Psalms 78 / 150
- 1
(Tell the Coming Generation)A Maskil of Asaph.
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
- 2
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
- 3
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
- 4
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
- 5
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
- 6
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
- 7
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
- 8
and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
- 9
The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
- 10
They did not keep God's covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
- 11
They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.
- 12
In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
- 13
He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
- 14
In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
- 15
He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
- 16
He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
- 17
Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
- 18
They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
- 19
They spoke against God, saying,
"Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
- 20
He struck the rock so that water gushed out
and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?"
- 21
Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob;
his anger rose against Israel,
- 22
because they did not believe in God
and did not trust his saving power.
- 23
Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
- 24
and he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
- 25
Man ate of the bread of the angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
- 26
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
- 27
he rained meat on them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;
- 28
he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
- 29
And they ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.
- 30
But before they had satisfied their craving,
while the food was still in their mouths,
- 31
the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed the strongest of them
and laid low the young men of Israel.
- 32
In spite of all this, they still sinned;
despite his wonders, they did not believe.
- 33
So he made their days vanish like a breath,Or vapor
and their years in terror.
- 34
When he killed them, they sought him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
- 35
They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.
- 36
But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
- 37
Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.
- 38
Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
- 39
He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
- 40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
- 41
They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- 42
They did not remember his power
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
- 43
when he performed his signs in Egypt
and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
- 44
He turned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
- 45
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
- 46
He gave their crops to the destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
- 47
He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamores with frost.
- 48
He gave over their cattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
- 49
He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.
- 50
He made 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 firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
- 52
Then he led out his 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
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
- 55
He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
- 56
Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
- 57
but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.
- 58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
- 59
When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
- 60
He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
- 61
and delivered his power to captivity,
his glory to the hand of the foe.
- 62
He gave his people over to the sword
and vented his wrath on his heritage.
- 63
Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no marriage song.
- 64
Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
- 65
Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
- 66
And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
- 67
He rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
- 68
but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
- 69
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
- 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,
Israel his inheritance.
- 72
With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand.