Psalm 106

W. van der Kamp, 1972; rev.

1. O thank the LORD, bring Him your praise,
   Extol His goodness all your days;
   His steadfast love endures forever.
   Who can His mighty deeds profess?
   Blest those who right and truth endeavor,
   Who at all times do righteousness!
   
2. Remember me, O LORD, when Thou
   Thy own with favor dost endow;
   When Thou dost save them, me deliver,
   That with Thy flock I may engage
   In praising Thee, O gracious Giver,
   And glory with Thy heritage.
   
3. Both we and all our fathers, LORD,
   Have done the sins by Thee abhorred;
   Iniquity we have committed
   And we have acted wickedly;
   Yet often hast Thou us acquitted
   Though we did not remember Thee.
   
4. Our fathers, failing to recall
   God’s wondrous works for Israel,
   How He with blessings would provide them,
   Did His abounding love deny;
   They at the Red Sea shore defied Him,
   Rebelled against the LORD Most High.
   
5. Yet for the sake of His great Name,
   His mighty power to proclaim,
   The roaring waves He then divided.
   At His rebuke the Red Sea fled;
   As through a desert they were guided,
   And through the deep they went ahead.
   
6. Their enemy God put to rout;
   He set them free and led them out.
   Before His ire all Egypt cowered;
   Not one escaped His anger’s blaze.
   His people’s foes the sea devoured.
   Then they believed and sang His praise.
   
7. His works and words they soon forgot;
   Against His counsel they did plot,
   And Him with lustful cravings taunted.
   They put their Savior to the test,
   And when He gave them all they wanted,
   He scourged them with a deadly pest.
   
8. When jealous men in envy rose
   God’s chosen leaders to oppose,
   The earth beneath them split, and swallowed
   Those who with Dathan did conspire,
   And who Abiram’s lead had followed.
   The wicked perished in the fire.
   
9. At Horeb’s mount a calf they made
   And to a molten image prayed.
   They had for it exchanged God’s splendor,
   The glory nothing can surpass.
   They, scorning God, their great Defender,
   Revered a bullock eating grass.
   
10. Their God and Savior they forgot,
    He who had changed their dreary lot,
    Who showed to Egypt all His power,
    His wondrous works and majesty,
    Who made the land of Ham to cower
    With dreadful things at the Red Sea.
    
11. There fore He said He would wipe out
    His people who His will did flout.
    But Moses, whom He had elected,
    Stood in the breach God’s wrath to stem,
    That Israel might be protected
    Against the anger threatening them.
    
12. Then they despised the pleasant land
    And trusted not His mighty hand.
    His steadfast promise not believing,
    They sulked and grumbled in their tents.
    The LORD with disobedience grieving,
    His word and will they did resent.
    
13. He swore that He would slay them all,
    That in the desert they would fall
    Because of all their provocations,
    And that their sons at His command
    Would be dispersed among the nations,
    And scattered over all the lands.
    
14. By Baal Peor’s lure misled,
    They ate from offers for the dead,
    Provoked the LORD, who never wronged them.
    He saw their deeds, His wrath arose;
    A deadly plague broke out among them,
    Because they Midian’s idol chose.
    
15. Then Phin’has rose to intervene;
    The plague was stayed when God had seen
    How he denounced their provocations
    And chastised them for wickedness.
    It has been through all generations
    Accounted him for righteousness.
    
16. At Meribah they spurned God’s will,
    And there with Moses it went ill.
    Embittered by their profanations,
    God’s envious wrath he did provoke
    When, roused by burning indignation,
    With rashness angry words he spoke.
    
17. They disobeyed the LORD’s command
    To slay the peoples of the land,
    But there they mingled with the nations.
    They learned how in their sins to share,
    Served Canaan’s vain abominations;
    Its gods became for them a snare.
    
18. God saw how they, to sin enticed,
    Their sons and daughters sacrificed,
    Their own to evil demons offered,
    How they the blood of innocents
    To evil gods of Canaan proffered
    And paid to idols reverence.
    
19. To Canaan’s idols, gods of vice,
    They gave their sons as sacrifice;
    The land was with their blood polluted;
    By unclean acts for all to see,
    God’s cov’nant bond they prostituted
    And played the harlot openly.
    
20. Then did the LORD stand up in rage
    And He abhorred His heritage;
    Surrend’ring Israel to the nations,
    The LORD to slavery did condemn
    Those who had roused His indignation.
    Their enemies ruled over them.
    
21. Time after time He set them free,
    Though they did never bend their knee
    But were rebellious and defied Him.
    They sank into iniquity;
    God made their enemies deride them
    Till they lamented bitterly.
    
22. Then He regarded their distress,
    He heard their cry and gave redress;
    God in His steadfast love relented.
    No longer did He those condemn
    Who of their evils had repented.
    He caused their foes to pity them.
    
23. Save us, O LORD our God, we pray,
    Bring back Thy people gone astray,
    And take them from among the nations,
    That to Thy great and holy Name
    We may give thanks with jubilation
    And glory in Thy wondrous fame.
    
24. Blest be the God of Israel
    Whose deeds in majesty excel;
    From age to age praise Him forever.
    Let all the people “Amen!” say,
    Extol His Name, who fails us never.
    Praise Him, the LORD our God, for aye!