Psalms78

¹ A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,

³ things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

⁵ He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

⁶ that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,

⁷ so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

⁸ and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.

¹¹ They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them.

¹² In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

¹³ He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying, Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?

²¹ Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel,

²² because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.

²³ Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴ and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵ Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;

²⁷ he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;

²⁸ he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

²⁹ And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰ But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹ the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.

³² In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe.

³³ So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly.

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹ They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³ when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.

⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.

⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.

⁵¹ He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won.

⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies,

⁵⁷ but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹ When God heard, he was wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰ He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind,

⁶¹ and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.

⁶² He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no marriage song.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine.

⁶⁶ And he put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.

⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.

⁷⁰ He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹ from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.

⁷² With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.