[106:1] Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, because he is good; his love is eternal.
[106:2] Who can tell all the great things he has done? Who can praise him enough?
[106:3] Happy are those who obey his commands, who always do what is right.
[106:4] Remember me, Lord, when you help your people; include me when you save them.
[106:5] 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.
[106:6] We have sinned as our ancestors did; we have been wicked and evil.
[106:7] 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 at the Red Sea.
[106:8] But he saved them, as he had promised, in order to show his great power.
[106:9] He gave a command to the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led his people across on dry land.
[106:10] He saved them from those who hated them; he rescued them from their enemies.
[106:11] But the water drowned their enemies; not one of them was left.
[106:12] Then his people believed his promises and sang praises to him.
[106:13] But they quickly forgot what he had done and acted without waiting for his advice.
[106:14] They were filled with craving in the desert and put God to the test;
[106:15] so he gave them what they asked for, but also sent a terrible disease among them.
[106:16] There in the desert they were jealous of Moses and of Aaron, the Lord's holy servant.
[106:17] Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan and buried Abiram and his family;
[106:18] fire came down on their followers and burned up those wicked people.
[106:19] They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai and worshiped that idol;
[106:20] they exchanged the glory of God for the image of an animal that eats grass.
[106:21] They forgot the God who had saved them by his mighty acts in Egypt.
[106:22] What wonderful things he did there! What amazing things at the Red Sea!
[106:23] When God said that he would destroy his people, his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God and kept his anger from destroying them.
[106:24] Then they rejected the pleasant land, because they did not believe God's promise.
[106:25] They stayed in their tents and grumbled and would not listen to the Lord.
[106:26] So he gave them a solemn warning that he would make them die in the desert
[106:27] and scatter their descendants among the heathen, letting them die in foreign countries.
[106:28] Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
[106:29] They stirred up the Lord's anger by their actions, and a terrible disease broke out among them.
[106:30] But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty, and the plague was stopped.
[106:31] This has been remembered in his favor ever since and will be for all time to come.
[106:32] At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry, and Moses was in trouble on their account.
[106:33] They made him so bitter that he spoke without stopping to think.
[106:34] They did not kill the heathen, as the Lord had commanded them to do,
[106:35] but they intermarried with them and adopted their pagan ways.
[106:36] God's people worshiped idols, and this caused their destruction.
[106:37] They offered their own sons and daughters as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
[106:38] They killed those innocent children, and the land was defiled by those murders.
[106:39] They made themselves impure by their actions and were unfaithful to God.
[106:40] So the Lord was angry with his people; he was disgusted with them.
[106:41] He abandoned them to the power of the heathen, and their enemies ruled over them.
[106:42] They were oppressed by their enemies and were in complete subjection to them.
[106:43] Many times the Lord rescued his people, but they chose to rebel against him and sank deeper into sin.
[106:44] Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out, and he took notice of their distress.
[106:45] For their sake he remembered his covenant, and because of his great love he relented.
[106:46] He made all their oppressors feel sorry for them.
[106:47] 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.
[106:48] Praise the Lord, the God of Israel; praise him now and forever! Let everyone say, “Amen!”