PSALM 78
God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.
A Possibly, Contemplative; or Didactic; or Skillful PsalmMaskil of Asaph.
1Listen, my people, to my Or law, teachinginstruction;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will tell riddles of old,
3Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
4We will not conceal them from their children,
But we will tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His power and His wondrous works that He has done.
5For He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they were to Lit make them knownteach them to their children,
6So that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born,
That they would arise and tell them to their children,
7So that they would put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But comply with His commandments,
8And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not Or put rightprepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9The sons of Ephraim Or beingwere archers equipped with bows,
Yet they turned back on the day of battle.
10They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk in His Law;
11They forgot His deeds
And His Or wonderful worksmiracles that He had shown them.
12He performed wonders before their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
14Then He led them with the cloud by day
And all the night with a light of fire.
15He split the rocks in the wilderness
And gave them plenty to drink like the ocean depths.
16He brought forth streams from the rock
And made waters run down like rivers.
17Yet they still continued to sin against Him,
To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
18And in their heart they put God to the test
By asking for food Lit to their soulthat suited their taste.
19Then they spoke against God;
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out,
And streams were overflowing;
Can He also provide bread?
Will He prepare meat for His people?”
And a fire was kindled against Jacob,
And anger also mounted against Israel,
22Because they did not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.
23Yet He commanded the clouds above
And opened the doors of heaven;
24He rained down manna upon them to eat,
And gave them Lit grainfood from heaven.
25Man ate the bread of Lit mighty onesangels;
He sent them Or provisionfood Lit to satiationin abundance.
26He made the east wind blow in the sky
And by His Or strengthpower He directed the south wind.
27When He rained meat upon them like the dust,
Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,
All around their dwellings.
29So they ate and were well filled,
And He Lit brought to them theirsatisfied their longing.
30
Lit They did not turn away from their
Yet before they had abandoned their longing,
While their food was in their mouths,
31The anger of God rose against them
And killed Lit among their fat onessome of their strongest ones,
And Lit caused to bow downsubdued the choice men of Israel.
32In spite of all this they still sinned
And did not believe in His wonderful works.
33So He brought their days to an end in futility,
And their years to an end in sudden terror.
34When He killed them, then they sought Him,
And they returned and searched diligently for God;
35And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
36But they flattered Him with their mouth
And lied to Him with their tongue.
37For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful with His covenant.
38But He, being compassionate, Lit covered over, atoned forforgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them;
And often He Lit turned awayrestrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.
39So He remembered that they were only flesh,
A Or breathwind that passes and does not return.
40How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!
41Again and again they Or put God to the testtempted God,
And pained the Holy One of Israel.
42They did not remember His Lit handpower,
The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
43When He performed His signs in Egypt
And His marvels in the field of Zoan,
44And turned their rivers to blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
45He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them,
And frogs that destroyed them.
46He also gave their crops to the grasshopper
And the product of their labor to the locust.
47He Lit was killingdestroyed their vines with hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
48He also turned their cattle over to the hailstones,
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
49He sent His burning anger upon them,
Fury and indignation and trouble,
A band of Lit angels of evil ones; another reading is evil angelsdestroying angels.
50He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned their lives over to the plague,
51And struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first and best of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
52But He led His own people out like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
53He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies.
54So He brought them to His holy Lit border, territoryland,
To this Or mountainhill country which His right hand had gained.
55He also drove out the nations from them
And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,
And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
56Yet they Or put to the testtempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies,
57But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;
They turned aside like a treacherous bow.
58For they provoked Him with their high places
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.
And He utterly rejected Israel;
60So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,
The tent Some ancient versions where He dweltwhich He had pitched among people,
61And He gave up His strength to captivity
And His glory into the hand of the enemy.
62He also turned His people over to the sword,
And Or became infuriatedwas filled with wrath at His inheritance.
63Fire devoured Or theirHis young men,
And Or theirHis virgins had no wedding songs.
64
Or their
His priests fell by the sword,
And Or theirHis widows could not weep.
65Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
Like a warrior Or sobered up fromovercome by wine.
66He Lit struckdrove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting disgrace.
67He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.
69And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has established forever.
70He also chose His servant David
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71From Lit followingthe care of the Lit ewes that wet-nurse, Heewes with nursing lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
72So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.
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