Psalms 78 — FBV

A psalm (maskil) of Asaph.

78Verse 1Listen to what I have to teach you, my people; hear what I have to say.
^{Verse 2}I will tell you wise sayings;⁺I will explain mysteries from the past
^{Verse 3}that we have heard before and reflected on; stories our forefathers passed down to us.
^{Verse 4}We will not keep them from our children; we will tell the next generation about God's marvelous actions—about his power and the amazing things he has done.
^{Verse 5}He gave his laws to the descendants of Jacob; his instructions to the people of Israel. He commanded our forefathers to teach them to their children,
^{Verse 6}so that the next generation—children yet to be born—would understand and grow up to teach their children.
^{Verse 7}In this way they should place their trust in God and not forget what God has done, and keep his commandments.
^{Verse 8}Then they would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation that was untrustworthy and unfaithful.
^{Verse 9}The soldiers of Ephraim,⁺though armed with bows, ran away on the day of battle.
^{Verse 10}They did not keep God's agreement, and refused to follow his laws.
^{Verse 11}They ignored⁺what he had done, and the amazing things he had shown them—
^{Verse 12}the miracles he had performed for their forefathers near Zoan⁺in Egypt.
^{Verse 13}He split the sea in two and led them through, making the water stand like walls on either side.^{+
Verse 14}He led them with a cloud by day, and by night with a light of fire.
^{Verse 15}He split open rocks in the desert to give his people plenty to drink, water as deep as the ocean.
^{Verse 16}He made streams flow from the stone; water rushing down like rivers!
^{Verse 17}But they repeatedly sinned against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
^{Verse 18}They deliberately provoked God by demanding the foods they longed for.
^{Verse 19}They insulted God by saying, “Can God provide food⁺here in the desert?
^{Verse 20}Yes, he can strike a rock so that water gushes out like flowing rivers, but can he give us bread? Can he supply his people with meat?”
^{Verse 21}When he heard this, the Lord became very angry, burning like fire against the descendants of Jacob, furious with the people of Israel,
^{Verse 22}for they didn't believe in God and didn't trust him to take care of them.
^{Verse 23}Even so he commanded the skies above and the doors of heaven to open,
^{Verse 24}and he made manna rain down on them to eat, giving them bread from heaven.
^{Verse 25}Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them more than enough food.
^{Verse 26}He sent the east wind blowing across the sky; by his power he drove the south wind.^{+
Verse 27}He rained down meat on them as plentiful as dust; birds as numerous as sand on a beach.
^{Verse 28}He made them fall right in the middle of their camp, all around where they were living.
^{Verse 29}They ate until they were full. He gave them the food they longed for.
^{Verse 30}But before they satisfied their appetite, while the meat was still in their mouths,
^{Verse 31}God became angry with them and he killed their strongest men, striking them down in the prime of life.
^{Verse 32}Despite all this they went right on sinning. Despite the miracles, they refused to trust him.
^{Verse 33}So he snuffed out their futile lives, bringing them to an end in terror.
^{Verse 34}When he began killing them, the rest came back to God in repentance, praying to him.
^{Verse 35}They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their Savior.
^{Verse 36}They flattered him by what they told him, but they were only lying.
^{Verse 37}Deep down they were not sincere, and did not keep the agreement⁺they had with him.
^{Verse 38}But being compassionate he pardoned their guilt and did not destroy all of them. He often held back his anger—he did not pour out all his fury.
^{Verse 39}He remembered their mortality—that they were like a puff of wind that would not return.
^{Verse 40}How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, giving him grief in the desert!
^{Verse 41}Again and again they provoked God, causing pain to the Holy One of Israel.
^{Verse 42}They did not remember his strength when he rescued them from their oppressors,
^{Verse 43}performing miracles in Egypt, doing wonderful things on the plain of Zoan.
^{Verse 44}There he turned their⁺rivers and their streams into blood so that no one could drink from them.
^{Verse 45}He sent flies among them to destroy⁺them, and frogs to ruin everything.
^{Verse 46}He gave their crops to locusts; everything they worked had for was taken by locusts.^{+
Verse 47}He destroyed their vines with hail, and their fig trees with freezing rain.
^{Verse 48}He handed over their cattle to hail and their flocks to lightning bolts.
^{Verse 49}He poured out on them his fierce anger—rage and hostility and anguish—sending a band of destroying angels against them.
^{Verse 50}He sent his unrestrained anger against them; he did not spare them from death, handing them over to the plague.
^{Verse 51}He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the first to be conceived in the tents of Ham.^{+
Verse 52}But he led out his people like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.
^{Verse 53}He led them to safety, and they were not afraid. He drowned their enemies in the sea.
^{Verse 54}He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this mountainous land that he had conquered for them.
^{Verse 55}He drove out the heathen nations before them. He divided up the land for them to own. He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
^{Verse 56}But they provoked God Most High, rebelling against him. They did not follow what he had told them.
^{Verse 57}Just like their forefathers they turned away from God and were unfaithful to him, as twisted as a defective bow.^{+
Verse 58}They made him angry with their pagan high places of worship; they made him jealous with their idols.
^{Verse 59}When God heard their worship he became furious and he totally rejected Israel.
^{Verse 60}He abandoned his place at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he lived among the people.
^{Verse 61}He surrendered the Ark of his power, allowing it to be captured; handing it over into enemy hands.
^{Verse 62}He handed over his people to be slaughtered by the sword; he was furious with his chosen people.
^{Verse 63}Their young men were destroyed by fire; their young women had no wedding songs.^{+
Verse 64}Their priests were killed by the sword; their widows were unable to mourn.
^{Verse 65}Then the Lord woke up as if from sleep, as a warrior sobering up from drinking wine.
^{Verse 66}He defeated his enemies, striking them on the back, causing them everlasting shame.
^{Verse 67}He rejected the descendants of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.^{+
Verse 68}Instead he chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion which he loves.
^{Verse 69}There he built his sanctuary, high like the heavens, on earth that he made to last forever.
^{Verse 70}He chose his servant David, taking him from the sheep pens,
^{Verse 71}taking him from caring for the sheep and lambs to be a shepherd to the descendants of Jacob—God's special people, Israel.
^{Verse 72}Like a shepherd, he took care of them with sincere devotion, leading them with skillful hands.