Psalms 78
Psalms 78
A contemplation by Asaph.
Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. Verse 2. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, Verse 3. which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Verse 4. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. Verse 5. For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; Verse 6. that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, Verse 7. that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments, Verse 8. and might not be as their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God. Verse 9. The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. Verse 10. They didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law. Verse 11. They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them. Verse 12. He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. Verse 13. He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap. Verse 14. In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire. Verse 15. He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. Verse 16. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. Verse 17. Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert. Verse 18. They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire. Verse 19. Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Verse 20. Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?” Verse 21. Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel, Verse 22. because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation. Verse 23. Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven. Verse 24. He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky. Verse 25. Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full. Verse 26. He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind. Verse 27. He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas. Verse 28. He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations. Verse 29. So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. Verse 30. They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths, Verse 31. when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel. Verse 32. For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works. Verse 33. Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. Verse 34. When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. Verse 35. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. Verse 36. But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. Verse 37. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant. Verse 38. But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath. Verse 39. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again. Verse 40. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert! Verse 41. They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Verse 42. They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; Verse 43. how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan, Verse 44. he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. Verse 45. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. Verse 46. He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. Verse 47. He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. Verse 48. He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. Verse 49. He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil. Verse 50. He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, Verse 51. and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. Verse 52. But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. Verse 53. He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. Verse 54. He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken. Verse 55. He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Verse 56. Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies, Verse 57. but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow. Verse 58. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images. Verse 59. When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel, Verse 60. so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, Verse 61. and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand. Verse 62. He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance. Verse 63. Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song. Verse 64. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep. Verse 65. Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine. Verse 66. He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach. Verse 67. Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim, Verse 68. But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. Verse 69. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever. Verse 70. He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; Verse 71. from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. Verse 72. So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.