Psalms 78

1verseA contemplation by Asaph. Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

2verseI will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

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

4verseWe will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

5verseFor 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;

6versethat the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

7versethat they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments,

8verseand 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.

9verseThe children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10verseThey didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

11verseThey forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.

12verseHe did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13verseHe split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

14verseIn the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

15verseHe split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

16verseHe brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17verseYet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18verseThey tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

19verseYes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20verseBehold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”

21verseTherefore the LORD heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

22versebecause they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.

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

24verseHe rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

25verseMan ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

26verseHe caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

27verseHe also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas.

28verseHe let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.

29verseSo they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

30verseThey didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

31versewhen the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel.

32verseFor all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

33verseTherefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

34verseWhen he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

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

36verseBut they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

37verseFor their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

38verseBut 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.

39verseHe remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

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

41verseThey turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42verseThey didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

43versehow he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

44versehe turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

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

46verseHe also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

47verseHe destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

48verseHe also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49verseHe threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

50verseHe made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

51verseand struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

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

53verseHe led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54verseHe brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

55verseHe 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.

56verseYet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,

57versebut turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow.

58verseFor they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

59verseWhen God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel,

60verseso that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,

61verseand delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.

62verseHe also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

63verseFire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

64verseTheir priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.

65verseThen the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

66verseHe struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

67verseMoreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68verseBut chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

69verseHe built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

70verseHe also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

71versefrom following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

72verseSo he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.