The Lantern

Psalms106

Give Thanks to the LORD, for He Is Good

Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loyal love is forever.

Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or make all his praise heard?

Happy are those who keep judgment, who do righteousness at every time.

Remember me, LORD, in the favor of your people; visit me with your salvation,

to see the good of your chosen ones, to be glad in the gladness of your nation, to glory with your inheritance.

We have sinned with our fathers; we have done wrong; we have acted wickedly.

Our fathers in Egypt did not act wisely toward your wonders; they did not remember the abundance of your acts of loyal love, and they rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Reeds.

But he saved them for the sake of his name, to make known his might.

And he rebuked the Sea of Reeds and it dried up, and he made them walk through the deeps as through the wilderness.

And he saved them from the hand of the one who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

And the waters covered their foes; not one of them was left.

And they believed his words; they sang his praise.

They quickly forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.

And they craved a craving in the wilderness, and they tested the Mighty One in the wasteland.

And he gave them their request, but he sent leanness into their soul.

And they were jealous of Moses in the camp, and of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, and covered over the company of Abiram.

And a fire burned in their company; a flame set the wicked ablaze.

They made a calf at Horeb and bowed down to a molten image.

And they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot the Mighty One, their savior, who had done great things in Egypt,

wonders in the land of Ham, fearful things at the Sea of Reeds.

And he said he would destroy them — had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach before him, to turn back his wrath from destroying.

And they rejected the desirable land; they did not believe his word.

And they grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

So he lifted up his hand against them, to make them fall in the wilderness,

and to make their seed fall among the nations, and to scatter them through the lands.

And they yoked themselves to Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices of the dead.

And they provoked him with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

And Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.

And it was reckoned to him as righteousness, to generation and generation forever.

And they angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went badly for Moses on their account,

for they embittered his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips.

They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD had said to them.

But they mixed with the nations and learned their deeds.

And they served their idols, and they became a snare to them.

And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

And they poured out innocent blood — the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan — and the land was polluted with blood.

And they became unclean by their works, and they whored by their deeds.

And the anger of the LORD burned against his people, and he abhorred his inheritance.

And he gave them into the hand of nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

And their enemies oppressed them, and they were humbled under their hand.

Many times he rescued them, but they rebelled in their counsel, and they sank low in their iniquity.

But he saw their distress when he heard their ringing cry.

And he remembered his covenant for them, and relented according to the abundance of his acts of loyal love.

And he gave them to compassion before all their captors.

Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise the LORD!