Psalm - The Old Testament

¹ Alleluia! Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good, his faithful love lasts for ever.

² So let them say whom Yahweh redeemed, whom he redeemed from the power of their enemies,

³ bringing them back from foreign lands, from east and west, north and south.

⁴ They were wandering in the desert, in the wastelands, could find no way to an inhabited city;

⁵ they were hungry and thirsty, their life was ebbing away.

⁶ They cried out to Yahweh in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,

⁷ he set them on the road, straight to an inhabited city.

⁸ Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!

⁹ He has fed the hungry to their hearts' content, filled the starving with good things.

¹⁰ Sojourners in gloom and shadow dark as death, fettered in misery and chains,

¹¹ for defying the orders of Yahweh, for scorning the plan of the Most High-

¹² he subdued their spirit by hard labour; if they fell there was no one to help.

¹³ They cried out to Yahweh in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,

¹⁴ he brought them out from gloom and shadow dark as death, and shattered their chains.

¹⁵ Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!

¹⁶ He broke open gates of bronze and smashed iron bars.

¹⁷ Fools for their rebellious ways, wretched because of their sins,

¹⁸ finding all food repugnant, brought close to the gates of death-

¹⁹ they cried out to Yahweh in their distress; he rescued them from their plight,

²⁰ he sent out his word and cured them, and rescued their life from the abyss.

²¹ Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!

²² Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and recount with shouts of joy what he has done!

²³ Voyagers on the sea in ships, plying their trade on the great ocean,

²⁴ have seen the works of Yahweh, his wonders in the deep.

²⁵ By his word he raised a storm-wind, lashing up towering waves.

²⁶ Up to the sky then down to the depths! Their stomachs were turned to water;

²⁷ they staggered and reeled like drunkards, and all their skill went under.

²⁸ They cried out to Yahweh in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,

²⁹ he reduced the storm to a calm, and all the waters subsided,

³⁰ and he brought them, overjoyed at the stillness, to the port where they were bound.

³¹ Let them thank Yahweh for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!

³² Let them extol him in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the council of elders.

³³ He has turned rivers into desert, bubbling springs into arid ground,

³⁴ fertile country into salt-flats, because the people living there were evil.

³⁵ But he has turned desert into stretches of water, arid ground into bubbling springs,

³⁶ and has given the hungry a home, where they have built themselves a city.

³⁷ There they sow fields and plant vines, and reap a harvest of their produce.

³⁸ He blesses them and their numbers increase, he keeps their cattle at full strength.

³⁹ Their numbers had fallen, they had grown weak, under pressure of disaster and hardship;

⁴⁰ he covered princes in contempt, left them to wander in trackless wastes.

⁴¹ But the needy he raises from their misery, makes their families as numerous as sheep.

⁴² At the sight the honest rejoice, and the wicked have nothing to say.

⁴³ Who is wise? Such a one should take this to heart, and come to understand Yahweh's faithful love.