Psalm 113-115

Easy-to-Read Version

113 Praise the Lord!
Servants of the Lord, praise him!
    Praise the Lord’s name.
²May the Lord’s name be praised
    now and forever.
³May the Lord’s name be praised
    from where the sun rises to where it goes down.
⁴The Lord is higher than all nations.
    His glory rises to the skies.
⁵There is no one like the Lord our God.
    He sits on his throne high in heaven.
⁶He is so high above us that he must look down
    to see the sky and the earth.
⁷He lifts the poor out of the dirt
    and rescues beggars from the garbage dump.
⁸He puts them in important positions,
    giving them a place among the leaders of his people.
⁹He gives children to the woman whose home is empty.
    He makes her a happy mother.

Praise the Lord!

114 The people of Israel escaped from Egypt.
    Yes, Jacob’s descendants left that foreign country.
²Then Judah became God’s special people,
    and Israel became his kingdom.
³The Red Sea saw this and ran away.
    The Jordan River turned and ran.
⁴The mountains danced like rams.
    The hills danced like lambs.

⁵Red Sea, why did you run away?
Jordan River, why did you turn and run away?
⁶Mountains, why did you dance like rams?
Hills, why did you dance like lambs?

⁷The earth shook in front of the Lord,
the God of Jacob.
⁸He is the one who caused water to flow from a rock.
He made a spring of water flow from that hard rock.

115 Lord, you should receive the honor, not us.
    The honor belongs to you
    because of your faithful love and loyalty.
²Why should the nations wonder
    where our God is?
³Our God is in heaven,
    and he does whatever he wants.
⁴The “gods” of those nations are only statues
    that some human made from gold and silver.
⁵Those statues have mouths, but cannot talk.
    They have eyes, but cannot see.
⁶They have ears, but cannot hear.
    They have noses, but cannot smell.
⁷They have hands, but cannot feel.
    They have feet, but cannot walk.
    No sounds come from their throats.
⁸The people who make and trust in those statues
    will become like them!

⁹People of Israel, trust in the Lord!
    He is your strength and shield.
¹⁰Aaron’s family, trust in the Lord!
    He is your strength and shield.
¹¹Followers of the Lord, trust in the Lord!
    He is your strength and shield.

¹²The Lord remembers us.
    He will bless us.
He will bless Israel.
    He will bless Aaron’s family.
¹³The Lord will bless his followers,
    great and small.

¹⁴May the Lord give more and more to you
    and to your children.
¹⁵May you receive blessings from the Lord,^[a]
    who made heaven and earth.
¹⁶Heaven belongs to the Lord,
    but he gave the earth to people.
¹⁷The dead don’t praise him.
    Those in the grave don’t praise the Lord.
¹⁸But we will praise the Lord
    now and forever!