Psalm 78
A contemplation by Asaph.
[78:1] Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. [78:2] I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, [78:3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. [78:4] We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done. [78:5] For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; [78:6] that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, [78:7] that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, [78:8] and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God. [78:9] The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. [78:10] They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law. [78:11] They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them. [78:12] He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. [78:13] He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap. [78:14] In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire. [78:15] He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. [78:16] He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. [78:17] Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert. [78:18] They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire. [78:19] Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? [78:20] Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?" [78:21] Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel, [78:22] because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation. [78:23] Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven. [78:24] He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky. [78:25] Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full. [78:26] He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind. [78:27] He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas. [78:28] He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations. [78:29] So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. [78:30] They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths, [78:31] when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel. [78:32] For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works. [78:33] Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. [78:34] When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. [78:35] They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. [78:36] But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. [78:37] For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant. [78:38] But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath. [78:39] He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again. [78:40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert! [78:41] They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. [78:42] They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; [78:43] how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan, [78:44] he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. [78:45] He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. [78:46] He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. [78:47] He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. [78:48] He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. [78:49] He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil. [78:50] He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, [78:51] and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. [78:52] But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. [78:53] He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. [78:54] He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken. [78:55] He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. [78:56] Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies; [78:57] but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. [78:58] For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images. [78:59] When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel; [78:60] So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; [78:61] and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand. [78:62] He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance. [78:63] Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song. [78:64] Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep. [78:65] Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine. [78:66] He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach. [78:67] Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim, [78:68] But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. [78:69] He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever. [78:70] He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; [78:71] from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. [78:72] So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.