Psalm 78:1-72
(Meditative; of Asaph’s.)
78 Give ear to my instructions, my people,bend your ears to the say of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a lesson of history,will stream mysterious facts from ancient time.
3 What we have heard and knowand our fathers have told us
4 We will not conceal from their children,telling the tale to a later generation,Jehovah’s praises and his feats of mightand the wonders that he did
5 And set up a testimony in Jacoband established a code of instructions in IsraelWhich he commanded our fathersto make known to their children,
6 In order that a later generation might know,children that were to be born,Might stand up and tell the story to their children,
7 to have them set their confidence in GodAnd not forget Deity’s doingsbut keep his commandments,
8 And not be like their fathers,a stubborn and rebellious generation,A generation that had not set its heart firmand whose spirit was not loyal to Deity;
9 Sons of Ephraim who, archers armed,turned round on a day of combat.
10 They did not keep God’s covenantand refused to go by his instructions,
11 And forgot his deedsand his wonders that he had showed them.
12 Before their fathers he did wonderfully,in Egypt, the countryside of Soan.
13 He split a sea and brought them through,standing the water up as if in a heap,
14 And guided them by a cloud by dayand at night by a light of fire.
15 He cracked open rocks in the wildernessand gave drink as abundant as the deeps,
16 And brought out a flow from a cragand made water come down like rivers.
17 But they went right on sinning against him,disobeying the Most High in the land of drought,
18 And had the thought of putting Deity on trial,asking for food for their appetites,
19 And talked at God, said“Can Deity set a table in the wilderness?
20 Here he has struck a rockand water ran out and arroyos ran in freshet,Can he give bread tooor provide meat for his people?”
21 So Jehovah heard and was furious,and a fire broke out in Jacoband anger at Israel came up withal,
22 Because they did not have faith in Godnor put their trust in his salvation;
23 And he gave orders to the heavens aboveand opened the doors of the sky,
24 And rained on them manna for foodand gave them corn of heaven.
25 A man ate the bread of angels;he sent them all the provision they required.
26 He had an east wind set out in the sky,drove on a south wind by his power,
27 And rained meat on them like the soil they trod onand winged birds like the sand of the seas,
28 And let it fall within their camp,around their lodges,
29 And they ate and had every bit they could hold,and he brought them what they craved.
30 They were not cloyed from their craving,they still had their food in their mouths,
31 And God’s anger against them came upand he killed among their plumpestand brought down Israel’s young men.
32 With all this they still sinnedand did not have faith in his wonders;
33 And he finished off their days with prostrationand their years with palpitation.
34 If he killed them they invoked him,and came back in quest of Deity,
35 And remembered that God was their Rockand the Deity on high their Friend in need,
36 And cajoled him with their mouthsand lied to him with their tongues,
37 But their hearts were not firmly with Godand they were not loyal to his covenant.
38 But he is tenderhearted,purging away guilt and not dealing destruction,And does much of turning back his angerand does not stir up his ire,
39 And he remembered that they were mortals,a wind that goes and does not come back.
40 How often they disobeyed him in the wilderness,grieved him in desert land,
41 And put Deity on trial over againand brought regret to the Holy One of Israel!
42 They did not remember his hand,the day he redeemed them from distress,
43 Exhibited his tokens in Egyptand his miracles in the countryside of Soan,
44 And turned the branches of their Nile to blood,and their waters were undrinkable;
45 He sent among them ʽarob flies that ate them upand frogs that infested them;
46 He gave their growing things to the fall grasshoppersand what had come of their toil to the spring grasshoppers;
47 He killed their grapevines with hailand their sycamore trees with frost;
48 He handed their cattle over to the hailand their stock to the firebolts.
49 He let loose his anger upon them,wrath and hostility and belligerency,A sending of evil angels;
50 he saw to a path for his anger.He did not hold back their souls from deathbut handed their lives over to the pestilence,
51 And struck every eldest son in Egypt,the firstfruit of their powers in the homes of Ham,
52 And set his people in motion like so many sheepand drove them along in the wilderness like a flock,
53 And led them in secure confidence, they felt no dread,and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And he brought them into his sacred territory,that highland his right hand had gained,
55 And expelled nations before themand allotted them as definite estate,and settled in their homes the tribes of Israel.
56 But they put the Most High God on trial and disobeyed him,and did not keep to his lessons,
57 But fell away and were faithless like their fathers,turned over like an unreliable bow,
58 And provoked him with their heightsand stirred his jealousy with their rock-carvings.
59 God heard and was furiousand utterly spurned Israel,
60 And abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,the tent he had set up for presence among men,
61 And gave his power into captivityand his magnificence into the hands of a foe,
62 And handed his people over to the swordand was in wrath at his estate.
63 Fire consumed its young menand its maidens raised no death-song.
64 Its priests fell by the swordand its widows did not weep.
65 But the Lord woke up like one who had been asleep,like a champion who had been overcome by wine,
66 And drove his foes back,put them to perpetual ignominy,
67 And repudiated Joseph’s tentand did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah,Mount Sion which he loves,
69 And built his sanctuary like the peaks,like the earth whose foundations he has fixed forever,
70 And chose his servant Davidand took him from the work of the sheep,
71 Brought him from behind ewes in milkto shepherd his people Jacoband his estate Israel;
72 And he shepherded them with sincere heartand guided them with intelligent hands.
