Psalm 105-106

Good News Translation

⁷ The Lord is our God;
    his commands are for all the world.
⁸ He will keep his covenant forever,
    his promises for a thousand generations.
^9 (B)He will keep the agreement he made with Abraham
    and his promise to Isaac.
^10 (C)The Lord made a covenant with Jacob,
    one that will last forever.
¹¹ “I will give you the land of Canaan,” he said.
    “It will be your own possession.”

¹² God's people were few in number,
    strangers in the land of Canaan.
¹³ They wandered from country to country,
    from one kingdom to another.
^14 (D)But God let no one oppress them;
    to protect them, he warned the kings:
¹⁵ “Don't harm my chosen servants;
    do not touch my prophets.”

^16 (E)The Lord sent famine to their country
    and took away all their food.
^17 (F)But he sent a man ahead of them,
    Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
^18 (G)His feet were kept in chains,
    and an iron collar was around his neck,
¹⁹     until what he had predicted came true.
The word of the Lord proved him right.
^20 (H)Then the king of Egypt had him released;
    the ruler of nations set him free.
^21 (I)He put him in charge of his government
    and made him ruler over all the land,
²²     with power over the king's officials
    and authority to instruct his advisers.

^23 (J)Then Jacob went to Egypt
    and settled in that country.
^24 (K)The Lord gave many children to his people
    and made them stronger than their enemies.
²⁵ He made the Egyptians hate his people
    and treat his servants with deceit.

^26 (L)Then he sent his servant Moses,
    and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They did God's mighty acts
    and performed miracles in Egypt.
^28 (M)God sent darkness on the country,
    but the Egyptians did not obey^[a] his command.
^29 (N)He turned their rivers into blood
    and killed all their fish.
^30 (O)Their country was overrun with frogs;
    even the palace was filled with them.
^31 (P)God commanded, and flies and gnats
    swarmed throughout the whole country.
^32 (Q)He sent hail and lightning on their land
    instead of rain;
³³ he destroyed their grapevines and fig trees
    and broke down all the trees.
^34 (R)He commanded, and the locusts came,
    countless millions of them;
³⁵ they ate all the plants in the land;
    they ate all the crops.
^36 (S)He killed the first-born sons
    of all the families of Egypt.

^37 (T)Then he led the Israelites out;
    they carried silver and gold,
    and all of them were healthy and strong.
³⁸ The Egyptians were afraid of them
    and were glad when they left.
^39 (U)God put a cloud over his people
    and a fire at night to give them light.
^40 (V)They^[b] asked, and he sent quails;
    he gave them food from heaven to satisfy them.
^41 (W)He opened a rock, and water gushed out,
    flowing through the desert like a river.
⁴² He remembered his sacred promise
    to Abraham his servant.

⁴³ So he led his chosen people out,
    and they sang and shouted for joy.
^44 (X)He gave them the lands of other peoples
    and let them take over their fields,
⁴⁵ so that his people would obey his laws
    and keep all his commands.

Praise the Lord!

⁴ Remember me, Lord, when you help your people;
    include me when you save them.
⁵ Let me see the prosperity of your people
    and share in the happiness of your nation,
    in the glad pride of those who belong to you.

⁶ We have sinned as our ancestors did;
    we have been wicked and evil.
^7 (Z)Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God's wonderful acts;
    they forgot the many times he showed them his love,
    and they rebelled against the Almighty^[c] at the Red Sea.
⁸ But he saved them, as he had promised,
    in order to show his great power.
^9 (AA)He gave a command to the Red Sea,
    and it dried up;
    he led his people across on dry land.
¹⁰ He saved them from those who hated them;
    he rescued them from their enemies.
¹¹ But the water drowned their enemies;
    not one of them was left.
^12 (AB)Then his people believed his promises
    and sang praises to him.

¹³ But they quickly forgot what he had done
    and acted without waiting for his advice.
^14 (AC)They were filled with craving in the desert
    and put God to the test;
¹⁵ so he gave them what they asked for,
    but also sent a terrible disease among them.

^16 (AD)There in the desert they were jealous of Moses
    and of Aaron, the Lord's holy servant.
¹⁷ Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan
    and buried Abiram and his family;
¹⁸ fire came down on their followers
    and burned up those wicked people.

^19 (AE)They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai
    and worshiped that idol;
²⁰ they exchanged the glory of God
    for the image of an animal that eats grass.
²¹ They forgot the God who had saved them
    by his mighty acts in Egypt.
²² What wonderful things he did there!
    What amazing things at the Red Sea!
²³ When God said that he would destroy his people,
    his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God
    and kept his anger from destroying them.

^24 (AF)Then they rejected the pleasant land,
    because they did not believe God's promise.
²⁵ They stayed in their tents and grumbled
    and would not listen to the Lord.
²⁶ So he have them a solemn warning
    that he would make them die in the desert
^27 (AG)and scatter their descendants among the heathen,
    letting them die in foreign countries.

^28 (AH)Then at Peor, God's people joined in the worship of Baal
    and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
²⁹ They stirred up the Lord's anger by their actions,
    and a terrible disease broke out among them.
³⁰ But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,
    and the plague was stopped.
³¹ This has been remembered in his favor ever since
    and will be for all time to come.

^32 (AI)At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry,
    and Moses was in trouble on their account.
³³ They made him so bitter
    that he spoke without stopping to think.

^34 (AJ)They did not kill the heathen,
    as the Lord had commanded them to do,
³⁵ but they intermarried with them
    and adopted their pagan ways.
³⁶ God's people worshiped idols,
    and this caused their destruction.
^37 (AK)They offered their own sons and daughters
    as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
^38 (AL)They killed those innocent children,
    and the land was defiled by those murders.
³⁹ They made themselves impure by their actions
    and were unfaithful to God.

^40 (AM)So the Lord was angry with his people;
    he was disgusted with them.
⁴¹ He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,
    and their enemies ruled over them.
⁴² They were oppressed by their enemies
    and were in complete subjection to them.
⁴³ Many times the Lord rescued his people,
    but they chose to rebel against him
    and sank deeper into sin.
⁴⁴ Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out,
    and he took notice of their distress.
⁴⁵ For their sake he remembered his covenant,
    and because of his great love he relented.
⁴⁶ He made all their oppressors
    feel sorry for them.

^47 (AN)Save us, O Lord our God,
    and bring us back from among the nations,
so that we may be thankful
    and praise your holy name.

⁴⁸ Praise the Lord, the God of Israel;
    praise him now and forever!
    Let everyone say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord!