Psalms 78

A Maskil of Asaph.

1Listen, my people, to my instruction; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth with a saying; I will utter riddles from ancient times.

3that we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us—

4We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the coming generation the praises of Yahweh, his might, and the wonders he has done.

5For he established a testimony in Jacob and set instruction in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children.

6so that a later generation might know—the children yet to be born—that they might arise and tell their children,

7so that they might set their hope in God and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments.

8and that they should 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.

9The Ephraimites, armed bowmen, turned back on the day of battle.

10They did not keep the covenant of God, and they refused to walk in his law.

11They forgot his deeds and the wonders he had shown them.

12Before their fathers he did wonders in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13He split the sea and brought them through; he made the waters stand like a heap.

14He led them by a cloud during the day, and all night by the light of fire.

15He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundantly as from the depths.

16He brought streams out of the rock and made water flow down like rivers.

17Yet they continued to sin against him, rebelling against the Most High in the parched land.

18They tested God in their hearts by asking for the food they craved.

19They spoke against God, saying, “Can God set a table in the wilderness?”

20Indeed, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, and streams surged. Can he also give bread? Can he provide meat for his people?

21Therefore Yahweh heard and was enraged; and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose against Israel.

22because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.

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

24He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.

25People ate the bread of the mighty; he sent them food until they were satisfied.

26He set the east wind moving in the sky, and by his strength he drove the south wind.

27He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas.

28He made them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings.

29So they ate and were very full, and he brought them what they craved.

30They had not yet turned away from their craving; their food was still in their mouths.

31Then the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the stoutest among them; he struck down the young men of Israel.

32In spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe in his wondrous works.

33So he consumed their days in futility, and their years in terror.

34When he killed them, they sought him; they returned and sought God earnestly.

35Then they remembered that God was their rock, and God Most High was their redeemer.

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

37Their heart was not steadfast with him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.

38But he, being compassionate, made atonement for iniquity and did not destroy; he often turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath.

39He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not return.

40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!

41Again they turned back and tested God, and they provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember his hand, the day when he redeemed them from the foe.

43when he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the fields of Zoan.

44He turned their rivers to blood, and they could not drink from their flowing streams.

45He sent among them a swarm, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.

46He gave their produce to the devourer, and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

48He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their livestock to fiery bolts.

49He sent against them his burning anger, fury, indignation, and distress, a dispatch of messengers of disaster.

50He leveled a path for his anger; he did not spare their lives from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.

51He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.

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

53He led them securely, and they were not afraid; and the sea covered their enemies.

54So he brought them to his holy territory, this mountain that his right hand acquired.

55He drove out nations before them and apportioned the land to them by measuring line; he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56Yet they tested God Most High and rebelled, and they did not keep his testimonies.

57But they turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58They provoked him to anger with their high places, and with their carved images they made him jealous.

59God heard and was furious, and he utterly rejected Israel.

60So he abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent he had set among humanity.

61He gave his strength into captivity, and his splendor into the hand of the foe.

62He gave his people over to the sword, and was enraged with his inheritance.

63Fire consumed his young men, and his young women had no wedding songs.

64His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.

65Then the Lord awoke like one who had been sleeping, like a warrior shouting from wine.

66He struck his foes in the back; he put everlasting disgrace on them.

67Then he rejected the tent of Joseph, and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

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

69And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds.

71From following the nursing ewes, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

72So he shepherded them with integrity of heart, and guided them with the skill of his hands.