Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph. Hear my teaching, my people; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour out riddles from antiquity. \* 3 These are things that we have heard and learned, things that our fathers have told us. 4 We will not keep them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation about the praises of God, his strength, and his wonders that he has done. \* 5 And he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach them to their children, 6 So that the later generation might know, the children yet to be born, and they will rise up and tell to their children. \* 7 And they would place their confidence in God and not forget the deeds of God but keep his commandments. 8 And they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn generation and a rebellious generation, {which} did not cause its heart to be steadfast, and its spirit was not faithful with God. \* 9 The sons of Ephraim being armed {with} shooters of bows, they turned back on the day of battle. 10 They did not keep the covenant of God, and they refused to walk in his law. 11 And they forgot his deeds, and his wonders that he had shown them. \* 12 He did wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the territory of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea and led them across it, and he made the waters to stand like a heap. 14 And by day he led them with the cloud and all the night with the light of fire. \* 15 He split open the rocks in the wilderness, and he gave drink abundantly as the deep. 16 He made streams flow out of the rock and made the water flow like rivers. \* 17 And they added still to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the dry land. 18 And they tested God in their hearts by asking {for} food for their appetite. \* 19 And they spoke against God. They said, “Can God arrange a table in the wilderness? 20 Behold, he struck the rock and waters gushed out and streams overflowed. Is he able to give bread also? Or can he provide meat for his people?” \* 21 Therefore, God heard and was furious, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and also {his} nose went up against Israel, 22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation. \* 23 Yet he commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of the sky. 24 And he rained down manna to eat on them, and gave to them the grain of heaven. 25 Man ate the bread of the mighty. He sent to them provision to {their} satisfaction. \* 26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky, and by his power he guided the south wind. 27 And he rained down meat on them like dust, and birds of wing as the sands of the sea. 28 And he caused them to fall in the middle of his camp, around his dwellings. \* 29 And they ate and were very satisfied. And he brought their craving to them. 30 They were not separated from their craving, their food was still in their mouth, 31 and the nose of God went up in them and he killed some of their stoutest people, and he caused the young men of Israel to bow down. 32 In all this they sinned again, and did not believe in his wonders. \* 33 So he consumed their days in a vapor, and their years in terror. 34 When he killed them, then they would seek him, and they would return and look earnestly for God. \* 35 And they would remember that God was their rock and {that} God Most High was their redeemer. 36 And they would deceive him with their mouth and lie to him with their tongues. 37 And their hearts were not steadfast with him, and they were not faithful in his covenant. \* 38 Yet he, {being} merciful, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them. And many times he held back his nose and did not stir up all his wrath. \* 39 And he remembered that they were flesh, a wind going and it does not return. \* 40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! They grieved him in the desert! 41 And they returned and they tested God and grieved the Holy {One} of Israel. \* 42 They did not remember his hand, the day when he redeemed them from the adversary, 43 when he set his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan. 44 And he turned their rivers to blood and their streams they could not drink. 45 He sent a swarm among them, and it devoured them, and the frog and it destroyed them. 46 And he gave their produce to the locust and their labor to the swarming locust. 47 He slew their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost. 48 And he gave over their cattle to the hail and their livestock to the bolts of lightning. 49 He sent among them the burning of his nose, fury and indignation and distress, a group of messengers of calamity. 50 He made level a path for his anger; he did not spare their soul from death, and their life he gave over to the plague. 51 And he struck every firstborn in Egypt, the beginning of strength in the tents of Ham. 52 And he made his people journey like sheep, and he led them like a flock in the wilderness. 53 And he guided them in security, and they did not fear, and the sea covered their enemies. 54 And he brought them to the border of his holiness, this mountain that his right hand acquired. 55 And he drove out nations from before them and caused them to fall in a portion of inheritance, and he caused the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. \* 56 But they tested and rebelled against God Most High, and they did not keep his testimonies. 57 And they turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned themselves like a bow of deceit. 58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and with their carved images they moved him to jealousy. \* 59 God heard and was furious, and he rejected Israel greatly. 60 And he abandoned the dwelling of Shiloh, the tent {in which} he had dwelt among mankind. 61 And he gave his strength to captivity and his splendor into the hand of the enemy. 62 And he delivered his people over to the sword, and he was furious with his inheritance. 63 Fire consumed his young men, and his virgins were not praised {in} wedding songs. 64 His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep. \* 65 Then the Lord awoke as one sleeping, as a mighty man shouting from wine. 66 And he struck his adversaries backward; he gave to them a reproach of perpetuity. 67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. 68 But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. 69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth he founded it forever. \* 70 And he chose David his servant and took him from the folds of the flock. 71 From behind the nursing ewes he brought him, to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance. 72 And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and with the skillfulness of his hands he guided them. \*