Psalms 78 — NETB

A well-written song by Asaph.

78Verse 1Pay attention, my people, to my instruction!
Listen to the words I speak!
^{Verse 2}I will sing a song that imparts wisdom;
I will make insightful observations about the past.
^{Verse 3}What we have heard and learned –
that which our ancestors have told us –
^{Verse 4}we will not hide from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation
about the Lord’s praiseworthy acts,
about his strength and the amazing things he has done.
^{Verse 5}He established a rule in Jacob;
he set up a law in Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
to make his deeds known to their descendants,
^{Verse 6}so that the next generation, children yet to be born,
might know about them.
They will grow up and tell their descendants about them.
^{Verse 7}Then they will place their confidence in God.
They will not forget the works of God,
and they will obey his commands.
^{Verse 8}Then they will not be like their ancestors,
who were a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that was not committed
and faithful to God.
^{Verse 9}The Ephraimites were armed with bows,
but they retreated in the day of battle.
^{Verse 10}They did not keep their covenant with God,
and they refused to obey his law.
^{Verse 11}They forgot what he had done,
the amazing things he had shown them.
^{Verse 12}He did amazing things in the sight of their ancestors,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
^{Verse 13}He divided the sea and led them across it;
he made the water stand in a heap.
^{Verse 14}He led them with a cloud by day,
and with the light of a fire all night long.
^{Verse 15}He broke open rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them enough water to fill the depths of the sea.
^{Verse 16}He caused streams to flow from the rock,
and made the water flow like rivers.
^{Verse 17}Yet they continued to sin against him,
and rebelled against the sovereign One in the desert.
^{Verse 18}They willfully challenged God
by asking for food to satisfy their appetite.
^{Verse 19}They insulted God, saying,
“Is God really able to give us food in the wilderness?
^{Verse 20}Yes, he struck a rock and water flowed out,
streams gushed forth.
But can he also give us food?
Will he provide meat for his people?”
^{Verse 21}When the Lord heard this, he was furious.
A fire broke out against Jacob,
and his anger flared up against Israel,
^{Verse 22}because they did not have faith in God,
and did not trust his ability to deliver them.
^{Verse 23}He gave a command to the clouds above,
and opened the doors in the sky.
^{Verse 24}He rained down manna for them to eat;
he gave them the grain of heaven.
^{Verse 25}Man ate the food of the mighty ones.
He sent them more than enough to eat.
^{Verse 26}He brought the east wind through the sky,
and by his strength led forth the south wind.
^{Verse 27}He rained down meat on them like dust,
birds as numerous as the sand on the seashores.
^{Verse 28}He caused them to fall right in the middle of their camp,
all around their homes.
^{Verse 29}They ate until they were stuffed;
he gave them what they desired.
^{Verse 30}They were not yet filled up,
their food was still in their mouths,
^{Verse 31}when the anger of God flared up against them.
He killed some of the strongest of them;
he brought the young men of Israel to their knees.
^{Verse 32}Despite all this, they continued to sin,
and did not trust him to do amazing things.
^{Verse 33}So he caused them to die unsatisfied
and filled with terror.
^{Verse 34}When he struck them down, they sought his favor;
they turned back and longed for God.
^{Verse 35}They remembered that God was their protector,
and that the sovereign God was their deliverer.
^{Verse 36}But they deceived him with their words,
and lied to him.
^{Verse 37}They were not really committed to him,
and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
^{Verse 38}Yet he is compassionate.
He forgives sin and does not destroy.
He often holds back his anger,
and does not stir up his fury.
^{Verse 39}He remembered that they were made of flesh,
and were like a wind that blows past and does not return.
^{Verse 40}How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,
and insulted him in the desert!
^{Verse 41}They again challenged God,
and offended the Holy One of Israel.
^{Verse 42}They did not remember what he had done,
how he delivered them from the enemy,
^{Verse 43}when he performed his awesome deeds in Egypt,
and his acts of judgment in the region of Zoan.
^{Verse 44}He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.
^{Verse 45}He sent swarms of biting insects against them,
as well as frogs that overran their land.
^{Verse 46}He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
the fruit of their labor to the locust.
^{Verse 47}He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.
^{Verse 48}He rained hail down on their cattle,
and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock.
^{Verse 49}His raging anger lashed out against them,
He sent fury, rage, and trouble
as messengers who bring disaster.
^{Verse 50}He sent his anger in full force;
he did not spare them from death;
he handed their lives over to destruction.
^{Verse 51}He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their reproductive power in the tents of Ham.
^{Verse 52}Yet he brought out his people like sheep;
he led them through the wilderness like a flock.
^{Verse 53}He guided them safely along,
while the sea covered their enemies.
^{Verse 54}He brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountainous land which his right hand acquired.
^{Verse 55}He drove the nations out from before them;
he assigned them their tribal allotments
and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down.
^{Verse 56}Yet they challenged and defied the sovereign God,
and did not obey his commands.
^{Verse 57}They were unfaithful and acted as treacherously as their ancestors;
they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow.
^{Verse 58}They made him angry with their pagan shrines,
and made him jealous with their idols.
^{Verse 59}God heard and was angry;
he completely rejected Israel.
^{Verse 60}He abandoned the sanctuary at Shiloh,
the tent where he lived among men.
^{Verse 61}He allowed the symbol of his strong presence to be captured;
he gave the symbol of his splendor into the hand of the enemy.
^{Verse 62}He delivered his people over to the sword,
and was angry with his chosen nation.
^{Verse 63}Fire consumed their young men,
and their virgins remained unmarried.
^{Verse 64}Their priests fell by the sword,
but their widows did not weep.
^{Verse 65}But then the Lord awoke from his sleep;
he was like a warrior in a drunken rage.
^{Verse 66}He drove his enemies back;
he made them a permanent target for insults.
^{Verse 67}He rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
^{Verse 68}He chose the tribe of Judah,
and Mount Zion, which he loves.
^{Verse 69}He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above;
as secure as the earth, which he established permanently.
^{Verse 70}He chose David, his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds.
^{Verse 71}He took him away from following the mother sheep,
and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people,
and of Israel, his chosen nation.
^{Verse 72}David cared for them with pure motives;
he led them with skill.