Psalm 78

¹Hear my teaching, O my people; *incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable; *I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

³That which we have heard and known, and what our forefathers have told us, *we will not hide from their children.

⁴We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the Lord, *and the wonderful works he has done.

⁵He gave his decrees to Jacob and established a law for Israel, *which he commanded them to teach their children;

⁶That the generations to come might know, and the children yet unborn; *that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

⁷So that they might put their trust in God, *and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments;

⁸And not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, *a generation whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, *turned back in the day of battle;

¹⁰They did not keep the covenant of God, *and refused to walk in his law;

¹¹They forgot what he had done, *and the wonders he had shown them.

¹²He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers, *in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split open the sea and let them pass through; *he made the waters stand up like walls.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day, *and all the night through with a glow of fire.

¹⁵He split the hard rocks in the wilderness *and gave them drink as from the great deep.

¹⁶He brought streams out of the cliff, *and the waters gushed out like rivers.

¹⁷But they went on sinning against him, *rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁸They tested God in their hearts, *demanding food for their craving.

¹⁹They railed against God and said, *“Can God set a table in the wilderness?

²⁰True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the gullies overflowed; *but is he able to give bread or to provide meat for his people?”

²¹When the Lord heard this, he was full of wrath; *a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger mounted against Israel;

²²For they had no faith in God, *nor did they put their trust in his saving power.

²³So he commanded the clouds above *and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna upon them to eat *and gave them grain from heaven.

²⁵So mortals ate the bread of angels; *he provided for them food enough.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens *and led out the south wind by his might.

²⁷He rained down flesh upon them like dust *and wingèd birds like the sand of the sea.

²⁸He let it fall in the midst of their camp *and round about their dwellings.

²⁹So they ate and were well filled, *for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰But they did not stop their craving, *though the food was still in their mouths.

³¹So God’s anger mounted against them; *he slew their strongest men and laid low the youth of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they went on sinning *and had no faith in his wonderful works.

³³So he brought their days to an end like a breath *and their years in sudden terror.

³⁴Whenever he slew them, they would seek him, *and repent, and diligently search for God.

³⁵They would remember that God was their rock, *and the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouths *and lied to him with their tongues.

³⁷Their heart was not steadfast toward him, *and they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins and did not destroy them; *many times he held back his anger and did not permit his wrath to be roused.

³⁹For he remembered that they were but flesh, *a breath that goes forth and does not return.

⁴⁰How often the people disobeyed him in the wilderness *and offended him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tempted God *and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power *in the day when he ransomed them from the enemy;

⁴³How he wrought his signs in Egypt *and his omens in the field of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood, *so that they could not drink of their streams.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up, *and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the caterpillar, *the fruit of their toil to the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail *and their sycamores with frost.

⁴⁸He delivered their cattle to hailstones *and their livestock to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He poured out upon them his blazing anger: *fury, indignation, and distress, a troop of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He gave full rein to his anger; he did not spare their souls from death; *but delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, *the flower of manhood in the dwellings of Ham.

⁵²He led out his people like sheep *and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them to safety, and they were not afraid; *but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to his holy land, *the mountain his right hand had won.

⁵⁵He drove out the Canaanites before them and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot; *he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶But they tested the Most High God, and defied him, *and did not keep his commandments.

⁵⁷They turned away and were disloyal like their fathers; *they were undependable like a warped bow.

⁵⁸The grieved him with their hill-altars *they provoked his displeasure with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was angry *and utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He forsook the shrine at Shiloh, *the tabernacle where he had lived among his people.

⁶¹He delivered the ark into captivity, *his glory into the adversary’s hand.

⁶²He gave his people to the sword *and was angered against his inheritance.

⁶³The fire consumed their young men; *there were no wedding songs for their maidens.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword, *and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord woke as though from sleep, *like a warrior refreshed with wine.

⁶⁶He struck his enemies on the backside *and put them to perpetual shame.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph *and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

⁶⁸He chose instead the tribe of Judah *and Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven, *like the earth which he founded for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant, *and took him away from the sheepfolds.

⁷¹He brought him from following the ewes, *to be a shepherd over Jacob his people and over Israel his inheritance.

⁷²So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart *and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.