Psalm 113:1–116:9

^1–3113Hallelujah!

You who serve God, praise God!

Just to speak his name is praise!

Just to remember God is a blessing—

now and tomorrow and always.

From east to west, from dawn to dusk,

keep lifting all your praises to God!

^4–9God is higher than anything and anyone,

outshining everything you can see in the skies.

Who can compare with God, our God,

so majestically enthroned,

Surveying his magnificent

heavens and earth?

He picks up the poor from out of the dirt,

rescues the wretched who’ve been thrown out with the trash,

Seats them among the honored guests,

a place of honor among the brightest and best.

He gives childless couples a family,

gives them joy as the parents of children.

Hallelujah!

^1–8114After Israel left Egypt,

the clan of Jacob left those barbarians behind;

Judah became holy land for him,

Israel the place of holy rule.

Sea took one look and ran the other way;

River Jordan turned around and ran off.

The mountains turned playful and skipped like rams,

the hills frolicked like spring lambs.

What’s wrong with you, Sea, that you ran away?

and you, River Jordan, that you turned and ran off?

And mountains, why did you skip like rams?

and you, hills, frolic like spring lambs?

Tremble, Earth! You’re in the Lord’s presence!

in the presence of Jacob’s God.

He turned the rock into a pool of cool water,

turned flint into fresh spring water.

^1–2115Not for our sake, God, no, not for our sake,

but for your name’s sake, show your glory.

Do it on account of your merciful love,

do it on account of your faithful ways.

Do it so none of the nations can say,

“Where now, oh where is their God?”

^3–8Our God is in heaven

doing whatever he wants to do.

Their gods are metal and wood,

hand-made in a basement shop:

Carved mouths that can’t talk,

painted eyes that can’t see,

Tin ears that can’t hear,

molded noses that can’t smell,

Hands that can’t grasp, feet that can’t walk or run,

throats that never utter a sound.

Those who make them have become just like them,

have become just like the gods they trust.

^9–11But you, Israel: put your trust in God!

—trust your Helper! trust your Ruler!

Clan of Aaron, trust in God!

—trust your Helper! trust your Ruler!

You who fear God, trust in God!

—trust your Helper! trust your Ruler!

^12–16O God, remember us and bless us,

bless the families of Israel and Aaron.

And let God bless all who fear God—

bless the small, bless the great.

Oh, let God enlarge your families—

giving growth to you, growth to your children.

May you be blessed by God,

by God, who made heaven and earth.

The heaven of heavens is for God,

but he put us in charge of the earth.

^17–18Dead people can’t praise God—

not a word to be heard from those buried in the ground.

But we bless God, oh yes—

we bless him now, we bless him always!

Hallelujah!

^1–6116I love God because he listened to me,

listened as I begged for mercy.

He listened so intently

as I laid out my case before him.

Death stared me in the face,

hell was hard on my heels.

Up against it, I didn’t know which way to turn;

then I called out to God for help:

“Please, God!” I cried out.

“Save my life!”

God is gracious—it is he who makes things right,

our most compassionate God.

God takes the side of the helpless;

when I was at the end of my rope, he saved me.

^7–8I said to myself, “Relax and rest.

God has showered you with blessings.

Soul, you’ve been rescued from death;

Eye, you’ve been rescued from tears;

And you, Foot, were kept from stumbling.”

^9–11I’m striding in the presence of God,

alive in the land of the living!