Smoke went up from His nostrils,
And fire from His mouth devoured;
Coals were kindled by it.

These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul;
How I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song],
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.

You made men (charioteers) ride over our heads [in defeat];
We went through fire and through water,
Yet You brought us out into a [broad] place of abundance [to be refreshed].

O God, when You went out before Your people,
When You marched through the wilderness, Selah.

Until I came into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood [for I considered] their end.

The clouds poured down water;
The skies sent out a sound [of rumbling thunder];
Your arrows (lightning) flashed here and there.

Yet they still continued to sin against Him
By rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

He established it for a testimony in Joseph
When He went throughout the land of Egypt.
I heard the language [of One whom] I did not know, saying,

And they wandered from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,

They provoked Him to anger at the waters of Meribah,
So that it went hard with Moses on their account;

Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep and honor Your word [with loving obedience].