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Olive Trees. Vincent van Gogh, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, November 1889. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Psalm 106

48 verses · Historical psalm of confession

They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

The line breaks below follow the poem's own punctuation.

Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;His loving devotion endures forever.

Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD or fully proclaim His praise?

Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance.

We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.

Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;He led them through the depths as through a desert.

He saved them from the hand that hated them;He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

The waters covered their foes; not one of them remained.

Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.

Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.

Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.

They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,

to disperse their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.

It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

At the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them.

For they rebelled against His Spirit, and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,

but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies oppressed them, and subdued them under their hand.

Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

Nevertheless He heard their cry;He took note of their distress.

And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

He made them objects of compassion to all who held them captive.

Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name, that we may glory in Your praise.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!

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