Dual Panel1PRAISE the LORD. It is good to give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures for ever.
2Who can tell of the LORD's mighty acts and make all his praises heard?
3Happy are they who act justly, who do what is right at all times!
4Remember me, LORD, when you show favour to your people; look on me when you save them,
5that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in your nation's joy and exult with your own people.
6Like our forefathers we have sinned, we have gone astray and done wrong.
7Our forefathers in Egypt disregarded your marvels; they were not mindful of your many acts of love, and on their journey they rebelled by the Red Sea.
8Yet the LORD delivered them for his name's sake and so made known his mighty power.
9He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led his people through the deep as through a desert.
10He delivered them from those who hated them, and rescued them from the enemy's hand.
11The waters closed over their adversaries; not one of them survived.
12Then they believed what he had said and sang his praises.
13But they soon forgot all he had done and would not wait to hear his counsel;
14their greed was insatiable in the wilderness, there in the desert they tried God's patience.
15He gave them what they asked, but followed it with a wasting sickness.
16In the camp they were envious of Moses, and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the LORD.
17The earth opened and swallowed Dathan; it closed over the company of Abiram.
18Fire raged through their company; the wicked perished in flames.
19At Horeb they made a calf and worshipped this image;
20they exchanged their God for the image of a bull that feeds on grass.
21They forgot God their deliverer, who had done great things in Egypt,
22such marvels in the land of Ham, awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23So he purposed to destroy them, but Moses, the man he had chosen, stood before him in the breach to prevent his wrath from destroying them.
24Disbelieving his promise, they rejected the pleasant land.
25They muttered treason in their tents, and would not obey the LORD.
26So with hand uplifted against them he made an oath to strike them down in the wilderness,
27to scatter their descendants among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.
28They joined in worshipping the Baal of Peor and ate meat sacrificed to lifeless gods.
29Their deeds provoked the LORD to anger, and plague broke out amongst them;
30but Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked.
31This was counted to him as righteousness throughout the generations ever afterwards.
32They roused the LORD's anger at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses because of them;
33for when they had embittered his spirit he spoke rashly.
34They did not destroy the nations as the LORD had commanded them to do,
35but they associated with the people and learnt their ways;
36they worshipped their idols and were ensnared by them.
37Their sons and their daughters they sacrificed to foreign deities;
38they shed innocent blood, the blood of sons and daughters offered to the gods of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
39Thus they defiled themselves by their actions and were faithless in their conduct.
40Then the LORD became angry with his people and, though they were his own chosen nation, he loathed them;
41he handed them over to the nations, and they were ruled by their foes;
42their enemies oppressed them and kept them in subjection to their power.
43Time and again he came to their rescue, but they were rebellious in their designs, and so were brought low by their wrongdoing.
44Yet when he heard them wail and cry aloud he looked with pity on their distress;
45he called to mind his covenant with them and, in his boundless love, relented;
46he roused compassion for them in the hearts of all their captors.
47Deliver us, LORD our God, and gather us in from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and make your praise our pride.
48Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say “Amen.” Praise the LORD.