes her happy by giving her children.

Praise the Lord!

A Passover Song

114^*When the people of Israel left Egypt,

when Jacob’s descendants left that foreign land,

²Judah became the Lord’s holy people,

Israel became his own possession.

^3*The Red Sea looked and ran away;

the River Jordan stopped flowing.

⁴The mountains skipped like goats;

the hills jumped about like lambs.

⁵What happened, Sea, to make you run away?

And you, O Jordan, why did you stop flowing?

⁶You mountains, why did you skip like goats?

You hills, why did you jump about like lambs?

⁷Tremble, earth, at the Lord’s coming,

at the presence of the God of Jacob,

^8*who changes rocks into pools of water

and solid cliffs into flowing springs.

The One True God

115To you alone, O Lord, to you alone,

and not to us, must glory be given

because of your constant love and faithfulness.

²Why should the nations ask us,

“Where is your God?”

³Our God is in heaven;

he does whatever he wishes.

^4*Their gods are made of silver and gold,

formed by human hands.

^5*They have mouths, but cannot speak,

and eyes, but cannot see.

^6*They have ears, but cannot hear,

and noses, but cannot smell.

^7*They have hands, but cannot feel,

and feet, but cannot walk;

they cannot make a sound.

^8*May all who made them and who trust in them

become^y like the idols they have made.

⁹Trust in the Lord, you people of Israel.

He helps you and protects you.

¹⁰Trust in the Lord, you priests of God.

He helps you and protects you.

¹¹Trust in the Lord, all you that worship him.

He helps you and protects you.

¹²The Lord remembers us and will bless us;

he will bless the people of Israel

and all the priests of God.

^13*He will bless everyone who honours him,

the great and the small alike.

¹⁴May the Lord give you children—

you and your descendants!

¹⁵May you be blessed by the Lord,

who made heaven and earth!

¹⁶Heaven belongs to the Lord alone,

but he gave the earth to the human race.

¹⁷The Lord is not praised by the dead,

by any who go down to the land of silence.^z

¹⁸But we, the living, will give thanks to him

now and for ever.

Praise the Lord!

A Man Saved from Death Praises God

116I love the Lord, because he hears me;

he listens to my prayers.

²He listens to me

every time I call to him.

³The danger of death was all round me;

the horrors of the grave closed in on me;

I was filled with fear and anxiety.

⁴Then I called to the Lord,

“I beg you, Lord, save me!”

⁵The Lord is merciful and good;

our God is compassionate.

⁶The Lord protects the helpless;

when I was in danger, he saved me.

⁷Be confident, my heart,

because the Lord has been good to me.

⁸The Lord saved me from death;

he stopped my tears

and kept me from defeat.

⁹And so I walk in the presence of the Lord

in the world of the living.