Psalm, 78

Masʹkil.^*1 Of Aʹsaph.

¹ Listen, my people, to my law;^*1 Incline your ear to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a proverb. I will propound riddles of long ago.

³ The things we have heard and know, Which our fathers have related to us,

⁴ We will not hide from their sons; We will relate to the generation to come The praiseworthy deeds of Jehovah and his strength, The wonderful things he has done.

⁵ He established a reminder in Jacob And set a law in Israel; He commanded our forefathers To make these things known to their children,

⁶ So that the next generation, The children yet to be born, might know them. They in turn would relate them to their children.

⁷ Then these would put their confidence in God. They would not forget God’s works But would observe his commandments.

⁸ Then they would not be like their forefathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation whose heart was unsteady^*1 And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ The Eʹphra·im·ites were armed with the bow, But they retreated in the day of battle.

¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in his law.

¹¹ They also forgot what he had done, His wonderful works that he showed them.

¹² He did marvelous things in the sight of their forefathers, In the land of Egypt, the region of Zoʹan.

¹³ He split the sea to let them pass through, And he made the waters stand up like a dam.^*1

¹⁴ He led them with a cloud by day And the whole night with the light of a fire.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness, He let them drink their fill as if from deep waters.

¹⁶ He brought streams out of a crag And caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ But they continued to sin against him By rebelling against the Most High in the desert;

¹⁸ They challenged^*1 God in their heart By demanding food that they craved.^*2

¹⁹ So they spoke against God, Saying: “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?”

²⁰ Look! He struck a rock So that waters flowed and streams flooded out. “Can he also give us bread, Or can he provide meat for his people?”

²¹ When Jehovah heard them, he became furious; A fire blazed against Jacob, And his anger flared up against Israel

²² Because they did not put faith in God; They did not trust in his ability to save them.

²³ So he commanded the cloudy skies above, And he opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴ He kept raining down manna for them to eat; He gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵ Men ate the bread of mighty ones;^*1 He provided enough to satisfy them.

²⁶ He stirred up the east wind in the heavens And made a south wind blow by his power.

²⁷ And he rained down meat on them like dust, Birds like the sand of the seashore.

²⁸ He made them fall in the midst of his camp, All around his tents.

²⁹ And they ate and gorged themselves; He gave them what they desired.

³⁰ But before they fully satisfied their craving, While their food was yet in their mouth,

³¹ God’s wrath flared up against them. He put to death their strongest men; He brought down the young men of Israel.

³² Despite this they sinned even more And did not put faith in his wonderful works.

³³ So he brought their days to an end as if a mere breath, And their years by sudden terrors.

³⁴ But as often as he killed them, they would search for him; They would return and look for God,

³⁵ Remembering that God was their Rock And that the Most High God was their Redeemer.^*1

³⁶ But they tried to deceive him with their mouth And lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast toward him; And they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸ But he was merciful; He would forgive^*1 their error and not bring them to ruin. He often held back his anger Instead of stirring up all his wrath.

³⁹ For he remembered that they were flesh, A wind that blows past and does not return.^*1

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness And made him feel hurt in the desert!

⁴¹ Again and again they put God to the test, And they grieved^*1 the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They did not remember his power,^*1 The day that he rescued^*2 them from the adversary,

⁴³ How he displayed his signs in Egypt And his miracles in the region of Zoʹan,

⁴⁴ And how he turned the Nile canals into blood So that they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵ He sent swarms of gadflies to devour them And frogs to bring them to ruin.

⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the voracious locusts, The fruit of their labor to the swarming locusts.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail And their sycamore trees with hailstones.

⁴⁸ He gave their beasts of burden over to the hail And their livestock to the lightning bolts.^*1

⁴⁹ He inflicted his burning anger on them, Fury and indignation and distress, Companies of angels bringing calamity.

⁵⁰ He cleared a pathway for his anger. He did not spare them^*1 from death; And he gave them^*2 over to pestilence.

⁵¹ Finally he struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, The beginning of their procreative power in the tents of Ham.

⁵² Then he brought his people out like a flock And guided them like a drove in the wilderness.

⁵³ He led them in security, And they felt no fear; The sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy territory, This mountainous region that his right hand acquired.

⁵⁵ He drove out the nations from before them; He allotted to them an inheritance by the measuring line; He settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

⁵⁶ But they kept challenging^*1 God the Most High, and rebelling against him; They did not pay attention to his reminders.

⁵⁷ They also turned away and were as treacherous as their forefathers. They were as unreliable as a loose bow.

⁵⁸ They kept offending him with their high places, And they incited him to fury^*1 with their carved images.

⁵⁹ God heard and became furious, So he utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰ He finally forsook the tabernacle of Shiʹloh, The tent where he had resided among men.

⁶¹ He let the symbol of his strength go into captivity; His splendor into the hand of the adversary.

⁶² He handed his people over to the sword And became furious with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire consumed his young men, And to his virgins no wedding songs were sung.^*1

⁶⁴ His priests fell by the sword, And their own widows did not weep.

⁶⁵ Then Jehovah woke up as from sleep, Like a mighty man waking up from wine.

⁶⁶ And he drove his adversaries back; He put them to lasting disgrace.

⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph; He did not choose the tribe of Eʹphra·im.

⁶⁸ But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.

⁶⁹ He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens,^*1 Like the earth that he has established forever.

⁷⁰ He chose David his servant And took him from the sheep pens,

⁷¹ From tending the nursing ewes; He made him the shepherd over Jacob, his people, And over Israel, his inheritance.

⁷² He shepherded them with integrity of heart, And with skillful hands he led them.