Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

¹iPraise the Lord!

jOh give thanks to the Lord, kfor he is good,

lfor his steadfast love endures forever!

²Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord,

or declare all his praise?

³Blessed are they who observe justice,

who mdo righteousness at all times!

⁴nRemember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;

help me when you save them,1

⁵that I may look upon the prosperity of your ochosen ones,

that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,

that I may glory with your inheritance.

⁶pBoth we and qour fathers have sinned;

we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.

⁷Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,

did not consider your wondrous works;

they rdid not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,

but srebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

⁸Yet he saved them tfor his name's sake,

uthat he might make known his mighty power.

⁹He vrebuked the Red Sea, and it wbecame dry,

and he xled them through the deep as through a desert.

¹⁰So he ysaved them from the hand of the foe

and zredeemed them from the power of the enemy.

¹¹And athe waters covered their adversaries;

not one of them was left.

¹²Then bthey believed his words;

they csang his praise.

¹³But they soon dforgot his works;

they did not wait for ehis counsel.

¹⁴But they had fa wanton craving in the wilderness,

and gput God to the test in the desert;

¹⁵he hgave them what they asked,

but sent ia wasting disease among them.

¹⁶When men in the camp jwere jealous of Moses

and Aaron, kthe holy one of the Lord,

¹⁷lthe earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,

and covered the company of Abiram.

¹⁸mFire also broke out in their company;

the flame burned up the wicked.

¹⁹They nmade a calf in Horeb

and worshiped a metal image.

²⁰They oexchanged the glory of God2

for the image of an ox that eats grass.

²¹They pforgot God, their Savior,

who had done great things in Egypt,

²²wondrous works in qthe land of Ham,

and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

²³Therefore rhe said he would destroy them—

had not Moses, his schosen one,

tstood in the breach before him,

to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

²⁴Then they udespised vthe pleasant land,

having wno faith in his promise.

²⁵They xmurmured in their tents,

and did not obey the voice of the Lord.

²⁶Therefore he yraised his hand and swore to them

that he would make them fall in the wilderness,

²⁷and would make their offspring fall among the nations,

zscattering them among the lands.

²⁸Then they ayoked themselves to the aBaal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to bthe dead;

²⁹they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds,

and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰Then cPhinehas stood up and intervened,

and the plague was stayed.

³¹And that was dcounted to him as righteousness

from generation to generation forever.

³²They eangered him at the waters of Meribah,

and it went ill with Moses on their account,

³³for they fmade his spirit bitter,3

and he gspoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴They did not hdestroy the peoples,

ias the Lord commanded them,

³⁵but they jmixed with the nations

and learned to do as they did.

³⁶They served their idols,

which became ka snare to them.

³⁷They lsacrificed their sons

and their daughters to mthe demons;

³⁸they poured out innocent blood,

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,

and the land was npolluted with blood.

³⁹Thus they obecame unclean by their acts,

and pplayed the whore in their deeds.

⁴⁰Then qthe anger of the Lord was kindled against rhis people,

and he abhorred his rheritage;

⁴¹he sgave them into the hand of the nations,

so that those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies toppressed them,

and they were brought into subjection under their power.

⁴³uMany times he delivered them,

but they were rebellious in their vpurposes

and were wbrought low through their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,

when he xheard their cry.

⁴⁵For their sake he yremembered his covenant,

and zrelented according to athe abundance of his steadfast love.

⁴⁶He caused them to be bpitied

by all those who held them captive.

⁴⁷cSave us, O Lord our God,

and dgather us from among the nations,

that we may give thanks to your holy name

and glory in your praise.

⁴⁸eBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting!

eAnd let all the people say, “Amen!”

fPraise the Lord!