⁴ They are not suffering;
    they are healthy and strong.
⁵ They don’t have troubles like the rest of us;
    they don’t have problems like other people.
⁶ They wear pride like a necklace
    and put on violence as their clothing.
⁷ They are looking for profits
    and do not control their selfish desires.
⁸ They make fun of others and speak evil;
    proudly they speak of hurting others.
⁹ They brag to the sky.
    They say that they own the earth.
¹⁰ So their people turn to them
    and give them whatever they want.
¹¹ They say, “How can God know?
    What does God Most High know?”
¹² These people are wicked,
    always at ease, and getting richer.
¹³ So why have I kept my heart pure?
    Why have I kept my hands from doing wrong?
¹⁴ I have suffered all day long;
    I have been punished every morning.

¹⁵ God, if I had decided to talk like this,
    I would have let your people down.
¹⁶ I tried to understand all this,
    but it was too hard for me to see
¹⁷ until I went to the Temple of God.
    Then I understood what will happen to them.
¹⁸ You have put them in danger;
    you cause them to be destroyed.
¹⁹ They are destroyed in a moment;
    they are swept away by terrors.
²⁰ It will be like waking from a dream.
    Lord, when you rise up, they will disappear.

²¹ When my heart was sad
    and I was angry,
²² I was senseless and stupid.
    I acted like an animal toward you.
²³ But I am always with you;
    you have held my hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your advice,
    and later you will receive me in honor.
²⁵ I have no one in heaven but you;
    I want nothing on earth besides you.
²⁶ My body and my mind may become weak,
    but God is my strength.
    He is mine forever.

²⁷ Those who are far from God will die;
    you destroy those who are unfaithful.
²⁸ But I am close to God, and that is good.
    The Lord God is my protection.
    I will tell all that you have done.

⁴ You keep my eyes from closing.
    I am too upset to say anything.
⁵ I keep thinking about the old days,
    the years of long ago.
⁶ At night I remember my songs.
    I think and I ask myself:
⁷ “Will the Lord reject us forever?
    Will he never be kind to us again?
⁸ Is his love gone forever?
    Has he stopped speaking for all time?
⁹ Has God forgotten mercy?
    Is he too angry to pity us?” Selah
¹⁰ Then I say, “This is what makes me sad:
    For years the power of God Most High was with us.”

¹¹ I remember what the Lord did;
    I remember the miracles you did long ago.
¹² I think about all the things you did
    and consider your deeds.

¹³ God, your ways are holy.
    No god is as great as our God.
¹⁴ You are the God who does miracles;
    you have shown people your power.
¹⁵ By your power you have saved your people,
    the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

¹⁶ God, the waters saw you;
    they saw you and became afraid;
    the deep waters shook with fear.
¹⁷ The clouds poured down their rain.
    The sky thundered.
    Your lightning flashed back and forth like arrows.
¹⁸ Your thunder sounded in the whirlwind.
    Lightning lit up the world.
    The earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹ You made a way through the sea
    and paths through the deep waters,
    but your footprints were not seen.
²⁰ You led your people like a flock
    by using Moses and Aaron.

⁵ The Lord made an agreement with Jacob
    and gave the teachings to Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach to their children.
⁶ Then their children would know them,
    even their children not yet born.
    And they would tell their children.
⁷ So they would all trust God
    and would not forget what he had done
    but would obey his commands.
⁸ They would not be like their ancestors
    who were stubborn and disobedient.
Their hearts were not loyal to God,
    and they were not true to him.

⁹ The men of Ephraim had bows for weapons,
    but they ran away on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They didn’t keep their agreement with God
    and refused to live by his teachings.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done
    and the miracles he had shown them.
¹² He did miracles while their ancestors watched,
    in the fields of Zoan in Egypt.
¹³ He divided the Red Sea and led them through.
    He made the water stand up like a wall.
¹⁴ He led them with a cloud by day
    and by the light of a fire by night.
¹⁵ He split the rocks in the desert
    and gave them more than enough water, as if from the deep ocean.
¹⁶ He brought streams out of the rock
    and caused water to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ But the people continued to sin against him;
    in the desert they turned against God Most High.
¹⁸ They decided to test God
    by asking for the food they wanted.
¹⁹ Then they spoke against God,
    saying, “Can God prepare food in the desert?
²⁰ When he hit the rock, water poured out
    and rivers flowed down.
But can he give us bread also?
    Will he provide his people with meat?”
²¹ When the Lord heard them, he was very angry.
    His anger was like fire to the people of Jacob;
    his anger grew against the people of Israel.
²² They had not believed God
    and had not trusted him to save them.
²³ But he gave a command to the clouds above
    and opened the doors of heaven.
²⁴ He rained manna down on them to eat;
    he gave them grain from heaven.
²⁵ So they ate the bread of angels.
    He sent them all the food they could eat.
²⁶ He sent the east wind from heaven
    and led the south wind by his power.
²⁷ He rained meat on them like dust.
    The birds were as many as the sand of the sea.
²⁸ He made the birds fall inside the camp,
    all around the tents.
²⁹ So the people ate and became very full.
    God had given them what they wanted.
³⁰ While they were still eating,
    and while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ God became angry with them.
    He killed some of the healthiest of them;
    he struck down the best young men of Israel.

³² But they kept on sinning;
    they did not believe even with the miracles.
³³ So he ended their days without meaning
    and their years in terror.
³⁴ Anytime he killed them, they would look to him for help;
    they would come back to God and follow him.
³⁵ They would remember that God was their Rock,
    that God Most High had saved them.
³⁶ But their words were false,
    and their tongues lied to him.
³⁷ Their hearts were not really loyal to God;
    they did not keep his agreement.
³⁸ Still God was merciful.
    He forgave their sins
    and did not destroy them.
Many times he held back his anger
    and did not stir up all his anger.
³⁹ He remembered that they were only human,
    like a wind that blows and does not come back.

⁴⁰ They turned against God so often in the desert
    and grieved him there.
⁴¹ Again and again they tested God
    and brought pain to the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember his power
    or the time he saved them from the enemy.
⁴³ They forgot the signs he did in Egypt
    and his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood
    so no one could drink the water.
⁴⁵ He sent flies that bit the people.
    He sent frogs that destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to grasshoppers
    and what they worked for to locusts.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamore trees with sleet.
⁴⁸ He killed their animals with hail
    and their cattle with lightning.
⁴⁹ He showed them his hot anger.
    He sent his strong anger against them,
    his destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He found a way to show his anger.
    He did not keep them from dying
    but let them die by a terrible disease.
⁵¹ God killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt,
    the oldest son of each family of Ham.^[a]
52 But God led his people out like sheep
    and he guided them like a flock through the desert.
⁵³ He led them to safety so they had nothing to fear,
    but their enemies drowned in the sea.
⁵⁴ So God brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain country he took with his own power.
⁵⁵ He forced out the other nations,
    and he had his people inherit the land.
    He let the tribes of Israel settle there in tents.

⁵⁶ But they tested God
    and turned against God Most High;
    they did not keep his rules.
⁵⁷ They turned away and were disloyal just like their ancestors.
    They were like a crooked bow that does not shoot straight.
⁵⁸ They made God angry by building places to worship gods;
    they made him jealous with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard them, he became very angry
    and rejected the people of Israel completely.
⁶⁰ He left his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the Tent where he lived among the people.
⁶¹ He let the Ark, his power, be captured;
    he let the Ark, his glory, be taken by enemies.
⁶² He let his people be killed;
    he was very angry with his children.
⁶³ The young men died by fire,
    and the young women had no one to marry.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
    but their widows were not allowed to cry.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord got up as if he had been asleep;
    he awoke like a man who had been drunk with wine.
⁶⁶ He struck down his enemies
    and disgraced them forever.
⁶⁷ But God rejected the family of Joseph;
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah
    and Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ And he built his Temple high like the mountains.
    Like the earth, he built it to last forever.
⁷⁰ He chose David to be his servant
    and took him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹ He brought him from tending the sheep
    so he could lead the flock, the people of Jacob,
    his own people, the people of Israel.
⁷² And David led them with an innocent heart
    and guided them with skillful hands.