Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph.

¹ My people, give ear to my teaching: bend your ears to the words of my mouth,

² as I open my mouth in a poem on the riddling story of the past.

³ What we have heard and known, and what our ancestors have told us,

⁴ we will not hide from their children. We will tell to the next generation the praises and might of the Lord, and the wonders that he has done.

⁵ He set up a testimony in Jacob, a law he appointed in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to make known to their children,

⁶ that the next generation should know it, that the children yet to be born should arise and tell their children;

⁷ that in God they might put their confidence, and not forget God’s works; but that they might keep his commandments,

⁸ and not be like their ancestors, a generation defiant and stubborn, a generation with heart unsteady, and spirit unfaithful towards God.

⁹ Ephraimites, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.

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

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

¹² He did wonders before their ancestors in the country of Zoan in Egypt.

¹³ Through the sea which he split he brought them, making waters stand up like a heap;

¹⁴ he led them by day with a cloud, all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ From the rocks which he split in the wilderness, he gave them to drink as of ocean’s abundance.

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

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

¹⁸ They wilfully challenged God, demanding the food that they longed for.

¹⁹ “Is God able,“ such was their challenge, “to spread in the desert a table?

²⁰ From the rock that he struck there gushed water, and torrents that overflowed; but can he also give bread, or provide his people with meat?”

²¹ When the Lord heard this, he was furious, and fire was kindled on Jacob, anger flared up against Israel.

²² For they put no trust in God, no confidence in his help.

²³ So he summoned the clouds above; and, opening the doors of heaven,

²⁴ he rained manna upon them for food, and grain of heaven he gave them.

²⁵ Everyone ate the bread of angels; he sent them food to the full.

²⁶ He launched the east wind in the heavens, and guided the south by his power.

²⁷ He rained meat upon them like dust, winged bird like the sand of the sea.

²⁸ In the midst of their camp he dropped it, all around their tents.

²⁹ They ate and were more than filled; he had brought them the thing they desired.

³⁰ But the thing they desired became loathsome: while their food was still in their mouths,

³¹ the wrath of God rose against them. He slew the stoutest among them, and laid low the young men of Israel.

³² Yet for all this they sinned yet more, and refused to believe in his wonders.

³³ So he ended their days in a breath, and their years in sudden dismay.

³⁴ When he slew them, then they sought after him, they turned and sought God with diligence.

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

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

³⁷ Their heart was not steady with him, they were faithless to his covenant.

³⁸ But he is full of pity: he pardons sin and destroys not. Often he turns his anger away, without stirring his wrath at all.

³⁹ So he remembered that they were but flesh, breath that passes and does not return.

⁴⁰ But how often they rebelled in the desert, and caused him grief in the wilderness,

⁴¹ tempting God again and again, provoking the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They did not remember his strength, nor the day he redeemed from the foe,

⁴³ how he set his signs in Egypt, in the country of Zoan his wonders.

⁴⁴ He turned their canals into blood, their streams undrinkable.

⁴⁵ He sent forth flies, which devoured them; frogs, too, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ Their crops he gave to the caterpillar, and the fruits of their toil to the locust.

⁴⁷ He slew their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He delivered their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.

⁴⁹ He let loose his hot anger among them, fury and wrath and distress, a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰ He cleared a path for his anger, did not spare them from death, but gave them over to pestilence.

⁵¹ He struck down all the first-born in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² He led forth his people like sheep, he was guide to his flock in the desert.

⁵³ Securely he led them, and free from fear, while their foes were drowned in the sea.

⁵⁴ To his holy realm he brought them, to the mountain his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵ He drove out the nations before them, and allotted their land for possession, and their tents for Israel to live in.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and angered the Most High God, they did not observe his decrees.

⁵⁷ They drew back, false like their ancestors; they failed like a treacherous bow.

⁵⁸ Their shrines stirred him to anger, their idols moved him to jealousy.

⁵⁹ When God heard of this, he was furious, and he spurned Israel utterly.

⁶⁰ He abandoned his home in Shiloh, the tent he had pitched among people.

⁶¹ He gave his strength up to captivity, his glory to the hands of the foe.

⁶² He gave his people to the sword, he was furious with his own.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men, and their maidens had no marriage-song.

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

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior flushed with wine;

⁶⁶ and he beat back his foes, putting them to perpetual scorn.

⁶⁷ He disowned the tent of Joseph, he rejected the tribe of Ephraim;

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

⁶⁹ And he built like the heights his sanctuary, like the earth which he founded forever.

⁷⁰ And he chose David his servant, taking him from the sheepfolds.

⁷¹ From the mother-ewes he brought him, to be shepherd to Jacob his people, and to Israel his inheritance.

⁷² With upright heart did he shepherd them, and with skilful hands did he guide them.