1 Praise the Lord!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

and his loyal love endures!

2 Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts,

or relate all his praiseworthy deeds?

3 How blessed are those who promote justice,

and do what is right all the time!

4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people!

Pay attention to me, when you deliver,

5 so I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,

rejoice along with your nation,

and boast along with the people who belong to you.

6 We have sinned like our ancestors;

we have done wrong, we have done evil.

7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds,

they failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,

and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea.

8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation,

that he might reveal his power.

9 He shouted at the Red Sea and it dried up;

he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.

10 He delivered them from the power of the one who hated them,

and rescued them from the power of the enemy.

11 The water covered their enemies;

not even one of them survived.

12 They believed his promises;

they sang praises to him.

13 They quickly forgot what he had done;

they did not wait for his instructions.

14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving for meat;

they challenged God in the wastelands.

15 He granted their request,

then struck them with a disease.

16 In the camp they resented Moses,

and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.

17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;

it engulfed the group led by Abiram.

18 Fire burned their group;

the flames scorched the wicked.

19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,

and worshiped a metal idol.

20 They traded their majestic God

for the image of an ox that eats grass.

21 They rejected the God who delivered them,

the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,

22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,

mighty acts by the Red Sea.

23 He threatened to destroy them,

but Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him

and turned back his destructive anger.

24 They rejected the fruitful land;

they did not believe his promise.

25 They grumbled in their tents;

they did not obey the Lord.

26 So he made a solemn vow

that he would make them die in the wilderness,

27 make their descendants die among the nations,

and scatter them among foreign lands.

28 They worshiped Baal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

29 They made the Lord angry by their actions,

and a plague broke out among them.

30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened,

and the plague subsided.

31 This was credited to him as a righteous act

for all generations to come.

32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered because of them,

33 for they aroused his temper,

and he spoke rashly.

34 They did not destroy the nations,

as the Lord had commanded them to do.

35 They mixed in with the nations

and learned their ways.

36 They worshiped their idols,

which became a snare to them.

37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.

38 They shed innocent blood –

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

The land was polluted by bloodshed.

39 They were defiled by their deeds,

and unfaithful in their actions.

40 So the Lord was angry with his people

and despised the people who belong to him.

41 He handed them over to the nations,

and those who hated them ruled over them.

42 Their enemies oppressed them;

they were subject to their authority.

43 Many times he delivered them,

but they had a rebellious attitude,

and degraded themselves by their sin.

44 Yet he took notice of their distress,

when he heard their cry for help.

45 He remembered his covenant with them,

and relented because of his great loyal love.

46 He caused all their conquerors

to have pity on them.

47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God!

Gather us from among the nations!

Then we will give thanks to your holy name,

and boast about your praiseworthy deeds.

48 The Lord God of Israel deserves praise,

in the future and forevermore.

Let all the people say, “We agree! Praise the Lord!”

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

and his loyal love endures!

2 Let those delivered by the Lord speak out,

those whom he delivered from the power of the enemy,

3 and gathered from foreign lands,

from east and west,

from north and south.

4 They wandered through the wilderness, in a wasteland;

they found no road to a city in which to live.

5 They were hungry and thirsty;

they fainted from exhaustion.

6 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

7 He led them on a level road,

that they might find a city in which to live.

8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people!

9 For he has satisfied those who thirst,

and those who hunger he has filled with food.

10 They sat in utter darkness,

bound in painful iron chains,

11 because they had rebelled against God’s commands,

and rejected the instructions of the Most High.

12 So he used suffering to humble them;

they stumbled and no one helped them up.

13 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

14 He brought them out of the utter darkness,

and tore off their shackles.

15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people!

16 For he shattered the bronze gates,

and hacked through the iron bars.

17 They acted like fools in their rebellious ways,

and suffered because of their sins.

18 They lost their appetite for all food,

and they drew near the gates of death.

19 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

20 He sent them an assuring word and healed them;

he rescued them from the pits where they were trapped.

21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people!

22 Let them present thank offerings,

and loudly proclaim what he has done!

23 Some traveled on the sea in ships,

and carried cargo over the vast waters.

24 They witnessed the acts of the Lord,

his amazing feats on the deep water.

25 He gave the order for a windstorm,

and it stirred up the waves of the sea.

26 They reached up to the sky,

then dropped into the depths.

The sailors’ strength left them because the danger was so great.

27 They swayed and staggered like a drunk,

and all their skill proved ineffective.

28 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

29 He calmed the storm,

and the waves grew silent.

30 The sailors rejoiced because the waves grew quiet,

and he led them to the harbor they desired.

31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people!

32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people!

Let them praise him in the place where the leaders preside!

33 He turned streams into a desert,

springs of water into arid land,

34 and a fruitful land into a barren place,

because of the sin of its inhabitants.

35 As for his people, he turned a desert into a pool of water,

and a dry land into springs of water.

36 He allowed the hungry to settle there,

and they established a city in which to live.

37 They cultivated fields,

and planted vineyards,

which yielded a harvest of fruit.

38 He blessed them so that they became very numerous.

He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number.

39 As for their enemies, they decreased in number and were beaten down,

because of painful distress and suffering.

40 He would pour contempt upon princes,

and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road.

41 Yet he protected the needy from oppression,

and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.

42 When the godly see this, they rejoice,

and every sinner shuts his mouth.

43 Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things!

Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love!