Psalm 105–106

Psalm 105

¹Give thanks to the Lord. Worship him.

Tell the nations what he has done.

²Sing to him. Sing praise to him.

Tell about all of the wonderful things he has done.

³Praise him, because his name is holy.

Let the hearts of those who trust in the Lord be glad.

⁴Look to the Lord and to his strength.

Always look to him.

⁵Remember the wonderful things he has done.

Remember his miracles and how he judged our enemies.

⁶Remember what he has done, you children of his servant Abraham.

Remember it, you people of Jacob, God’s chosen ones.

⁷He is the Lord our God.

He judges the whole earth.

⁸He will keep his covenant forever.

He will keep his promise for all time to come.

⁹He will keep the covenant he made with Abraham.

He will keep the oath he took when he made his promise to Isaac.

¹⁰He made it stand as a law for Jacob.

He made it stand as a covenant for Israel. It will last forever.

¹¹He said, “I will give you the land of Canaan.

It will belong to you.”

¹²At first there weren’t very many of God’s people.

There were only a few. And they were strangers in the land.

¹³They wandered from nation to nation.

They wandered from one kingdom to another.

¹⁴But God didn’t allow anyone to beat them down.

To keep them safe, he gave a command to kings.

¹⁵He said to them, “Do not touch my anointed ones.

Do not harm my prophets.”

¹⁶He made the people in the land go hungry.

He destroyed all their food supplies.

¹⁷He sent a man ahead of them into Egypt.

That man was Joseph. He had been sold as a slave.

¹⁸The Egyptians put his feet in chains.

They put an iron collar around his neck.

¹⁹He was in prison until what he said would happen came true.

The word of the Lord proved that he was right.

²⁰The king of Egypt sent for Joseph and let him out of prison.

The ruler of many nations set him free.

²¹He put Joseph in charge of his palace.

He made him ruler over everything he owned.

²²Joseph was in charge of teaching the princes.

He taught the elders how to think and live wisely.

²³Then the rest of Jacob’s family went to Egypt.

The people of Israel lived as outsiders in the land of Ham.

²⁴The Lord gave his people so many children

that there were too many of them for their enemies.

²⁵He made the Egyptians hate his people.

The Egyptians made evil plans against them.

²⁶The Lord sent his servant Moses to the king of Egypt.

He sent Aaron, his chosen one, along with him.

²⁷The Lord gave them the power to do miraculous signs among the Egyptians.

They did his wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸He sent darkness over the land.

He did it because the Egyptians had refused to obey his words.

²⁹He turned their rivers and streams into blood.

He caused the fish in them to die.

³⁰Their land was covered with frogs.

Frogs even went into the bedrooms of the rulers.

³¹The Lord spoke, and large numbers of flies came.

Gnats filled the whole country.

³²He turned their rain into hail.

Lightning flashed all through their land.

³³He destroyed their vines and fig trees.

He broke down the trees in Egypt.

³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came.

There were so many of them they couldn’t be counted.

³⁵They ate up every green thing in the land.

They ate up what the land produced.

³⁶Then he killed the oldest son of every family in Egypt.

He struck down the oldest of all of their sons.

³⁷He brought the people of Israel out of Egypt.

The Egyptians loaded them down with silver and gold.

From among the tribes of Israel no one got tired or fell down.

³⁸The Egyptians were glad when the people of Israel left.

They were terrified because of Israel.

³⁹The Lord spread out a cloud to cover his people.

He gave them a fire to light up the night.

⁴⁰They asked for meat, and he brought them quail.

He satisfied them with manna, the bread of heaven.

⁴¹He broke open a rock, and streams of water poured out.

They flowed like a river in the desert.

⁴²He remembered the holy promise

he had made to his servant Abraham.

⁴³His chosen people shouted for joy

as he brought them out of Egypt.

⁴⁴He gave them the lands of other nations.

He let them take over what others had worked for.

⁴⁵He did it so they might obey his rules

and follow his laws.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 106

¹Praise the Lord.

Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good.

His faithful love continues forever.

²Who can speak enough about the mighty acts of the Lord?

Who can praise him as much as he should be praised?

³Blessed are those who always do what is fair.

Blessed are those who keep doing what is right.

⁴Lord, remember me when you show favor to your people.

Help me when you save them.

⁵Then I will enjoy the good things you give your chosen ones.

I will be joyful together with your people.

I will join them when they praise you.

⁶We have sinned, just as our people of long ago did.

We too have done what is evil and wrong.

⁷When our people were in Egypt,

they forgot about the Lord’s miracles.

They didn’t remember his many kind acts.

At the Red Sea they refused to obey him.

⁸But he saved them for the honor of his name.

He did it to make his mighty power known.

⁹He ordered the Red Sea to dry up, and it did.

He led his people through it as if it were a desert.

¹⁰He saved them from the power of their enemies.

He set them free from their control.

¹¹The waters covered their enemies.

Not one of them escaped alive.

¹²Then his people believed his promises

and sang praise to him.

¹³But they soon forgot what he had done.

They didn’t wait for his advice.

¹⁴In the desert they longed for food.

In that dry and empty land they put God to the test.

¹⁵So he gave them what they asked for.

But he also sent a sickness that killed many of them.

¹⁶In their camp some of them became jealous of Moses.

They were also jealous of Aaron. He had been set apart to serve the Lord.

¹⁷The ground opened up and swallowed Dathan.

It buried Abiram and his followers.

¹⁸Fire blazed among all of them.

Flames destroyed those evil people.

¹⁹At Mount Horeb they made a metal statue of a bull calf.

They worshiped that statue of a god.

²⁰They traded their glorious God

for a statue of a bull that eats grass.

²¹They forgot the God who saved them.

They forgot the One who had done great things in Egypt.

²²They forgot the miracles he did in the land of Ham.

They forgot the wonderful things he did by the Red Sea.

²³So he said he would destroy them.

But Moses, his chosen one,

stood up for them.

He kept God’s anger from destroying them.

²⁴Later on, they refused to enter the pleasant land of Canaan.

They didn’t believe God’s promise.

²⁵In their tents they told the Lord how unhappy they were.

They didn’t obey him.

²⁶So he lifted up his hand and promised with an oath

that he would make them die in the desert.

²⁷He promised he would scatter their children’s children among the nations.

He would make them die in other lands.

²⁸They joined in worshiping the Baal that was worshiped at Peor.

They ate food that had been offered to gods that aren’t even alive.

²⁹Their evil ways made the Lord angry.

So a plague broke out among them.

³⁰But Phinehas stood up and took action.

Then the plague stopped.

³¹What Phinehas did made him right with the Lord.

It will be remembered for all time to come.

³²By the waters of Meribah the Lord’s people made him angry.

Moses got in trouble because of them.

³³They refused to obey the Spirit of God.

So Moses spoke without thinking.

³⁴They didn’t destroy the nations in Canaan

as the Lord had commanded them.

³⁵Instead, they mixed with those nations

and adopted their ways.

³⁶They worshiped statues of their gods.

That became a trap for them.

³⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters

as offerings to demons.

³⁸They killed those who weren’t guilty of doing anything wrong.

They killed their own sons and daughters.

They sacrificed them as offerings to statues of the gods of Canaan.

The land became “unclean” because of the blood of their children.

³⁹The people polluted themselves by what they had done.

They weren’t faithful to the Lord.

⁴⁰So the Lord became angry with his people.

He turned away from his own children.

⁴¹He handed them over to the nations.

Their enemies ruled over them.

⁴²They beat them down

and kept them under their power.

⁴³Many times the Lord saved them.

But they refused to obey him.

So he destroyed them because of their sins.

⁴⁴But he heard them when they cried out.

He paid special attention to their suffering.

⁴⁵Because they were his people, he remembered his covenant.

Because of his great love, he felt sorry for them.

⁴⁶He made all those who held them as prisoners

show concern for them.

⁴⁷Lord our God, save us.

Bring us back from among the nations.

Then we will give thanks to you, because your name is holy.

We will celebrate by praising you.

⁴⁸Give praise to the Lord, the God of Israel,

for ever and ever.

Let all of the people say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord.