Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
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Hallelujah! (a) Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.
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Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD or fully proclaim His praise?
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Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.
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Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,
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that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, and give glory with Your inheritance.
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We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
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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.(b)
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Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.
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He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.
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He saved them from the hand that hated them; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
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The waters covered their foes; not one of them remained.
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Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.
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Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.
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They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.
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So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.
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In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.
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The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.
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Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.
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At Horeb (c) they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.
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They exchanged their Glory (d) for the image of a grass-eating ox.
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They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,
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wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
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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.
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They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.
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They grumbled in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
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So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,
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to disperse (e) their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.
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They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.
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So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
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But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.
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It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.
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At the waters of Meribah (f) they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them.
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For they rebelled against His Spirit,(g) and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.
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They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,
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but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.
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They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
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They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
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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.
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They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
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So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.
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He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.
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Their enemies oppressed them, and subdued them under their hand.
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Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.
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Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.
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And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
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He made them objects of compassion to all who held them captive.
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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.
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Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!
Footnotes