Commentary on Psalms - Volume 5

1Celebrate Jehovah, for he is good; For to everlasting is his mercy.

2Who shall express the mighty acts of Jehovah? Who shall declare all his praise?

3Blessed are they who keep judgment, Blessed is he who doeth righteousness at all times.

4Remember me, O Jehovah! with the good will [which thou bearest towards] thy people. Visit me with thy salvation;

5That I may see the good of thy chosen ones, That I may rejoice in the joy of thy nation, That I may glory with thy heritage.

6We have sinned with our fathers, We have acted iniquitously, we have done wickedly.

7Our fathers in Egypt understood not thy wonders; They remembered not the multitude of thy kindnesses; And they rebelled at the sea, at the Red Sea.

8Yet he saved them for the sake of his own name, That he might cause to be known his power.

9And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up; And he made them walk in the deeps as in a desert.

10And he saved them from the hand of the enemy, And redeemed them from the hand of the adversary.

11And cover did the waters their oppressors: One of them was not left.

12Then they believed his words; They sang his praise.

13They made haste, they forgat his works; They did not wait for his counsel;

14And they lusted greatly in the desert, And tempted God in the wilderness.

15And he gave them their request; But sent leanness into their souls.

16And they envied Moses in the camp, And Aaron, the saint of Jehovah.

17Open did the earth and swallowed up Dathan, And covered over the tent of Abiram.

18And kindled was a fire in their company, The flame burned up the ungodly.

19They made a calf in Horeb, And worshipped before the molten image.

20And they changed their glory Into the likeness of an ox that eateth hay.

21They forgat God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt;

22Miracles in the land of Ham, Terrible things at the Red Sea.

23And he said that he would destroy them, Unless Moses his chosen had stood in the breach before his face, To turn away his wrath, that he might not destroy them

24And they despised the land of pleasantness; They believed not his word;

25And they mutinied in their tents, They hearkened not to the voice of Jehovah.

26And he lifted tip his hand against them, To destroy them in the desert:

27And to scatter their seed among the heathen, And to disperse them throughout the lands.

28And they joined themselves to Baal-peor, And ate the sacrifices of things dead.

29And they provoked God to anger by their works: And break in upon them did the plague.

30Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: And stayed was the plague.

31And that was imputed to him for righteousness From generation to generation, even for ever.

32And they provoked him to anger at the waters of strife, And it turned out in to Moses on their account:

33For they embittered his spirit, And he spake [rashly] with his lips.

34They did not destroy the nations, As Jehovah had commanded them:

35And they were mingled with the heathen, And learned their works:

36And they served their idols; Which were to them for ruin.

37And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons;

38And they shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And polluted was the land with bloods.

39And they were defiled in their own works, And were adulterous in their own inventions.

40Then ³⁷⁰ burn did the wrath of Jehovah against his people, And he abhorred his inheritance;

41And he delivered them into the hands of the heathen; And those had dominion over them who hated them:

42And subdue them did their enemies, And they were afflicted under their hand.

43Many times did he deliver them; But they provoked him with their counsels, And were oppressed in their iniquity.

44Yet he saw when they were in distress, And heard their cry:

45And he remembered towards them his covenant; And it repented him according to the greatness of his mercies.

46And he made them to find pity Before all who had led them captive.

47Save us, O Jehovah, our God! And gather us from among the heathen, That we may celebrate thy holy name, That we may glory in thy praise.

48Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting; And say let all the people, Amen. Praise ye Jehovah.