Psalms 78 / 150
- 1O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
- 2I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old-
- 3what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
- 4We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD , his power, and the wonders he has done.
- 5He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
- 6so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
- 7Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
- 8They would not be like their forefathers- a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
- 9The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;
- 10they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.
- 11They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
- 12He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
- 13He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.
- 14He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
- 15He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
- 16he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
- 17But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
- 18They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
- 19They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
- 20When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?"
- 21When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,
- 22for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
- 23Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;
- 24he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.
- 25Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
- 26He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power.
- 27He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
- 28He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.
- 29They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved.
- 30But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths,
- 31God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.
- 32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
- 33So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
- 34Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.
- 35They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
- 36But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
- 37their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
- 38Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.
- 39He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
- 40How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!
- 41Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
- 42They did not remember his power- the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
- 43the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
- 44He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
- 45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
- 46He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
- 47He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
- 48He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
- 49He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility- a band of destroying angels.
- 50He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.
- 51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
- 52But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.
- 53He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
- 54Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
- 55He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
- 56But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
- 57Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
- 58They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
- 59When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely.
- 60He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
- 61He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
- 62He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.
- 63Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;
- 64their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.
- 65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
- 66He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.
- 67Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
- 68but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
- 69He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
- 70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;
- 71from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.
- 72And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.