Psalms 104-106

Psalm 104

¹Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

²He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent,

³laying the beams of His chambers in the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind.

⁴He makes the winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants.

⁵He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.

⁶You covered it with the deep like a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

⁷At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—

⁸the mountains rose and the valleys sank to the place You assigned for them—

⁹You set a boundary they cannot cross, that they may never again cover the earth.

¹⁰He sends forth springs in the valleys; they flow between the mountains.

¹¹They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

¹²The birds of the air nest beside the springs; they sing among the branches.

¹³He waters the mountains from His chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works.

¹⁴He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:

¹⁵wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

¹⁶The trees of the LORD have their fill, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted,

¹⁷where the birds build their nests; the stork makes her home in the cypresses.

¹⁸The high mountains are for the wild goats, the cliffs a refuge for the rock badgers.

¹⁹He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows when to set.

²⁰You bring darkness, and it becomes night, when all the beasts of the forest prowl.

²¹The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

²²The sun rises, and they withdraw; they lie down in their dens.

²³Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening.

²⁴How many are Your works, O LORD! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.

²⁵Here is the sea, vast and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both great and small.

²⁶There the ships pass, and Leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.

²⁷All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.

²⁸When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

²⁹When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.

³⁰When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.

³¹May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in His works.

³²He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smolder.

³³I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

³⁴May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the LORD.

³⁵May sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Hallelujah!

Psalm 105

¹Give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the nations.

²Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonders.

³Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

⁴Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.

⁵Remember the wonders He has done, His marvels, and the judgments He has pronounced,

⁶O offspring of His servant Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.

⁷He is the LORD our God; His judgments carry throughout the earth.

⁸He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—

⁹the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.

¹⁰He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant:

¹¹“I will give you the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.”

¹²When they were few in number, few indeed, and strangers in the land,

¹³they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another.

¹⁴He let no man oppress them; He rebuked kings on their behalf:

¹⁵“Do not touch My anointed ones! Do no harm to My prophets!”

¹⁶He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.

¹⁷He sent a man before them— Joseph, sold as a slave.

¹⁸They bruised his feet with shackles and placed his neck in irons,

¹⁹until his prediction came true and the word of the LORD proved him right.

²⁰The king sent and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free.

²¹He made him master of his household, ruler over all his substance,

²²to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom.

²³Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.

²⁴And the LORD made His people very fruitful, more numerous than their foes,

²⁵whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants.

²⁶He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

²⁷They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸He sent darkness, and it became dark— yet they defied His words.

²⁹He turned their waters to blood and caused their fish to die.

³⁰Their land teemed with frogs, even in their royal chambers.

³¹He spoke, and insects swarmed— gnats throughout their country.

³²He gave them hail for rain, with lightning throughout their land.

³³He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country.

³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came— young locusts without number.

³⁵They devoured every plant in their land and consumed the produce of their soil.

³⁶Then He struck all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their vigor.

³⁷He brought Israel out with silver and gold, and none among His tribes stumbled.

³⁸Egypt was glad when they departed, for the dread of Israel had fallen on them.

³⁹He spread a cloud as a covering and a fire to light up the night.

⁴⁰They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

⁴¹He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.

⁴²For He remembered His holy promise to Abraham His servant.

⁴³He brought forth His people with rejoicing, His chosen with shouts of joy.

⁴⁴He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor,

⁴⁵that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!

Psalm 106

¹Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

²Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD or fully proclaim His praise?

³Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

⁴Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

⁵that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance.

⁶We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

⁷Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.

⁸Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.

⁹He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

¹⁰He saved them from the hand that hated them; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹¹The waters covered their foes; not one of them remained.

¹²Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.

¹³Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

¹⁴They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

¹⁵So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

¹⁶In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

¹⁷The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.

¹⁸Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

¹⁹At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.

²⁰They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

²¹They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

²²wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

²³So 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.

²⁴They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.

²⁵They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

²⁶So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,

²⁷to disperse their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

²⁸They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

²⁹So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.

³¹It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

³²At the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them.

³³For they rebelled against His Spirit, and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,

³⁵but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

³⁶They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

³⁷They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

³⁸They 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.

³⁹They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

⁴⁰So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

⁴¹He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies oppressed them, and subdued them under their hand.

⁴³Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

⁴⁵And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

⁴⁶He made them objects of compassion to all who held them captive.

⁴⁷Save 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.

⁴⁸Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!