1   
Praise the Lord!

1   
Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good;
  his love is eternal. ^note

2   
Who can tell all the great things he has done?
  Who can praise him enough?

3   
Happy are those who obey his commands,
  who always do what is right.

4   
Remember me, Lord, when you help your people;
  include me when you save them.

5   
Let me see the prosperity of your people
  and share in the happiness of your nation,
  in the glad pride of those who belong to you.

6   
We have sinned as our ancestors did;
  we have been wicked and evil.

7   
Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God's wonderful acts;
  they forgot the many times he showed them his love,
  and they rebelled against the Almighty ^note at the Red Sea. ^note

8   
But he saved them, as he had promised,
  in order to show his great power.

9   
He gave a command to the Red Sea,
  and it dried up;
  he led his people across on dry land.

10   
He saved them from those who hated them;
  he rescued them from their enemies.

11   
But the water drowned their enemies;
  not one of them was left.

12   
Then his people believed his promises
  and sang praises to him. ^{note note}

13   
But they quickly forgot what he had done
  and acted without waiting for his advice.

14   
They were filled with craving in the desert
  and put God to the test;

15   
so he gave them what they asked for,
  but also sent a terrible disease among them. ^note

16   
There in the desert they were jealous of Moses
  and of Aaron, the Lord's holy servant.

17   
Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan
  and buried Abiram and his family;

18   
fire came down on their followers
  and burned up those wicked people. ^note

19   
They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai
  and worshiped that idol;

20   
they exchanged the glory of God
  for the image of an animal that eats grass.

21   
They forgot the God who had saved them
  by his mighty acts in Egypt.

22   
What wonderful things he did there!
  What amazing things at the Red Sea!

23   
When God said that he would destroy his people,
  his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God
  and kept his anger from destroying them. ^note

24   
Then they rejected the pleasant land,
  because they did not believe God's promise.

25   
They stayed in their tents and grumbled
  and would not listen to the Lord.

26   
So he gave them a solemn warning
  that he would make them die in the desert ^note

27   
  and scatter their descendants among the heathen,
  letting them die in foreign countries. ^note

28   
Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal
  and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.

29   
They stirred up the Lord's anger by their actions,
  and a terrible disease broke out among them.

30   
But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,
  and the plague was stopped.

31   
This has been remembered in his favor ever since
  and will be for all time to come. ^note

32   
At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry,
  and Moses was in trouble on their account.

33   
They made him so bitter
  that he spoke without stopping to think. ^note

34   
They did not kill the heathen,
  as the Lord had commanded them to do,

35   
but they intermarried with them
  and adopted their pagan ways.

36   
God's people worshiped idols,
  and this caused their destruction. ^note

37   
They offered their own sons and daughters
  as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan. ^note

38   
They killed those innocent children,
  and the land was defiled by those murders. ^note

39   
They made themselves impure by their actions
  and were unfaithful to God.

40   
So the Lord was angry with his people;
  he was disgusted with them.

41   
He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,
  and their enemies ruled over them.

42   
They were oppressed by their enemies
  and were in complete subjection to them.

43   
Many times the Lord rescued his people,

  but they chose to rebel against him
  and sank deeper into sin.

44   
Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out,
  and he took notice of their distress.

45   
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
  and because of his great love he relented.

46   
He made all their oppressors
  feel sorry for them. ^note

47   
Save us, O Lord our God,
  and bring us back from among the nations,
so that we may be thankful
  and praise your holy name.

48   
Praise the Lord, the God of Israel;
  praise him now and forever!
  Let everyone say, “Amen!” ^note
Praise the Lord! BOOK FIVE (Psalms 107—150)

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