Psalm Chapter 78 Back NextPsalm 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 their fattest, 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.
Psalm Chapter 78 Back Next