Psalms  ◦   Chapter 106

1Praise the Lord!
Pour forth your thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his perfect and life-giving love is everlasting.

2Who can adequately reveal the Lord’s infinite power of love and truth
or fully declare his beautiful character of love?

3Happy and healthy are those who live in harmony with God’s design-laws,
who continually do what is right.

4Remember me, O Lord: when you bring healing to your helpers,
bring your remedy also to me.

5Let me see your chosen helpers transformed,
that I may celebrate the joy of your people
and boast of your glory with those who belong to you.

6We have been selfish, even as our ancestors were;
we have broken your design of love and acted wickedly.

7Our ancestors in Egypt
did not appreciate what your mighty miracles revealed;
they did not remember your many acts of love,
and at the Red Sea they rebelled against your love and chose selfishness.

8Despite this, he delivered them, revealing his character of love
and making known his mighty power to save.

9He commanded the Red Sea, and it dried up;
he led them through where deep waters once were, on ground as dry as desert.

10He delivered them from the power of Satan (the one who hated them)
and from their true enemy — fear and selfishness — he provided freedom.

11The waters drowned their enemies;
not one of them survived.

12Then they believed his promises
and sang praises to him,

13but soon they forgot all he had done
and no longer waited for his instructions.

14In the desert they gave in to insatiable cravings
and demanded that God prove himself.

15So he gave them what they insisted upon,
but it only brought sickness upon them.

16In the camp the people became jealous of Moses and of Aaron —
the holy priest of the Lord.

17The earth split open and devoured Dathan;
it covered over the group led by Abiram.

18Fire burned through their followers;
flames consumed the wicked.

19At Sinai they made an image of a calf
and worshiped an idol made out of metal.

20They traded the glory of their infinite God
for an image of a grass-eating bull.

21They ignored and neglected the God who delivered them,
who performed mighty miracles in Egypt,

22wonderful things in the land of Ham
and awesome acts by the Red Sea.

23So he said he would destroy them,
but Moses, his chosen helper, did exactly what God foreknew —
in love, he argued for the Lord’s reputation,
and the Lord did not let them go or be destroyed.

24Then they refused to enter the rich and fruitful land;
they did not believe his promise.

25They stayed in their tents and complained
and would not follow the treatment-plan of the Lord.

26So he told them the unavoidable reality of what they had chosen:
having rejected his healing plan, they would die in the desert,

27and their descendants who reject his plan will die among the heathen,
scattered throughout the nations.

28They gave their hearts to Baal of Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to the lifeless idols.

29The Lord was angered by their self-destructive choices
but let them go their own way, and a plague broke out among them.

30But Phinehas took a stand and intervened to cut out the rebellious,
and the plague was stopped.

31His stand for God and rejection of Baal was recognized as right,
and all succeeding generations will agree.

32By the waters of Meribah they displeased the Lord,
and Moses suffered because of them;

33they irritated Moses
and he spoke impulsively, without thinking.

34They did not eradicate the incurable heathen peoples
as the Lord instructed them

35but joined and mixed with the pagan nations
and learned to think and act like them.

36They worshipped their false gods
and their hearts were enslaved by fear —
their minds were darkened and characters ruined.

37They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.

38They shed the blood of the innocent —
the blood of their own sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to appease the idols of Canaan,
until the entire country was corrupted by the belief in human sacrifice.

39By what they did, they seared their consciences and corrupted their characters;
they committed adultery by betraying God and giving their hearts to idols.

40The Lord was angry that his helpers chose to destroy their souls;
he was sickened watching his helpers degrade themselves.

41He let them go their way and surrendered them to the heathen,
and their enemies enslaved them.

42Their foes were cruel to them
and kept them under their power.

43Many times the Lord delivered them,
but their hearts were selfish, hardened in rebellion,
and they wasted away, dying in their terminal sin-sick state.

44But he saw how they suffered
and heard their cry for help.

45In mercy, he fulfilled his vow to them
and out of his great love he intervened in their behalf;

46he caused their captors
to treat them with kindness.

47Heal us, O Lord our Creator God,
gather us from the selfish world,
that we may give thanks to your perfection — your holy character of love —
and glorify and praise your character in our lives.

48Thanksgiving and adoration be to the Creator God of Israel
for all eternity and evermore.
Let all the people say, "So let it always be."
Praise the Lord!