Psalms

¹ Hallelujah! ^[a]

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.

² Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD

or fully proclaim His praise?

³ Blessed are those who uphold justice,

who practice righteousness at all times.

⁴ Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people;

visit me with Your salvation,

⁵ that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,

and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,

and give glory with Your inheritance.

⁶ We have sinned like our fathers;

we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

⁷ Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders

or remember Your abundant kindness;

but they rebelled by the sea,

there at the Red Sea. ^[b]

⁸ Yet He saved them for the sake of His name,

to make His power known.

⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;

He led them through the depths as through a desert.

¹⁰ He saved them from the hand that hated them;

He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹¹ The waters covered their foes;

not one of them remained.

¹² Then they believed His promises

and sang His praise.

¹³ Yet they soon forgot His works

and failed to wait for His counsel.

¹⁴ They craved intensely in the wilderness

and tested God in the desert.

¹⁵ So He granted their request,

but sent a wasting disease upon them.

¹⁶ In the camp they envied Moses,

as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

¹⁷ The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;

it covered the assembly of Abiram.

¹⁸ Then fire blazed through their company;

flames consumed the wicked.

¹⁹ At Horeb ^[c] they made a calf

and worshiped a molten image.

²⁰ They exchanged their Glory ^[d]

for the image of a grass-eating ox.

²¹ They forgot God their Savior,

who did great things in Egypt,

²² wondrous works in the land of Ham,

and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

²³ So He said He would destroy them—

had not Moses His chosen one

stood before Him in the breach

to divert His wrath from destroying them.

²⁴ They despised the pleasant land;

they did not believe His promise.

²⁵ They grumbled in their tents

and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

²⁶ So He raised His hand and swore

to cast them down in the wilderness,

²⁷ to disperse ^[e] their offspring among the nations

and scatter them throughout the lands.

²⁸ They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor

and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

²⁹ So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds,

and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰ But Phinehas stood and intervened,

and the plague was restrained.

³¹ It was credited to him as righteousness

for endless generations to come.

³² At the waters of Meribah ^[f] they angered the LORD,

and trouble came to Moses because of them.

³³ For they rebelled against His Spirit, ^[g]

and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples

as the LORD had commanded them,

³⁵ but they mingled with the nations

and adopted their customs.

³⁶ They worshiped their idols,

which became a snare to them.

³⁷ They sacrificed their sons

and their daughters to demons.

³⁸ They shed innocent blood—

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,

and the land was polluted with blood.

³⁹ They defiled themselves by their actions

and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

⁴⁰ So the anger of the LORD burned against His people,

and He abhorred His own inheritance.

⁴¹ He delivered them into the hand of the nations,

and those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴² Their enemies oppressed them,

and subdued them under their hand.

⁴³ Many times He rescued them,

but they were bent on rebellion

and sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁴ Nevertheless He heard their cry;

He took note of their distress.

⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant with them,

and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

⁴⁶ He made them objects of compassion

to all who held them captive.

⁴⁷ Save us, O LORD our God,

and gather us from the nations,

that we may give thanks to Your holy name,

that we may glory in Your praise.

⁴⁸ Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Hallelujah!