Gratitude for God’s Deliverance

1Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!

His gracious love exists forever.

2Let those who have been redeemed by the LORD declare it—

those whom he redeemed

from the powera of the enemy,

3those whom he gathered from other lands—

from the east, west, north, and south.b

4They wandered in desolate wilderness;

they found no road to a city where they could live.

5Hungry and thirsty,

their spiritsc failed.

6Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress.

7He led them in a straight way

to find a city where they could live.

8Let them give thanks to the LORD

for his gracious love

and his awesome deeds for mankind.

9He has satisfied the one who thirsts,

filling the hungry with what is good.

10Some sat in deepest darkness,

shackled with cruel iron,

11because they had rebelled against the command of God,

despising the advice of the Most High.

12He humbled themd through suffering,

as they stumbled without a helper.

13Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;

he delivered them from their distress.

14And hee brought them out from darkness and the shadow of death,f

shattering their chains.

15Let them giveg thanks to the LORD for his gracious love,

and for his awesome deeds to mankind.

16For he shattered bronze gates

and cut through iron bars.

17Because of their rebellious ways,

fools suffered for their iniquities.

18Theyh loathed all food,

and even reached the gates of death.

19Yet when they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,

he delivered them from certain destruction.

20He issued his commandi and healed them;

he delivered them from their destruction.

21Let them give thanks to the LORD for his gracious love,

and for his awesome deeds for mankind.

22Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving

and talk about his works with shouts of joy.

23Those who go down to the sea in ships,

who work in the great waters,

24witnessed the works of the LORD—

his awesome deeds in the ocean’s depth.

25He spoke and stirred up a windstorm

that made its waves surge.

26The peoplej ascended skyward and descended to the depths,

their couragek melting away in their peril.

27They reeled and staggered like a drunkard,

as all their wisdom became useless.

28Yet when they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,

the LORD brought them out of their distress.

29He calmed the storm

and its wavesl quieted down.

30So they rejoiced that the wavesm became quiet,

and he led them to their desired haven.

31Let them give thanks to the LORD for his gracious love

and for his awesome deeds on behalf of mankind.

32Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people

and praise him in the counsel of the elders.

33He turns rivers into a desert,

springs of water into dry ground,

34and a fruitful land into a salty waste,

due to the wickedness of its inhabitants.

35He turns a desert into a pool of water,

dry land into springs of water.

36There he settled the hungry,

where they built a city to live in.

37They sowed fields and planted vineyards

that yielded a productive harvest.

38Then he blessed them, and they became numerous;

he multiplied their cattle.n

39But they became few in number, and humiliated

by continued oppression, agony, and sorrow.

40Having poured contempt on their nobles,

causing them to err aimlessly in the way.

41Yet he lifted the needy from affliction

and made them families like a flock.

42The upright see it and rejoice,

but the mouth of an evil person is shut.

43Let whoever is wise observe these things,

that they may comprehend the gracious love of the LORD.