Psalm 78

Tell the Coming Generation

A Maskil of Asaph.

¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

²I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

³things that we have heard and known,

that our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

⁶that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

⁷so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works 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,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,

turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's covenant,

but refused to walk according to his law.

¹¹They forgot his works

and the wonders that he had shown them.

¹²In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders

in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

¹³He divided the sea and let them pass through it,

and made the waters stand like a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime he led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a fiery light.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

¹⁶He made streams come out of the rock

and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they sinned still more against him,

rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tested God in their heart

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

²⁰He struck the rock so that water gushed out

and streams overflowed.

Can he also give bread

or provide meat for his people?”

²¹Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;

a fire was kindled against Jacob;

his anger rose against Israel,

²²because they did not believe in God

and did not trust his saving power.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴and he rained down on them manna to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵Man ate of the bread of the angels;

he sent them food in abundance.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by his power he led out the south wind;

²⁷he rained meat on them like dust,

winged birds like the sand of the seas;

²⁸he let them fall in the midst of their camp,

all around their dwellings.

²⁹And they ate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰But before they had satisfied their craving,

while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them,

and he killed the strongest of them

and laid low the young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they still sinned;

despite his wonders, they did not believe.

³³So he made their days vanish like a breath,

and their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, they sought him;

they repented and sought God earnestly.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouths;

they lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their heart was not steadfast toward him;

they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸Yet he, being compassionate,

atoned for their iniquity

and did not destroy them;

he restrained his anger often

and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,

a wind that passes and comes not again.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹They tested God again and again

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power

or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³when he performed his signs in Egypt

and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood,

so that they could not drink of their streams.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,

and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the destroying locust

and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamores with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle to the hail

and their flocks to thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He let loose on them his burning anger,

wrath, indignation, and distress,

a company of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death,

but gave their lives over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,

the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²Then he led out his people like sheep

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴And he brought them to his holy land,

to the mountain which his right hand had won.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them;

he apportioned them for a possession

and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God

and did not keep his testimonies,

⁵⁷but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;

they twisted like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places;

they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard, he was full of wrath,

and he utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,

the tent where he dwelt among mankind,

⁶¹and delivered his power to captivity,

his glory to the hand of the foe.

⁶²He gave his people over to the sword

and vented his wrath on his heritage.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men,

and their young women had no marriage song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

like a strong man shouting because of wine.

⁶⁶And he put his adversaries to rout;

he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph;

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which he loves.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,

like the earth, which he has founded 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,

Israel his inheritance.

⁷²With upright heart he shepherded them

and guided them with his skillful hand.