Psalm 78
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.