The Unfaithfulness of God’s People

1Hallelujah!

Give thanks to the LORD,

since he is good,

for his gracious love exists forever.

2Who can fully describe the mighty acts of the LORD

or proclaim all his praises?

3How happy are those who enforce justice,

who live righteously all the time.

4Remember me, LORD,

when you show favor to your people.

Visit us with your deliverance,

5to witness the prosperity of your chosen ones,

to rejoice in your nation’s joy,

to glory in your inheritance.

6We have sinned, along with our ancestors;

we have committed iniquity and wickedness.

7In Egypt, our ancestors neither comprehended your awesome deeds

nor remembered your abundant gracious love.

Instead, they rebelled beside the sea, the Reeda Sea.

8He delivered for the sake of his name,b

to make his power known.

9He shouted at the Reedc Sea and it dried up;

and led them through the sea as though through a desert.

10He delivered them from the power of their foe;

redeeming them from the power of their enemy.

11The water overwhelmed their enemies,

so that not one of them survived.d

12Then they believed his word

and sung his praise.

13But they quickly forgot his deeds

and did not wait for his counsel.

14They were overwhelmed with craving in the wilderness,

so God tested them in the wasteland.

15God granted them their request,

but sent leanness into their lives.

16They were envious of Moses in the camp,

and of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

17The earth opened and swallowed Dathan,

closing over Abiram’s clan.

18Then a fire burned among their company,

a flame that set the wicked ablaze.

19They fashioned a calf at Horeb

and worshipped a carved image.

20They exchanged their glorye

with the image of a grass-eating bull.

21They forgot God their Savior,

who performed great things in Egypt—

22awesome deeds in the land of Ham,f

astonishing deeds at the Reedg Sea.

23He would have destroyed them

but for Moses, his chosen one,

who stood in the breach before him

to averth his destructive wrath.

24They rejected the desirable land,

and they didn’t trust his promise.

25They murmured in their tents,

and didn’t listen to the voice of the LORD.

26So he swore an oath concerning them—

that he would cause them to die in the wilderness,

27to cause their children to perish among the nations

and be scattered among manyi lands.

28For they adopted the worshipj of Baal Peor

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

29They had provoked anger by their deeds,

so that a plague broke out against them.

30But Phinehas intervened and prayed

so that the plague was restrained.

31And it was credited to him as a righteous act,

from generation to generation—to eternity.

32They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah,

and Moses sufferedk on account of them.

33For they rebelled against him,l

so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.

34They never destroyed the people,

as the LORD had commanded them.

35Instead, they mingled among the nations

and learned their ways.m

36They worshippedn their idols,

and this became a trap for them.

37They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.

38They shed innocent blood—

the blood of their sons and daughters—

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,

thereby polluting the land with blood.

39Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did;

they have acted like whores by their evil deeds.

40The LORD’s anger burned against his people,

so that he despised his own inheritance.

41He turned them over to domination by nations

where those who hated them ruled over them.

42Their enemies oppressed them,

so that they were humiliated by their power.

43He delivered them many times,

but they demonstrated rebellion by their evil plans;

therefore they sunk deep in their sins.

44Yet when he saw their distress

and heard their cries for help,o

45he remembered his covenant with them,

and so relented

according to the greatness of his gracious love.

46He caused all their captors to show compassion toward them.

47Deliver us, LORD our God,

gather us from among the nations

so we may praise your holy name

and rejoice in praising you.

48Blessed are you, LORD God of Israel,

from eternity to eternity;

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Hallelujah!