Psalm 78

God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.

¹Listen, my people, to my instruction;[#78:1 Or law, teaching]

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will tell riddles of old,

³Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not conceal them from their children,

But we will tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord ,

And His power and His wondrous works 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 were to teach them to their children,

⁶So that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born,

That they would arise and tell them to their children,

⁷So that they would put their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But comply with His commandments,

⁸And not be like their fathers,

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not prepare its heart

And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹¶The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,[#78:9 Or being]

Yet they turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep the covenant of God

And refused to walk in His Law;

¹¹They forgot His deeds

And His miracles that He had shown them.

¹²He performed wonders before their fathers

In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,

And He made the waters stand up like a heap.

¹⁴Then He led them with the cloud by day

And all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness

And gave them plenty to drink like the ocean depths.

¹⁶He brought forth streams from the rock

And made waters run down like rivers.

¹⁷¶Yet they still continued to sin against Him,

To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸And in their heart they put God to the test

By asking for food that suited their taste.

¹⁹Then they spoke against God;

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out,

And streams were overflowing;

Can He also provide bread?

Will He prepare meat for His people?”

²¹¶Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath;[#78:21 Or became infuriated]

And a fire was kindled against Jacob,

And anger also mounted against Israel,

²²Because they did not believe in God

And did not trust in His salvation.

²³Yet He commanded the clouds above

And opened the doors of heaven;

²⁴He rained down manna upon them to eat,

And gave them food from heaven.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels;[#78:25 Lit mighty ones]

He sent them food in abundance.

²⁶He made the east wind blow in the sky

And by His power He directed the south wind.

²⁷When He rained meat upon them like the dust,

Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,

²⁸He let them fall in the midst of their camp,[#78:28 Lit His]

All around their dwellings.

²⁹So they ate and were well filled,

And He satisfied their longing.

³⁰Yet before they had abandoned their longing,[#78:30 Lit They did not turn away from their]

While their food was in their mouths,

³¹The anger of God rose against them

And killed some of their strongest ones,

And subdued the choice men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this they still sinned

And did not believe in His wonderful works.

³³So He brought their days to an end in futility,

And their years to an end in sudden terror.

³⁴¶When He killed them, then they sought Him,

And they returned and searched diligently for God;

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock,

And the Most High God their Redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered Him with their mouth

And lied to Him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,

Nor were they faithful with His covenant.

³⁸But He, being compassionate, forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them;[#78:38 Lit covered over, atoned for]

And often He restrained His anger

And did not stir up all His wrath.

³⁹So He remembered that they were only flesh,

A wind that passes and does not return.

⁴⁰¶How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness

And grieved Him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tempted God,[#78:41 Or put God to the test]

And pained the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember His power,[#78:42 Lit hand]

The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

⁴³When He performed His signs in Egypt

And His marvels in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴And turned their rivers to blood,

And their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them,

And frogs that destroyed them.

⁴⁶He also gave their crops to the grasshopper

And the product of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hailstones[#78:47 Lit was killing]

And their sycamore trees with frost.

⁴⁸He also turned their cattle over to the hailstones,

And their herds to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He sent His burning anger upon them,

Fury and indignation and trouble,

A band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He leveled a path for His anger;

He did not spare their souls from death,

But turned their lives over to the plague,

⁵¹And struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

The first and best of their vigor in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But He led His own people out like sheep,

And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

⁵³He led them safely, so that they did not fear;

But the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴¶So He brought them to His holy land,[#78:54 Lit border, territory]

To this hill country which His right hand had gained.

⁵⁵He also drove out the nations from them

And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,

And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God[#78:56 Or put to the test]

And did not keep His testimonies,

⁵⁷But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;

They turned aside like a treacherous bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked Him with their high places

And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.

⁵⁹When God heard them, He was filled with wrath[#78:59 Or became infuriated]

And He utterly rejected Israel;

⁶⁰So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,

The tent which He had pitched among people,

⁶¹And He gave up His strength to captivity

And His glory into the hand of the enemy.

⁶²He also turned His people over to the sword,

And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured His young men,[#78:63 Or their]

And His virgins had no wedding songs.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword,[#78:64 Or their]

And His widows could not weep.

⁶⁵¶Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,

Like a warrior overcome by wine.

⁶⁶He drove His adversaries backward;[#78:66 Lit struck]

He put on them an everlasting disgrace.

⁶⁷He also rejected the tent of Joseph,

And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁹And He built His sanctuary like the heights,

Like the earth which He has established forever.

⁷⁰He also chose His servant David

And took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹From the care of the ewes with nursing lambs He brought him[#78:71 Lit following; #78:71 Lit ewes that wet-nurse, He]

To shepherd Jacob His people,

And Israel His inheritance.

⁷²So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,

And guided them with his skillful hands.