PSALMS 78



A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph.

1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 (Ps 63:1; 84:2) I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter insightful sayings of old,

3 (Ps 79:10; 80:5) which we have heard and known,

what our fathers have told us.

4 (Isa 30:29; Ps 62:8 )We will not hide them from their children,

but will tell the coming generation

the praises of the Lord,

and His strength, and the wonderful works that He has done.

5 (Ps 42:11; 43:5) For He established a rule in Jacob,

and appointed a law in Israel,

which He commanded our fathers

that they should make them known to their children,

6 (2Sa 17:22; Dt 3:8-9) that the generation to come might know them,

even the children who are not yet born,

who will arise and declare them to their children:

7 (Ps 88:7; Jnh 2:3) that they might set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep His commandments,

8 (Job 35:10; Ps 63:6) and they might not be as their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation that did not set their heart steadfast,

and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9 (Ps 38:6; 18:2) The people of Ephraim, being armed with bows,

turned back in the day of battle.

10 (Ps 42:3; Joel 2:17) They did not keep the covenant of God

and refused to walk in His law;

11 (Ps 42:5; 43:5) and they forgot His works

and the wonders that He had shown them.

12 In the sight of their ancestors He did marvelous wonders

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,

and He made the waters to stand as a heap.

14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a light of fire.

15 He split rocks in the wilderness

and gave them abundance to drink as out of the great depths.

16 He brought streams out of the rock

and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 They sinned yet more against Him

by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.

18 They tested God in their heart

by demanding the food that they craved.

19 They spoke against God by saying,

"Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out

and the streams overflowed.

Can He give bread

or provide meat for His people?"

21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath;

a fire was kindled against Jacob,

and anger also came up against Israel,

22 because they did not believe in God

nor trust in His deliverance.

23 Yet He had commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven,

24 and He rained down manna upon them to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.

25 Man ate the food of mighty angels;

He sent them bread in abundance.

26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by His power He brought out a south wind.

27 He rained meat on them as dust,

and winged birds as the sand of the sea;

28 and He let them fall in the midst of their camp

all around their habitations.

29 So they ate and were satisfied,

for He gave them their own desire;

30 while they were not yet filled up,

and while the meat was still in their mouths,

31 the wrath of God came upon them,

and He killed the strongest of them

and struck down the young men of Israel.

32 For all this they sinned still,

and did not believe despite His wondrous works.

33 Therefore He made their days vanish like a breath,

and their years in trouble.

34 When He killed them, then they sought Him;

they turned back and longed for God.

35 They remembered that God was their rock,

and the Most High God their redeemer.

36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,

and they lied to Him with their tongues;

37 for their heart was not devoted to Him,

neither were they committed to His covenant.

38 But He being full of compassion

forgave their iniquity

and did not destroy them.

He constantly restrained His anger,

and did not stir up all His wrath;

39 for He remembered that they were but flesh,

like a wind that passes away and does not return.

40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness

and grieved Him in the desert!

41 Yes, they tested God over and over,

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember His power,

nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,

43 how He had performed His signs in Egypt

and His wonders in the fields of Zoan:

44 and He turned their rivers into blood,

so that they could not drink from their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them,

and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper

and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore trees with frost.

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail

and their flocks to thunderbolts.

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger,

wrath, indignation, and trouble,

by sending angels bringing disaster.

50 He made a path for His anger;

He did not spare them from death,

but gave their lives over to the plague,

51 And struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,

the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52 Then He led out His own 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 He brought them to the border of His holy land,

to the mountain that His right hand had acquired.

55 He cast out the nations also before them,

and divided for them their tribal allotments,

and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God,

and did not keep His commands,

57 but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;

they turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places

and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

59 When God heard this, He was full of wrath

and greatly rejected Israel

60 so that He left the tabernacle at Shiloh,

the tent where He lived among people,

61 and delivered His strength to captivity

and His glory into the enemy's hand.

62 He gave His people over also to the sword;

He was enraged with His inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men,

and their maidens were not given to marriage in song.

64 Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep,

and like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.

66 He routed His enemies back,

and He made them a perpetual reproach.

67 Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,

and He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68 but chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion which He loves.

69 He built His sanctuary like the high heavens,

like the earth that He has established perpetually.

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,

and Israel His inheritance.

72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart

and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.