Psalms 78
The salvation that God granted to Israel: the rebellion against him: God chose Judah and David to shepherd Israel
1 Hear my law, my people; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old.
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, but will show to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and the wonders that he has done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
6 That the generation to come might know it; the children who should be born might arise and tell their children;
7 That they might put their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
8 And they were not like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9 The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law.
11 And they forgot his works, and the wonders that he had shown them,
12 Which he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through it; he made the waters stand as an heap.
14 He led them by day with a cloud, and by night with the brightness of a fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought forth fountains out of the rock, and made the waters run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him, provoking the Most High in the desert.
18 And they tempted God in their hearts, asking for meat to satisfy their appetite.
19 And they spoke against God, and said, Can God prepare a table for us in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out; streams burst forth in abundance. Can he also give us bread, or provide meat for his people?
21 And the Lord heard them, and was wroth; and he kindled a fire against Jacob, and wrath also arose against Israel:
22 Because they believed not God, nor trusted in his salvation,
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 They ate every man the bread of the mighty; he sent them meat in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and brought in the south with its strength.
27 He rained flesh upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.
28 He caused them to fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.
29 So they ate and were well satisfied; for he had satisfied their desire.
30 They did not restrain their appetite. While the food was still in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them, and he killed the strongest of them, and struck down the chosen ones of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still more, and did not believe in his wonders.
33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in anguish.
34 When he had put them to death, then they sought him; and they returned, and sought God early in the morning.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 Yet they flattered him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him.
37 For their heart was not right with him, nor were they steadfast in his covenant.
38 But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; but many times he turned away his anger from them, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passeth away and returneth not.
40 How often did they provoke him in the wilderness, and revile him in the desert!
41 They turned back, and tempted God, and doubted the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember the might of his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the adversary:
43 How he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the plain of Zoan;
44 He turned their rivers and streams into blood, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locusts.
47 He destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their sycamore trees with hailstones.
48 He gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the lightning.
49 He sent among them the fierceness of his anger, fury, wrath, and anguish.
50 He gave way to his wrath; he did not spare their soul from death, nor their life from the pestilence.
51 And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of his strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like sheep, and led them through the wilderness like a flock.
53 And he led them safely, so that they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.
54 And he led them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain which his right hand had acquired.
55 And he drove out the nations before them, and divided the land, and gave them for an inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep his testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt treacherously like their fathers; they turned like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked them to anger with their high places, and moved them to jealousy with their carved images.
59 When God heard this, he was angry and hated Israel greatly.
60 Therefore he forsook the tabernacle in Shiloh, the tent that he had made for himself to dwell among men.
61 He gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men, and their virgins had no wedding feast.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not mourn.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty man stirred up by wine.
66 He struck down his adversaries, and they fled, and put them to perpetual contempt.
67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like the high places, like the land which he founded forever.
70 He chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 He brought him from following the flock to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with the skill of his hands.
