God’s Faithfulness in Israel’s History

¹ A maskil of Asaph.¹ Listen, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

1. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm

² I will offer¹ a parable with my mouth. I will pour out riddles from long ago,

1. Hebrew “open”

³ that we have heard and known, and our ancestors¹ have told us.

1. Or “fathers”

⁴ We will not hide them from their children,¹ telling the next generation the praises of Yahweh, and his power and his wonders that he has done.

1. Or “descendants”

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law¹ in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors² to teach to their children,

1. Hebrew torah
2. Or “fathers”

⁶ so that the next generation might know— children yet to be born— that they might rise up and tell their children,

⁷ that they might set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸ and not be like their ancestors,¹ a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

1. Or “fathers”

⁹ The sons of Ephraim, ⌞armed with archers⌟,¹ turned back on the day of battle.

1. Literally “armed with shooters of the bow”

¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to go in his law.¹

1. Hebrew torah

¹¹ They also forgot his deeds, and his wonders that he had shown them.

¹² In front of their ancestors¹ he did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

1. Or “fathers”

¹³ He split the sea and caused them to go over, and he caused waters to stand like a heap.

¹⁴ And he led them with the cloud by day, and all night with a fiery light.

¹⁵ He caused rocks to split in the wilderness and provided drink abundantly as from the depths.

¹⁶ And he brought streams out of the rock and caused water to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ But they sinned still further against him by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ And they tested God in their heart by asking food ⌞for their craving⌟.¹

1. Literally “for their soul”

¹⁹ And they spoke against God. They said, “Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Yes, he struck the rock and water flowed and streams gushed out, but can he also give food or provide meat for his people?”

²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard and he was very angry, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger also rose up against Israel,

²² because they did not believe God, and they did not trust his salvation.

²³ Nevertheless, he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,

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

²⁵ Humankind ate the bread of ⌞angels⌟.¹ He sent them food enough to be satisfied.

1. Literally “mighty ones”

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and drove along the south wind by his strength.

²⁷ Then he rained meat on them like dust, even winged birds¹ like the sand of the seas.

1. Hebrew “bird”

²⁸ He caused them to fall in the midst of his camp, all around his dwellings.

²⁹ So they ate and were well filled, and he brought about what they craved.

³⁰ They had not yet turned aside from their craving, while their food was still in their mouth,

³¹ the anger of God rose against them, and he killed some of the stoutest of them, even the young men of Israel he caused to bow down in death.

³² In spite of all this they sinned further and did not believe his wonders.

³³ And he consumed their days with futility¹ their years with terror.²

1. Or “he ended their days like a breath”
2. Or “and their years suddenly”

³⁴ When he killed some of them, then they sought him, and repented and earnestly sought God.

³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock, and God Most High their redeemer.

³⁶ But they enticed him with their mouth and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷ For their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful to his covenant.

³⁸ But he was compassionate; he pardoned¹ their guilt and did not destroy them. And many times he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath,

1. Or “covered,” or “atoned for”

³⁹ for he remembered that they were flesh, a passing wind that does not return.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and vexed him in the wasteland!

⁴¹ So they again tested God and distressed¹ the Holy One of Israel.

1. Or perhaps, “pressed to the limit”

⁴² And they did not remember his ⌞power⌟¹ ⌞when⌟² he redeemed them from the enemy,

1. Literally “hand”
2. Literally “the day that”

⁴³ how he performed¹ his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the region of Zoan,

1. Hebrew “set”

⁴⁴ when he turned their rivers¹ to blood so they could not drink from their streams.

1. Normally the word for the Nile, with the plural here suggesting perhaps it and its canals

⁴⁵ He sent among them flies that devoured them and frogs that destroyed them.

⁴⁶ And he gave their crop to the locusts and their labor to the locust.¹

1. Two different words translated “locusts”

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with sleet.¹

1. The word for “sleet” is only used here, and the translation is a guess based on context

⁴⁸ He also handed their cattle over to the hail and their livestock to the lightning bolts.

⁴⁹ He sent against them his fierce anger, rage and indignation and trouble, a band of ⌞destroying⌟¹ angels.

1. Literally “evil”

⁵⁰ He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them¹ from death but handed their life over to the plague.

1. Hebrew “their soul”

⁵¹ And he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their virility in the tents of Ham.

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

⁵³ And he led them safely and they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴ So he brought them to his holy territory,¹ this mountain his right hand acquired.²

1. Hebrew “border”
2. Or “had created”

⁵⁵ And he drove out nations before them and allocated them for an inheritance by boundary line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ But they tested and rebelled against God Most High and did not keep his statutes.

⁵⁷ And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors.¹ They twisted like a crooked² bow.

1. Or “fathers”
2. Or “deceitful”

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and made him jealous with their images.

⁵⁹ God heard and he was very angry and rejected Israel utterly.

⁶⁰ So he abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, the tent he had placed among humankind.

⁶¹ And he gave his strength into captivity and his splendor into the hand of the enemy.

⁶² He also handed his people over to the sword, and he was very angry with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire devoured his young men, and his young women¹ were not praised.

1. Or “virgins”

⁶⁴ His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke like one who had been asleep, awoke like a warrior who had been drunk with wine.¹

1. Or “like a warrior shouting because of wine”

⁶⁶ And he beat back his enemies; he gave them over to perpetual scorn.

⁶⁷ And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not chose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ but chose the tribe of Judah, ⌞Mount Zion⌟¹ that he loved.

1. Literally “the mountain of Zion”

⁶⁹ And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

⁷⁰ And he chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds.

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

⁷² And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.