psalm

Psalm 106

Israel’s Unfaithfulness to God

Hallelujah!

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;

His faithful love endures forever.

Who can declare the Lord’s mighty acts

or proclaim all the praise due Him?

How happy are those who uphold justice,

who practice righteousness at all times.

Remember me, Lord,

when You show favor to Your people.

Come to me with Your salvation

so that I may enjoy the prosperity

of Your chosen ones,

rejoice in the joy of Your nation,

and boast about Your heritage.

Both we and our fathers have sinned;

we have done wrong and have acted wickedly.

Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp

the significance of Your wonderful works

or remember Your many acts of faithful love;

instead, they rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.

Yet He saved them because of His name,

to make His power known.

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;

He led them through the depths as through a desert.

10 He saved them from the hand of the adversary;

He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

11 Water covered their foes;

not one of them remained.

12 Then they believed His promises

and sang His praise.

13 They soon forgot His works

and would not wait for His counsel.

14 They were seized with craving in the wilderness

and tested God in the desert.

15 He gave them what they asked for,

but sent a wasting disease among them.

16 In the camp they were envious of Moses

and of Aaron, the Lord’s holy one.

17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;

it covered the assembly of Abiram.

18 Fire blazed throughout their assembly;

flames consumed the wicked.

19 At Horeb they made a calf

and worshiped the cast metal image.

20 They exchanged their glory[a][b]

for the image of a grass-eating ox.

21 They forgot God their Savior,

who did great things in Egypt,

22 wonderful works in the land of Ham,[c]

awe-inspiring acts at the Red Sea.

23 So He said He would have destroyed them—

if Moses His chosen one

had not stood before Him in the breach

to turn His wrath away from destroying them.

24 They despised the pleasant land

and did not believe His promise.

25 They grumbled in their tents

and did not listen to the Lord’s voice.

26 So He raised His hand against them with an oath

that He would make them fall in the desert

27 and would disperse their descendants[d]

among the nations,

scattering them throughout the lands.

28 They aligned themselves with Baal of Peor

and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.[e]

29 They provoked the Lord with their deeds,

and a plague broke out against them.

30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,

and the plague was stopped.

31 It was credited to him as righteousness

throughout all generations to come.

32 They angered the Lord at the waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered[f] because of them;

33 for they embittered his spirit,[g]

and he spoke rashly with his lips.

34 They did not destroy the peoples

as the Lord had commanded them

35 but mingled with the nations

and adopted their ways.

36 They served their idols,

which became a snare to them.

37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.

38 They shed innocent blood—

the blood of their sons and daughters

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;

so the land became polluted with blood.

39 They defiled themselves by their actions

and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

40 Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against His people,

and He abhorred His own inheritance.

41 He handed them over to the nations;

those who hated them ruled them.

42 Their enemies oppressed them,

and they were subdued under their power.

43 He rescued them many times,

but they continued to rebel deliberately

and were beaten down by their sin.

44 When He heard their cry,

He took note of their distress,

45 remembered His covenant with them,

and relented according to the riches

of His faithful love.

46 He caused them to be pitied

before all their captors.

47 Save us, Yahweh our God,

and gather us from the nations,

so that we may give thanks to Your holy name

and rejoice in Your praise.

48 May Yahweh, the God of Israel, be praised

from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Hallelujah!

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 106:20 Alt Jewish tradition reads His or My glory
  2. Psalm 106:20 = God
  3. Psalm 106:22 = Egypt
  4. Psalm 106:27 Syr; MT reads would make their descendants fall
  5. Psalm 106:28 Lit sacrifices for dead ones
  6. Psalm 106:32 Lit and it was evil for Moses
  7. Psalm 106:33 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Jer; other Hb mss read they rebelled against His Spirit