Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph.

¹My people, hear my teaching;

listen to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth with a parable;

I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

³things we have heard and known,

things our ancestors have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their descendants;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

⁵He decreed statutes for Jacob

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our ancestors

to teach their children,

⁶so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

⁷Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands.

⁸They would not be like their ancestors—

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose hearts were not loyal to God,

whose spirits were not faithful to him.

⁹The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,

turned back on the day of battle;

¹⁰they did not keep God’s covenant

and refused to live by his law.

¹¹They forgot what he had done,

the wonders he had shown them.

¹²He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors

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

¹³He divided the sea and led them through;

he made the water stand up like a wall.

¹⁴He guided them with the cloud by day

and with light from the fire all night.

¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness

and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

¹⁶he brought streams out of a rocky crag

and made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against him,

rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.

¹⁸They willfully put God to the test

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God;

they said, “Can God really

spread a table in the wilderness?

²⁰True, 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?”

²¹When the Lord heard them, he was furious;

his fire broke out against Jacob,

and his wrath rose against Israel,

²²for they did not believe in God

or trust in his deliverance.

²³Yet he gave a command to the skies above

and opened the doors of the heavens;

²⁴he rained down manna for the people to eat,

he gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵Human beings ate the bread of angels;

he sent them all the food they could eat.

²⁶He let loose the east wind from the heavens

and by his power made the south wind blow.

²⁷He rained meat down on them like dust,

birds like sand on the seashore.

²⁸He made them come down inside their camp,

all around their tents.

²⁹They ate till they were gorged—

he had given them what they craved.

³⁰But before they turned from what they craved,

even while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger rose against them;

he put to death the sturdiest among them,

cutting down the young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

³³So he ended their days in futility

and their years in terror.

³⁴Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

they eagerly turned to him again.

³⁵They remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.

³⁶But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

lying to him with their tongues;

³⁷their hearts were not loyal to him,

they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸Yet 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.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

and grieved him in the wasteland!

⁴¹Again and again they put God to the test;

they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power—

the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

⁴³the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the region of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their river into blood;

they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

and frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

their produce to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle to the hail,

their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He unleashed against them his hot anger,

his wrath, indignation and hostility—

a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He prepared a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he brought his people out like a flock;

he led them like sheep through the wilderness.

⁵³He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,

to the hill country his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them

and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

⁵⁶But they put God to the test

and rebelled against the Most High;

they did not keep his statutes.

⁵⁷Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,

as unreliable as a faulty bow.

⁵⁸They angered him with their high places;

they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard them, he was furious;

he rejected Israel completely.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

the tent he had set up among humans.

⁶¹He sent the ark of his might into captivity,

his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

⁶²He gave his people over to the sword;

he was furious with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire consumed their young men,

and their young women had no wedding songs;

⁶⁴their priests were put to the sword,

and their widows could not weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.

⁶⁶He beat back his enemies;

he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth that he established forever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant

and took him from the sheep pens;

⁷¹from tending the sheep he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

of Israel his inheritance.

⁷²And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;

with skillful hands he led them.