The Lord Can Be Trusted
1 Praise the Lord
and pray in his name!
Tell everyone
what he has done.
2 Sing praises to the Lord!
Tell about his miracles.
3 Celebrate and worship
his holy name
with all your heart.
4 Trust the Lord
and his mighty power.
5 Remember his miracles
and all his wonders
and his fair decisions.
6 You belong to the family
of Abraham, his servant;
you are his chosen ones,
the descendants of Jacob.
7 The Lord is our God,
bringing justice
everywhere on earth.
8 He will never forget
his agreement or his promises,
not in thousands of years.
* 9 God made an eternal promise
10 to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
11 when he said, “I'll give you
the land of Canaan.”
12 At the time there were
only a few of us,
and we were homeless.
13 We wandered from nation
to nation, from one country
to another.
14 God did not let anyone
mistreat our people.
Instead he protected us
by punishing rulers
15 and telling them,
“Don't touch my chosen leaders
or harm my prophets!”
16 God kept crops from growing
until food was scarce
everywhere in the land.
17 But he had already sent Joseph,
sold as a slave into Egypt,
18 with chains of iron
around his legs and neck.
19 Joseph remained a slave
until his own words
had come true,
and the Lord had finished
testing him.
20 Then the king of Egypt
set Joseph free
21 and put him in charge
of everything he owned.
22 Joseph was in command
of the officials,
and he taught the leaders
how to use wisdom.
23 Jacob and his family
came and settled in Egypt
as foreigners.
24 They were the Lord's people,
so he let them grow stronger
than their enemies.
25 They served the Lord,
and he made the Egyptians plan
hateful things against them.
26 God sent his servant Moses.
He also chose and sent Aaron
27 to his people in Egypt,
and they worked miracles
and wonders there.
28 Moses and Aaron obeyed God,
and he sent darkness
to cover Egypt.
29 God turned their rivers
into streams of blood,
and the fish all died.
30 Frogs were everywhere,
even in the royal palace.
31 When God gave the command,
flies and gnats
swarmed all around.
32 In place of rain,
God sent hailstones
and flashes of lightning.
33 He destroyed their grapevines
and their fig trees,
and he made splinters
of all the other trees.
34 God gave the command,
and more grasshoppers came
than could be counted.
35 They ate every green plant
and all the crops that grew
in the land of Egypt.
36 Then God took the life
of every first-born son.
37 When God led Israel from Egypt,
they took silver and gold,
and no one was left behind.
38 The Egyptians were afraid
and gladly let them go.
39 God hid them under a cloud
and guided them by fire
during the night.
40 When they asked for food,
he sent more birds
than they could eat.
41 God even split open a rock,
and streams of water
gushed into the desert.
42 God never forgot
his sacred promise
to his servant Abraham.
43 When the Lord rescued
his chosen people from Egypt,
they celebrated with songs.
44 The Lord gave them the land
and everything else
the nations had worked for.
45 He did this so that his people
would obey all his laws.
Shout praises to the Lord!
© Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.