Psalms 78
78
Psalm 78
Lessons from Israel’s Past
A Maskil of Asaph.#1Ch 16:5,7
1My people, hear my instruction;
listen to the words from my mouth.#Pr 5:7; 7:24; Is 55:3
2I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past#Ps 49:4; Pr 1:6; Mt 13:35 —
3things we have heard and known
and that our ancestors have passed down to us.#Ps 44:1
4We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell a future generation
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
his might, and the wondrous works
he has performed.#Dt 6:7; 11:19; Ps 145:4
5He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children#Ps 19:7; 81:5; 147:19
6so that a future generation —
children yet to be born — might know.
They were to rise and tell their children#Dt 11:19; Ps 22:31; 102:18
7so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
but keep his commands.#Dt 6:12; Ps 103:2; Pr 3:1
8Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.#Dt 31:27; 2Kg 17:14; 2Ch 30:7
9The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.#Ps 44:10
10They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by his law.#1Kg 11:11; 2Kg 17:15; Jr 32:23
11They forgot what he had done,
the wondrous works he had shown them.#Ps 106:13
12He worked wonders in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan.#Ex 7–12; Ps 78:43
13He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.#Ex 14:21; 15:8; Ps 136:13
14He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.#Ex 13:21; Nm 14:14; Ps 105:39
15He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.#Ex 17:6; Nm 20:8–13; Is 48:21
16He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.#Ps 105:41; 114:8
17But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.#Dt 9:22; Is 63:10; Heb 3:16
18They deliberately#78:18 Lit in their heart tested God,
demanding the food they craved.#Ex 17:2,7; Ps 106:14; 1Co 10:5–10
19They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
20Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.#Nm 20:11
But can he also provide bread
or furnish meat for his people?” #Ex 16:3; Nm 11:4; 21:5
21Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel#Nm 11:1
22because they did not believe God
or rely on his salvation.#Dt 1:23; 9:23; Heb 3:18
23He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.#Gn 7:11; Mal 3:10
24He rained manna for them to eat;
he gave them grain from heaven.#Ex 16:4,31; Jn 6:31
25People#78:25 Lit Man ate the bread of angels.#78:25 Lit mighty ones
He sent them an abundant supply of food.#Ex 16:3
26He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by his might.#Nm 11:31
27He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28He made them fall in the camp,
all around the tents.#Ex 16:13; Ps 105:40
29The people ate and were completely satisfied,
for he gave them what they craved.#Nm 11:4,34
30Before they had turned from what they craved,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31God’s anger flared up against them,
and he killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s fit young men.#Nm 11:33–34; Jb 20:23
32Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe his wondrous works.#Nm 14:16–17
33He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.#Nm 14:29,35; Jb 14:1; Ps 90:9; Ec 1:2–3
34When he killed some of them,
the rest began to seek him;
they repented and searched for God.#Nm 21:7; Ps 63:1; Hs 5:15
35They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their Redeemer.#Is 44:6,8
36But they deceived him with their mouths,
they lied to him with their tongues,#Is 29:13; 57:11; Ezk 33:31
37their hearts were insincere toward him,
and they were unfaithful to his covenant.#Ps 51:10; 78:8; Ac 8:21
38Yet he was compassionate;
he atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He often turned his anger aside
and did not unleash#78:38 Or stir up all his wrath.#Nm 14:18–20; Dt 4:31; Is 12:1
39He remembered that they were only flesh,
a wind that passes and does not return.#Dt 31:27; Ps 107:11
40How often they rebelled against him
in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert.
41They constantly tested God#Ps 95:8–9
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.#Dt 9:7–8,22; Ps 106:29; Zch 8:14
42They did not remember his power shown
on the day he redeemed them from the foe,#Jdg 8:34; Ps 44:3; 106:10
43when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.#Ex 4:21; 7:3; Ps 105:27
44He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.#Ex 7:14–25; Ps 105:29
45He sent among them swarms of flies,#Ex 8:17; Ps 105:31
which fed on them,
and frogs, which devastated them.#Ex 8:3–6; Ps 105:30
46He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.#Ex 10:14–15; Ps 105:34
47He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
48He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.#Ex 9:23–24; Ps 105:32
49He sent his burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity —
a band of deadly messengers.#78:49 Or angels#Ex 12:13,23; 2Sm 24:16
50He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.#Ex 12:29–30
51He struck all the firstborn#Ex 13:15; Ps 105:36 in Egypt,
the first progeny of the tents of Ham.#Ps 105:23,27
52He led his people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.#Ex 15:22; Ps 77:20
53He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.#Ex 14; 15:19; Jos 24:7; Ps 106:11
54He brought them to his holy territory,
to the mountain his right hand acquired.#Ex 15:17; Ps 74:2
55He drove out nations before them.#Jos 11:16–23; Ps 44:2
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.#Jos 13:7; 23:4; Ps 135:12
56But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep his decrees.#Jdg 2:11–13
57They treacherously turned away like their ancestors;
they became warped like a faulty bow.#Ezk 20:27–28; Hs 7:16
58They enraged him with their high places
and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.#Jdg 2:12; 1Kg 3:2; Ezk 20:28
59God heard and became furious;
he completely rejected Israel.#Dt 32:19; Ps 106:40; Am 6:8
60He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where he resided among mankind.#Jr 7:12,14; 26:6
61He gave up his strength to captivity
and his splendor to the hand of a foe.#1Sm 4:17
62He surrendered his people to the sword
because he was enraged with his heritage.#Jdg 20:21; 1Sm 4:10
63Fire consumed his chosen young men,
and his young women had no wedding songs.#78:63 Lit virgins were not praised#Jr 7:34; 16:9; Lm 2:21
64His priests fell by the sword,
and the widows could not lament.#Jb 27:15; Ezk 24:23
65The Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.#Ps 73:20; 121:4; Is 42:13
66He beat back his foes;
he gave them lasting disgrace.#1Sm 5:6; Ps 40:14
67He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.#Ps 87:2
69He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.#1Kg 6
70He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;#1Sm 16:11–13
71he brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over his people Jacob —
over Israel, his inheritance.#Ps 28:9; Is 40:11
72He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.#1Kg 9:4; Ps 101:2
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Psalms 78
78
Psalm 78
A maskil#Title: Probably a literary or musical term of Asaph.
1My people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
4We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
6so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
8They would not be like their ancestors—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.
9The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;
10they did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by his law.
11They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them.
12He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand up like a wall.
14He guided them with the cloud by day
and with light from the fire all night.
15He split the rocks in the wilderness
and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16he brought streams out of a rocky crag
and made water flow down like rivers.
17But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
18They willfully put God to the test
by demanding the food they craved.
19They spoke against God;
they said, “Can God really
spread a table in the wilderness?
20True, he struck the rock,
and water gushed out,
streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
Can he supply meat for his people?”
21When the Lord heard them, he was furious;
his fire broke out against Jacob,
and his wrath rose against Israel,
22for they did not believe in God
or trust in his deliverance.
23Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
24he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
25Human beings ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.
26He let loose the east wind from the heavens
and by his power made the south wind blow.
27He rained meat down on them like dust,
birds like sand on the seashore.
28He made them come down inside their camp,
all around their tents.
29They ate till they were gorged—
he had given them what they craved.
30But before they turned from what they craved,
even while the food was still in their mouths,
31God’s anger rose against them;
he put to death the sturdiest among them,
cutting down the young men of Israel.
32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33So he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
they eagerly turned to him again.
35They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;
37their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.
39He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the wasteland!
41Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44He turned their river into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
46He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.
47He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility—
a band of destroying angels.
50He prepared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.
51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55He drove out nations before them
and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
56But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.
57Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59When God heard them, he was furious;
he rejected Israel completely.
60He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among humans.
61He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62He gave his people over to the sword;
he was furious with his inheritance.
63Fire consumed their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs;
64their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
70He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;
71from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.
72And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them.
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