Psalms 78 — ULB

A maschil of Asaph.

78Verse 1Hear my teaching, my people,
listen to the words of my mouth.
^{Verse 2}I will open my mouth in parables;
I will sing about hidden things about the past.
^{Verse 3}These are things that we have heard and learned,
things that our ancestors have told us.
^{Verse 4}We will not keep them from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation about the praiseworthy deeds of Yahweh,
his strength, and the wonders that he has done.
^{Verse 5}For he established covenant decrees in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
that they were to teach them to their children.
^{Verse 6}He commanded this so that the generation to come might know his decrees, the children not yet born,
who should tell them in turn to their own children.
^{Verse 7}Then they would place their hope in God
and not forget his deeds
but keep his commandments.
^{Verse 8}Then they would not be like their ancestors,
who were a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose hearts were not right,
and whose spirits were not committed and faithful to God.
^{Verse 9}The Ephraimites were armed with bows,
but they turned back on the day of battle.
^{Verse 10}They did not keep the covenant with God,
and they refused to obey his law.
^{Verse 11}They forgot his deeds,
the wonderful things that he had shown them.
^{Verse 12}They forgot the marvelous things he did in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the land of Zoan.
^{Verse 13}He divided the sea and led them across it;
he made the waters to stand like walls.
^{Verse 14}In the daytime he led them with a cloud
and all the night with the light of fire.
^{Verse 15}He split the rocks in the wilderness,
and he gave them water abundantly, enough to fill the depths of the sea.
^{Verse 16}He made streams flow out of the rock
and made the water flow like rivers.
^{Verse 17}Yet they continued to sin against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
^{Verse 18}They challenged God in their hearts
by asking for food to satisfy their appetites.
^{Verse 19}They spoke against God;
they said, “Can God really lay out a table for us in the wilderness?
^{Verse 20}See, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out
and streams overflowed.
But can he give bread also?
Will he provide meat for his people?”
^{Verse 21}When Yahweh heard this, he was angry;
so his fire burned against Jacob,
and his anger attacked Israel,
^{Verse 22}because they did not believe in God
and did not trust in his salvation.
^{Verse 23}Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of the sky.
^{Verse 24}He rained down manna for them to eat,
and gave them the grain from heaven.
^{Verse 25}People ate the bread of angels.
He sent them food in abundance.
^{Verse 26}He caused the east wind to blow in the sky,
and by his power he guided the south wind.
^{Verse 27}He rained down meat on them like dust,
birds as numerous as the sands of the sea.
^{Verse 28}They fell in the middle of their camp,
all around their tents.
^{Verse 29}So they ate and were full.
He gave them what they craved.
^{Verse 30}But they had not yet filled up;
their food was still in their mouths.
^{Verse 31}Then God's anger attacked them
and killed the strongest of them.
He brought down the young men of Israel.
^{Verse 32}Despite this, they continued to sin
and did not believe his wonderful deeds.
^{Verse 33}Therefore God cut short their days;
their years were filled with terror.
^{Verse 34}Whenever God afflicted them, they would start to seek him,
and they would return and look earnestly for him.
^{Verse 35}They would call to mind that God was their rock
and that the Most High God was their rescuer.
^{Verse 36}But they would flatter him with their mouth
and lie to him with their words.
^{Verse 37}For their hearts were not firmly fixed on him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
^{Verse 38}Yet he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.
Yes, many times he held back his anger
and did not stir up all his wrath.
^{Verse 39}He called to mind that they were made of flesh,
a wind that passes away and does not return.
^{Verse 40}How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the barren regions!
^{Verse 41}Again and again they challenged God
and offended the Holy One of Israel.
^{Verse 42}They did not think about his power,
how he had rescued them from the enemy
^{Verse 43}when he performed his terrifying signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan.
^{Verse 44}He turned the Egyptians' rivers to blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
^{Verse 45}He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
and frogs that overran their land.
^{Verse 46}He gave their crops to the grasshopper
and their labor to the locust.
^{Verse 47}He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with more hail.
^{Verse 48}He rained hail on their cattle
and hurled lightning bolts at their livestock.
^{Verse 49}The fierceness of his anger lashed out against them.
He sent wrath, fury, and trouble
like agents who bring disaster.
^{Verse 50}He leveled a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.
^{Verse 51}He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstborn of their strength in the tents of Ham.
^{Verse 52}He led his own people out like sheep
and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.
^{Verse 53}He led them secure and unafraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
^{Verse 54}Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain that his right hand acquired.
^{Verse 55}He drove out the nations from before them
and assigned them their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
^{Verse 56}Yet they challenged and defied the Most High God
and did not keep his solemn commands.
^{Verse 57}They were unfaithful and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they were as undependable as a faulty bow.
^{Verse 58}For they made him angry with their high places
and provoked him to jealous anger with their idols.
^{Verse 59}When God heard this, he was angry
and completely rejected Israel.
^{Verse 60}He abandoned the sanctuary of Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among people.
^{Verse 61}He allowed his strength to be captured
and gave his glory into the enemy's hand.
^{Verse 62}He handed his people over to the sword,
and he was angry with his heritage.
^{Verse 63}Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs.
^{Verse 64}Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
^{Verse 65}Then the Lord awakened as one from sleep,
like a warrior who shouts because of wine.
^{Verse 66}He drove his adversaries back;
he put them to everlasting shame.
^{Verse 67}He rejected the tent of Joseph,
and he did not chose the tribe of Ephraim.
^{Verse 68}He chose the tribe of Judah
and Mount Zion that he loved.
^{Verse 69}He built his sanctuary like the heavens,
like the earth that he has established forever.
^{Verse 70}He chose David, his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds.
^{Verse 71}He took him from following the ewes with their young, and he brought him
to be shepherd of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, his heritage.
^{Verse 72}David shepherded them with the integrity of his heart,
and he guided them with the skill of his hands.