¹Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his loyal love endures. ²Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts or relate all his praiseworthy deeds?³How blessed are those who promote justice and do what is right all the time. ⁴Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people. Pay attention to me, when you deliver, ⁵so I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, rejoice along with your nation, and boast along with the people who belong to you. ⁶We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong, we have done evil. ⁷Our 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. ⁸Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation that he might reveal his power. ⁹He shouted at the Red Sea and it dried up; he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert. ¹⁰He delivered them from the power of the one who hated them and rescued them from the power of the enemy. ¹¹The water covered their enemies; not even one of them survived. ¹²They believed his promises; they sang praises to him.¹³They quickly forgot what he had done; they did not wait for his instructions. ¹⁴In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving for meat; they challenged God in the wastelands.¹⁵He granted their request, then struck them with a disease. ¹⁶In the camp they resented Moses and Aaron the Lord’s holy priest. ¹⁷The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it engulfed the group led by Abiram. ¹⁸Fire burned their group; the flames scorched the wicked. ¹⁹They made an image of a calf at Horeb and worshiped a metal idol. ²⁰They traded their majestic God for the image of an ox that eats grass. ²¹They rejected the God who delivered them, the one who performed great deeds in Egypt, ²²amazing feats in the land of Ham, mighty acts by the Red Sea.²³He threatened to destroy them, but Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him and turned back his destructive anger. ²⁴They rejected the fruitful land; they did not believe his promise. ²⁵They grumbled in their tents; they did not obey the Lord. ²⁶So he made a solemn vow that he would make them die in the wilderness,²⁷make their descendants die among the nations, and scatter them among foreign lands. ²⁸They worshiped Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. ²⁹They made the Lord angry by their actions, and a plague broke out among them.³⁰Phinehas took a stand and intervened, and the plague subsided. ³¹This was credited to Phinehas as a righteous act for all generations to come. ³²They made him angry by the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered because of them,³³for they aroused his temper, and he spoke rashly. ³⁴They did not destroy the nations, as the Lord had commanded them to do.³⁵They mixed in with the nations and learned their ways. ³⁶They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. ³⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ³⁸They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted by bloodshed. ³⁹They were defiled by their deeds and unfaithful in their actions. ⁴⁰So the Lord was angry with his people and despised the people who belonged to him.⁴¹He handed them over to the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.⁴²Their enemies oppressed them; they were subject to their authority. ⁴³Many times he delivered them, but they had a rebellious attitude and degraded themselves by their sin. ⁴⁴Yet he took notice of their distress, when he heard their cry for help.⁴⁵He remembered his covenant with them and relented because of his great loyal love. ⁴⁶He caused all their conquerors to have pity on them.⁴⁷Deliver 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.⁴⁸The Lord God of Israel deserves praise, in the future and forevermore. Let all the people say, “We agree! Praise the Lord!”