Psalms 78

God’s guidance of his people in spite of their unfaithfulness.

Maschil of Asaph.

¹Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,

³Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;

⁶That the generation to come might know [them], even the children that should be born; Who should arise and tell [them] to their children,

⁷That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,

⁸And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that set not their heart aright, And whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They kept not the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law;

¹¹And they forgat his doings, And his wondrous works that he had showed them.

¹²Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as a heap.

¹⁴In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, And all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He clave rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet went they on still to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸And they tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹Yea, they spake against God; They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out, And streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?

²¹Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also went up against Israel;

²²Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven;

²⁴And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven.

²⁵Man did eat the bread of the mighty: He sent them food to the full.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; And by his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, And winged birds as the sand of the seas:

²⁸And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their habitations.

²⁹So they did eat, and were well filled; And he gave them their own desire.

³⁰They were not estranged from that which they desired, Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹When the anger of God went up against them, And slew of the fattest of them, And smote down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they sinned still, And believed not in his wondrous works.

³³Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, And their years in terror.

³⁴When he slew them, then they inquired after him; And they returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied unto him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹And he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They remember not his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labor unto the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycomore-trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹And smote all the first-born in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³And he led them safely, so that they feared not; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.

⁵⁵He drove out the nations also before them, And allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And kept not his testimonies;

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹When God heard [this], he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary`s hand.

⁶²He gave his people over also unto the sword, And was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men; And their virgins had no marriage-song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David also his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

Psalms 78 (ASV)

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Psalms

Chapter 78

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