Psalms 78
1 A Maskil of Asaph. Listen, my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a proverb; I will pour out riddles from long ago.
3 These are things we have heard and known, things our fathers told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the coming generation the praises of the LORD, his strength, and the wonders he has done.
5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children,
6 so the coming generation would know, children yet to be born would rise up and tell their children,
7 so they would put their trust in God, not forget God’s deeds, and keep his commandments.
8 Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed with bows and skilled with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to walk in his law.
11 They forgot his deeds and the wonders he had shown them.
12 In the sight of their fathers he did wonders, in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through; he made the waters stand like a wall.
14 By day he guided them with a cloud, and all night with the light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink, as from the depths.
16 He brought streams from the rock and made waters flow down like rivers.
17 But they kept sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the dry land.
18 They tested God in their hearts by asking for food to satisfy their appetites.
19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He struck the rock, and water gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread? Will he provide meat for his people?”
21 So the LORD heard and was furious; a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger rose against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God or trust in his salvation.
23 He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained manna on them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Each person ate the bread of the mighty; he sent them food until they were full.
26 He made the east wind blow in the heavens and drove the south wind by his power.
27 He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28 He made them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.
29 They ate and were well satisfied; he gave them what they craved.
30 But they had not turned away from their craving; while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger rose against them: he killed their strongest men and struck down the young men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they kept sinning and did not believe in his wonders.
33 So he brought their days to an end in a breath, and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they sought him; they turned back and eagerly searched for God.
35 They remembered that God was their rock, and that God Most High was their redeemer.
36 But they deceived him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts were not steadfast toward him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was compassionate: he forgave their guilt and did not destroy them. Again and again he held back his anger and did not unleash all his fury.
39 He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that goes by and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they tested God and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his hand, the day he rescued them from the adversary,
43 when he set his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their canals to blood, so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which ruined them.
46 He gave their crops to the devouring locust 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 their cattle over to the hail and their flocks to lightning.
49 He sent against them the heat of his anger—fury, indignation, and distress—a company of evil angels.
50 He cleared 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 first fruits of strength in the tents of Ham.
52 He led his people out like sheep and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.
54 He brought them to his holy land, to this mountain his right hand had won.
55 He drove nations out before them, allotted their inheritance by the measuring line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested God Most High and rebelled against him; they did not keep his testimonies.
57 They turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places and stirred his jealousy with their carved images.
59 God heard and was furious; he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned the dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he had lived among humankind.
61 He handed his strength over to captivity, and his splendor into the adversary’s hand.
62 He gave his people over to the sword and was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed his young men, and his young women were not celebrated.
64 His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting from the wine.
66 He struck his adversaries from behind and gave them lasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth he founded forever.
70 He chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 He brought him from tending the nursing ewes to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
72 He shepherded them with an upright heart and guided them with skillful hands.
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