Psalm 106

The Voice

⁴ Remember me, O Eternal One, when You show kindness to Your people;
    don’t forget me when You are saving them.
⁵ That way I can know how good it is to be Your chosen people;
    that way I can celebrate the joy of Your nation;
    that way I can join those who belong to You in unending praise.

⁶ Like our ancestors, we have sinned;
    we have done wicked things.
⁷ When our ancestors were leaving Egypt,
    they did not consider Your marvelous acts.
They forgot Your overwhelming kindness to them
    and instead rebelled at the Red Sea.^[a]
8 Nevertheless, God saved them for the honor of His name
    so He could show His power to the world.
⁹ He gave the order, and the waters of the Red Sea dried up,
    and He led the people across the sea floor as though it were the wilderness.
¹⁰ That’s how He liberated them from their enemies
    and rescued them from the hand of their oppressors.
¹¹ After that the sea surged and covered their foes,
    and every one of them drowned in its waters.
¹² When God’s people saw what He did, they believed what He said
    and they sang praises to Him.

¹³ But it didn’t take long for them to forget what He had done.
    They moved on without waiting for His instructions,
¹⁴ So our ancestors became very hungry in the wilderness
    and the rabble grumbled and complained, testing God’s patience in the desert.
¹⁵ Although He granted their request,
    He also sent a disease that caused them to waste away.

¹⁶ While they were camped in the desert, some began to be jealous of Moses
    and Aaron, the holy priest of the Eternal.
¹⁷ The earth opened up, and a deep fissure swallowed Dathan
    and buried Abiram’s group.
¹⁸ A blaze ignited where they were gathered;
    the fire consumed the wicked mob.

¹⁹ The people made a golden calf in Horeb
    and bowed to worship an image they had made.
²⁰ They traded the glory of God
    for the likeness of an ox that eats grass.
²¹ They forgot about God, their True Savior,
    who had done great things for them in Egypt—
²² Miracles in the land of Ham
    and amazing deeds at the Red Sea.
²³ Therefore, He declared in His anger that He would wipe them away.
    If Moses, His chosen one,
Had not pleaded for the people,
    His anger would have destroyed them.

²⁴ At the edge of the beautiful land God had promised them,
    they didn’t trust His words, so they refused to enter.
²⁵ They complained when they were gathered in their tents;
    they ignored the voice of the Eternal.
²⁶ Because of their attitude, He swore,
    “I’ll leave you where you fall in the desert.
²⁷ I’ll scatter your children—whoever is left—
    throughout the nations all over the earth.”

²⁸ Then they aligned themselves with the god of Peor,
    and they ate sacrifices that had been made to lifeless gods.
²⁹ Through their actions, they stirred up His anger,
    and a plague broke out in their midst.
³⁰ Then Phinehas took a stand and intervened,
    so the plague was stopped.
³¹ And God saw what he did and considered him righteous,
    a man to be honored by all generations forever.

³² Again they stirred up His anger at the waters of Meribah,
    and serious trouble came to Moses because of them;
³³ Because they stood against the Spirit,
    Moses spoke rashly with them.

³⁴ Later, after they entered the promised land, they did not eradicate the peoples,
    as the Eternal had ordered them to do,
³⁵ But they mixed and married with the outsider nations,
    adopted their practices,
³⁶ And worshiped their idols,
    which entrapped them.
³⁷ They even offered their sons
    and daughters as sacrifices to the demons.
³⁸ The promised land was corrupted by the innocent blood
    they offered to the idols of Canaan,
The blood of their very own sons and daughters.
³⁹ They became impure because of their unfaithful works;
    by their actions, they prostituted themselves to other gods.

⁴⁰ Therefore the Eternal’s anger was ignited against His people;
    He came to despise the people of His inheritance.
⁴¹ So He handed them over to the control of foreign nations,
    to be ruled by people who hated them.
⁴² Their enemies exploited them, victimized them,
    and restrained them by abusive power.
⁴³ He delivered them over and over again;
    however, they were slow to learn and deliberately rebelled.
    Their sins humbled them and nearly destroyed them.
⁴⁴ Nevertheless, He saw their great struggle, took pity on them,
    and heard their prayers;
⁴⁵ He did not forget His covenant promises to them
    but reversed their fortune and released them from their punishment
    because of His loyal love.
⁴⁶ He changed the hearts of all who held them captive
    so that they would show compassion on them.

⁴⁷ Save us, O Eternal One our God,
    and gather us who are scattered among all the nations,
That we may give thanks to Your holy name
    and celebrate Your amazing greatness with praise.

⁴⁸ Blessed be the Eternal, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
And let everyone say, “Amen!”
    Praise the Eternal!