Psalms 78:14-72
In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.Yes, they spoke against God. They said,“ Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas.He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their fattest, and struck down the young men of Israel.For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.But 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.He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.He 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.Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow.For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel,so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men,and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Psalms 106:12-48
Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel,but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland.He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, Yahweh’s saint.The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image.Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea.Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them.Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word,but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice.Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness,that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations, and scatter them in the lands.They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped.That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come.They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes;because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips.They didn’t destroy the peoples, as Yahweh commanded them,but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works.They served their idols, which became a snare to them.Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds.Therefore Yahweh burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance.He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them.Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand.He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity.Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry.He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.He made them also to be pitied by all those who carried them captive.Save us, Yahweh, our God, gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise!Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting! Let all the people say,“ Amen.” Praise Yah!
