Psalms 78:14-72
He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas;he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.They spoke against God; they said,“ Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?”When the Lord heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.He let loose the east wind from the heavens and by his power made the south wind blow.He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like sand on the seashore.He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.They ate till they were gorged— he had given them what they craved.But before they turned from what they craved, even while the food was still in their mouths,God’s anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.Yet 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.He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.He turned their river into blood; they could not drink from their streams.He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility— a band of destroying angels.He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness.He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely.He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans.He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance.Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs;their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
Psalms 106:12-48
Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test.So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram.Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked.At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal.They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass.They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.So he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise.They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord.So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the wilderness,make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them.But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked.This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord, and trouble came to Moses because of them;for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses’ lips.They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods.They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance.He gave them into the hands of the nations, and their foes ruled over them.Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power.Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry;for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented.He caused all who held them captive to show them mercy.Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say,“ Amen!” Praise the Lord.
