God and His People
(1 Chronicles 16.8-22)
1Give thanks to the Lord,
proclaim his greatness;
tell the nations what he has done.
2Sing praise to the Lord;
tell the wonderful things he has done.
3Be glad that we belong to him;
let all who worship him rejoice.
4Go to the Lord for help;
and worship him continually.
5-6You descendants of Abraham, his servant;
you descendants of Jacob, the man he chose:
remember the miracles that God performed
and the judgments that he gave.
7The Lord is our God;
his commands are for all the world.
8He will keep his covenant forever,
his promises for a thousand generations.
9 He will keep the agreement he made with Abraham
and his promise to Isaac.
10 The Lord made a covenant with Jacob,
one that will last forever.
11“I will give you the land of Canaan,” he said.
“It will be your own possession.”
12God's people were few in number,
strangers in the land of Canaan.
13They wandered from country to country,
from one kingdom to another.
14 But God let no one oppress them;
to protect them, he warned the kings:
15“Don't harm my chosen servants;
do not touch my prophets.”
16 The Lord sent famine to their country
and took away all their food.
17 But he sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
18 His feet were kept in chains,
and an iron collar was around his neck,
19until what he had predicted came true.
The word of the Lord proved him right.
20 Then the king of Egypt had him released;
the ruler of nations set him free.
21 He put him in charge of his government
and made him ruler over all the land,
22with power over the king's officials
and authority to instruct his advisers.
23 Then Jacob went to Egypt
and settled in that country.
24 The Lord gave many children to his people
and made them stronger than their enemies.
25He made the Egyptians hate his people
and treat his servants with deceit.
26 Then he sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27They did God's mighty acts
and performed miracles in Egypt.
28 God sent darkness on the country,
but the Egyptians did not obey his command.
29 He turned their rivers into blood
and killed all their fish.
30 Their country was overrun with frogs;
even the palace was filled with them.
31 God commanded, and flies and gnats
swarmed throughout the whole country.
32 He sent hail and lightning on their land
instead of rain;
33he destroyed their grapevines and fig trees
and broke down all the trees.
34 He commanded, and the locusts came,
countless millions of them;
35they ate all the plants in the land;
they ate all the crops.
36 He killed the first-born sons
of all the families of Egypt.
37 Then he led the Israelites out;
they carried silver and gold,
and all of them were healthy and strong.
38The Egyptians were afraid of them
and were glad when they left.
39 God put a cloud over his people
and a fire at night to give them light.
40 They asked, and he sent quails;
he gave them food from heaven to satisfy them.
41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out,
flowing through the desert like a river.
42He remembered his sacred promise
to Abraham his servant.
43So he led his chosen people out,
and they sang and shouted for joy.
44 He gave them the lands of other peoples
and let them take over their fields,
45so that his people would obey his laws
and keep all his commands.
Praise the Lord!