¹Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his loyal love endures. ²Let those delivered by the Lord speak out, those whom he delivered from the power of the enemy ³and gathered from foreign lands, from east and west, from north and south. ⁴They wandered through the wilderness, in a wasteland; they found no road to a city in which to live. ⁵They were hungry and thirsty; they fainted from exhaustion. ⁶They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles. ⁷He led them on a level road that they might find a city in which to live. ⁸Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love and for the amazing things he has done for people. ⁹For he has satisfied those who thirst, and those who hunger he has filled with food. ¹⁰They sat in utter darkness, bound in painful iron chains¹¹because they had rebelled against God’s commands and rejected the instructions of the Most High.¹²So he used suffering to humble them; they stumbled and no one helped them up.¹³They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles. ¹⁴He brought them out of the utter darkness and tore off their shackles. ¹⁵Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love and for the amazing things he has done for people. ¹⁶For he shattered the bronze gates and hacked through the iron bars. ¹⁷They acted like fools in their rebellious ways and suffered because of their sins. ¹⁸They lost their appetite for all food, and they drew near the gates of death. ¹⁹They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles. ²⁰He sent them an assuring word and healed them; he rescued them from the pits where they were trapped.²¹Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love and for the amazing things he has done for people. ²²Let 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. ²⁴They witnessed the acts of the Lord, his amazing feats on the deep water.²⁵He gave the order for a windstorm, and it stirred up the waves of the sea.²⁶They reached up to the sky, then dropped into the depths. The sailors’ strength left them because the danger was so great.²⁷They swayed and staggered like drunks, and all their skill proved ineffective. ²⁸They cried out to the Lord in their distress; he delivered them from their troubles. ²⁹He calmed the storm, and the waves grew silent. ³⁰The sailors rejoiced because the waves grew quiet, and he led them to the harbor they desired. ³¹Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love and for the amazing things he has done for people. ³²Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people. Let them praise him in the place where the leaders preside. ³³He turned streams into a desert, springs of water into arid land, ³⁴and a fruitful land into a barren place, because of the sin of its inhabitants. ³⁵As for his people, he turned a desert into a pool of water and a dry land into springs of water. ³⁶He allowed the hungry to settle there, and they established a city in which to live. ³⁷They cultivated fields and planted vineyards, which yielded a harvest of fruit. ³⁸He blessed them so that they became very numerous. He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number.³⁹As for their enemies, they decreased in number and were beaten down, because of painful distress and suffering. ⁴⁰He would pour contempt upon princes, and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road. ⁴¹Yet he protected the needy from oppression and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.⁴²When the godly see this, they rejoice, and every sinner shuts his mouth. ⁴³Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things. Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love.