Psalms Chapter 78
1 An instruction of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law. Bow down your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will speak dark sayings of old,
3 that we have heard and known and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 He set up a testimony in Jacob and ordered a law in Israel. In this He commanded our fathers so that they should teach them to their children.
6 Thus the generation to come might know. Children will be born and they will arise and tell their children.
7 So that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.
8 Thus they might not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart right and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The children of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law.
11 They forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand in a heap.
14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, and let them drink as from the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned even more against Him by provoking the most high in the wilderness.
18 They tempted God in their heart by asking food for their lust.
19 They spoke against God. They said, Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold. He struck the rock so that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread? Can He provide flesh for His people?
21 Therefore the Lord heard and was furious. So a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger came against Israel.
22 Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation.
23 Even though He commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of the heavens.
24 He rained down manna on them to eat and He gave them grain from the heavens.
25 People ate the food of the mighty. He sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the sky. By His power, He brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh on them like dust and winged birds like the sand of the sea;
28 He let them fall in the middle of their camp all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were filled to the full. For He gave them their own desire.
30 Yet they were not turned away from their lust, but while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came on them and killed the fattest of them and struck down the chosen of Israel.
32 After all this, they still sinned and did not believe because of His wonderful works.
33 Therefore He ended their days in vanity and their years in trouble.
34 When He killed them, then they looked for Him. They turned back and sought after God.
35 They remembered that God was their rock and the most high God was their redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouths and they lied to Him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with Him. Neither were they faithful in His covenant.
38 But He, full of pity, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; Yes, many times He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were but flesh. A wind that passes away and does not come again.
40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert.
41 Yes, they turned back and tempted God and pained the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His hand, the day when He delivered them from the enemy.
43 He set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood and their floods so that they could not drink.
45 He sent different kinds of flies among them that devoured them, and frogs that destroyed them.
46 He also gave their crops to the stripping locust and their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with sleet.
48 He gave up their cattle to the hail and their flocks to bolts of fire.
49 He sent on them the heat of His anger, wrath, and fury, and trouble, by sending evil angels.
50 He made a way to His anger. He did not save their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague,
51 He struck all the first born in Egypt, the first of the strong in the tents of Ham.
52 He led His people forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them on safely so that they did not fear. But the sea flooded over their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, to this mountain that His right hand had purchased.
55 He also cast out the nations before them and divided to them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to live in their tents.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God and did not keep His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceiving bow.
58 They provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.
59 When God heard, He was angry and turned away from Israel.
60 He left the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent that He placed among men.
61 He delivered His strength into captivity and His glory into the enemy's hands.
62 He also gave His people over to the sword and was angry with His inheritance.
63 The fire burned up their young men and their maidens were not given in marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword and their widows were not able to weep.
65 Then the Lord awakened like one out of sleep, like a mighty man rejoicing with wine.
66 He drove His enemies backward. He put them to a never ending shame.
67 He refused the tabernacle of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 He chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion that He loved.
69 He built His holy place like high palaces, like the earth that He has founded forever.
70 He also chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 From following the ewes great with young, He brought David to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
72 He fed them according to the pureness of his heart and guided them by the skillfullness of his hands.