Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph.

1Listen, my people, to my teaching; turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour out riddles from long ago,

3things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.

4We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and the wonders he has done.

5He established a testimony in Jacob and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,

6so that the next generation would know them, children yet to be born, and they in turn would rise and tell their children,

7so that they would put their confidence in God and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments,

8and not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9The men of Ephraim, armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle.

10They did not keep God’s covenant, and they refused to walk in his law.

11They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

12In the sight of their ancestors he did wonders in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

13He split the sea and led them through; he made the waters stand up like a heap.

14He led them with the cloud by day, and all night long with the light of fire.

15He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.

16He brought streams out of the rock and made water flow down like rivers.

17Yet they went on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

18They tested God in their hearts by demanding the food they craved.

19They spoke against God; they said, “Can God set a table in the wilderness?

20True, he struck the rock and water gushed out and streams overflowed, but can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?”

21So when Yahweh heard, he was furious; a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger rose against Israel,

22because they did not believe in God or trust in his salvation.

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

24he rained down manna on them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.

25Each one ate the bread of the mighty; he sent them food in abundance.

26He stirred up the east wind in the heavens and drove the south wind by his power.

27He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas.

28He made them fall in the middle of their camp, all around their tents.

29They ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.

30But before they had turned from their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,

31the anger of God rose against them; he killed the strongest of them and struck down the young men of Israel.

32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; they did not believe in his wonders.

33So he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in sudden terror.

34Whenever he killed some of them, the rest would seek him; they would turn back and look eagerly for God.

35They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.

36But they flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues;

37their hearts were not steadfast toward him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.

38Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them; time after time he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath.

39He remembered that they were only flesh, a breath that passes and does not return.

40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!

41Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember his power, the day he redeemed them from the foe,

43when he performed his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the region of Zoan.

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

45He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which ruined them.

46He gave their crops to the grasshopper and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost.

48He gave over their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49He unleashed on them his burning anger, fury, indignation, and distress, a band of destroying angels.

50He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave their lives over to the plague.

51He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

53He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies.

54He brought them to his holy territory, to the mountain his right hand had acquired.

55He drove out nations before them; he allotted their lands as an inheritance by measuring line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56Yet they tested and rebelled against God Most High and did not keep his testimonies.

57They turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a faulty bow.

58They provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their idols.

59When God heard, he was furious, and he utterly rejected Israel.

60He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent he had set up among people.

61He gave his strength into captivity, his splendor into the hand of the foe.

62He handed his people over to the sword and was furious with his inheritance.

63Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs.

64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.

65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.

66He beat back his foes; he put them to everlasting shame.

67He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

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

69He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth, which he established forever.

70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

71from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.

72He shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.