Psalms - Chapter 78 | New International Version

  • 1. {A maskil of Asaph.} O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
  • 2. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--
  • 3. what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
  • 4. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
  • 5. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
  • 6. so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
  • 7. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
  • 8. They would not be like their forefathers-- a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
  • 9. The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;
  • 10. they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.
  • 11. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
  • 12. He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
  • 13. He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.
  • 14. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
  • 15. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
  • 16. he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
  • 17. But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
  • 18. They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
  • 19. They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
  • 20. When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?"
  • 21. When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,
  • 22. for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.
  • 23. Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;
  • 24. he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.
  • 25. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
  • 26. He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power.
  • 27. He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
  • 28. He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.
  • 29. They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved.
  • 30. But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths,
  • 31. God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.
  • 32. In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
  • 33. So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
  • 34. Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.
  • 35. They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
  • 36. But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
  • 37. their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
  • 38. Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.
  • 39. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
  • 40. How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!
  • 41. Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
  • 42. They did not remember his power-- the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
  • 43. the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
  • 44. He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
  • 45. He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
  • 46. He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.
  • 47. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
  • 48. He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
  • 49. He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility-- a band of destroying angels.
  • 50. He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.
  • 51. He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
  • 52. But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.
  • 53. He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
  • 54. Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
  • 55. He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
  • 56. But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
  • 57. Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
  • 58. They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
  • 59. When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely.
  • 60. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
  • 61. He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
  • 62. He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.
  • 63. Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;
  • 64. their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.
  • 65. Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
  • 66. He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.
  • 67. Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
  • 68. but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
  • 69. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.
  • 70. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;
  • 71. from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.
  • 72. And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
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