Psalm 78
Reading edition
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 the fattest of them,
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.