Psalms 78
78
Psalm 78
A maskil by Asaph.
1Open your ears to my teachings, my people.
Turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2I will open my mouth to illustrate points.
I will explain what has been hidden long ago,
3things that we have heard and known about,
things that our parents have told us.
4We will not hide them from our children.
We will tell the next generation
about the Lord’s power and great deeds
and the miraculous things he has done.
5He established written instructions for Jacob’s people.
He gave his teachings to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children
6so that the next generation would know them.
Children yet to be born ⌞would learn them⌟.
They will grow up and tell their children
7to trust God, to remember what he has done,
and to obey his commands.
8Then they will not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation.
Their hearts were not loyal.
Their spirits were not faithful to God.
9The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows ⌞and arrows⌟,
turned ⌞and ran⌟ on the day of battle.
10They had not been faithful to God’s promise.#78:10 Or “covenant.”
They refused to follow his teachings.
11They forgot what he had done—
the miracles that he had shown them.
12In front of their ancestors he performed miracles
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13He divided the sea and led them through it.
He made the waters stand up like a wall.
14He guided them by a cloud during the day
and by a fiery light throughout the night.
15He split rocks in the desert.
He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water.
16He made streams come out of a rock.
He made the water flow like rivers.
17They continued to sin against him,
to rebel in the desert against the Most High.
18They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved.
19They spoke against God by saying,
“Can God prepare a banquet in the desert?
20True, he did strike a rock,
and water did gush out,
and the streams did overflow.
But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?”
21When the Lord heard this, he became furious.
His fire burned against Jacob
and his anger flared up at Israel
22because they did not believe God
or trust him to save them.
23In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24He rained manna down on them to eat
and gave them grain from heaven.
25Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones,
and God sent them plenty of food.
26He made the east wind blow in the heavens
and guided the south wind with his might.
27He rained meat down on them like dust,
birds like the sand on the seashore.
28He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp,
all around his dwelling place.
29They ate more than enough.
He gave them what they wanted,
30but they still wanted more.
While the food was still in their mouths,
31the anger of God flared up against them.
He killed their strongest men and slaughtered the best young men in Israel.
32In spite of all this, they continued to sin,
and they no longer believed in his miracles.
33He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind.
He brought their years to an end in terror.
34When he killed ⌞some of⌟ them, ⌞the rest⌟ searched for him.
They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God.
35They remembered that God was their rock,
that the Most High was their defender.
36They flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues.
37Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They were not faithful to his promise.
38But he is compassionate.
He forgave their sin.
He did not destroy them.
He restrained his anger many times.
He did not display all of his fury.
39He remembered that they were only flesh and blood,
a breeze that blows and does not return.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they caused him grief in the desert!
41Again and again they tested God,
and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit.
42They did not remember his power—
the day he freed them from their oppressor,
43when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44He turned their rivers into blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45He sent a swarm of flies that bit them
and frogs that ruined them.
46He gave their crops to grasshoppers
and their produce to locusts.
47He killed their vines with hail
and their fig trees with frost.
48He let the hail strike their cattle
and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
49He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them.
He sent an army of destroying angels.
50He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them.
He let the plague take their lives.
51He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt,
the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.
52But he led his own people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
53He led them safely.
They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
54He brought them into his holy land,
to this mountain that his power had won.
55He forced nations out of their way
and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
56They tested God Most High and rebelled against him.
They did not obey his written instructions.
57They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors.
They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
58They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites.
They made him furious because they worshiped idols.
59When God heard, he became furious.
He completely rejected Israel.
60He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among humans.
61He allowed his power to be taken captive
and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
62He let swords kill his people.
He was furious with those who belonged to him.
63Fire consumed his best young men,
so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
64His priests were cut down with swords.
The widows ⌞of his priests⌟ could not even weep ⌞for them⌟.
65Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping,
like a warrior sobering up from ⌞too much⌟ wine.
66He struck his enemies from behind
and disgraced them forever.
67He rejected the tent 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 holy place to be like the high heavens,
like the earth which he made to last for a long time.
70He chose his servant David.
He took him from the sheep pens.
71He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs
so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob,
of Israel, the people who belonged to the Lord.
72With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd.
With skill he guided them.
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Psalms 78: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Psalms 78
78
An Instruction of Asaph.
1Give ear, O my people, to my law, Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth.
2I open with a simile my mouth, I bring forth hidden things of old,
3That we have heard and do know, And our fathers have recounted to us.
4We do not hide from their sons, To a later generation recounting praises of Jehovah, And His strength, and His wonders that He hath done.
5And He raiseth up a testimony in Jacob, And a law hath placed in Israel, That He commanded our fathers, To make them known to their sons.
6So that a later generation doth know, Sons who are born, do rise and recount to their sons,
7And place in God their confidence, And forget not the doings of God, But keep His commands.
8And they are not like their fathers, A generation apostate and rebellious, A generation! it hath not prepared its heart, Nor stedfast with God [is] its spirit.
9Sons of Ephraim — armed bearers of bow, Have turned in a day of conflict.
10They have not kept the covenant of God, And in His law they have refused to walk,
11And they forget His doings, And His wonders that He shewed them.
12Before their fathers He hath done wonders, In the land of Egypt — the field of Zoan.
13He cleft a sea, and causeth them to pass over, Yea, He causeth waters to stand as a heap.
14And leadeth them with a cloud by day, And all the night with a light of fire.
15He cleaveth rocks in a wilderness, And giveth drink — as the great deep.
16And bringeth out streams from a rock, And causeth waters to come down as rivers.
17And they add still to sin against Him, To provoke the Most High in the dry place.
18And they try God in their heart, To ask food for their lust.
19And they speak against God — they said: ‘Is God able to array a table in a wilderness?’
20Lo, He hath smitten a rock, And waters flow, yea, streams overflow. ‘Also — bread [is] He able to give? Doth He prepare flesh for His people?’
21Therefore hath Jehovah heard, And He sheweth Himself wroth, And fire hath been kindled against Jacob, And anger also hath gone up against Israel,
22For they have not believed in God, Nor have they trusted in His salvation.
23And He commandeth clouds from above, Yea, doors of the heavens He hath opened.
24And He raineth on them manna to eat, Yea, corn of heaven He hath given to them.
25Food of the mighty hath each eaten, Venison He sent to them to satiety.
26He causeth an east wind to journey in the heavens, And leadeth by His strength a south wind,
27And He raineth on them flesh as dust, And as sand of the seas — winged fowl,
28And causeth [it] to fall in the midst of His camp, Round about His tabernacles.
29And they eat, and are greatly satisfied, And their desire He bringeth to them.
30They have not been estranged from their desire, Yet [is] their food in their mouth,
31And the anger of God hath gone up against them, And He slayeth among their fat ones, And youths of Israel He caused to bend.
32With all this they have sinned again, And have not believed in His wonders.
33And He consumeth in vanity their days, And their years in trouble.
34If He slew them, then they sought Him, And turned back, and sought God earnestly,
35And they remember that God [is] their rock, And God Most High their redeemer.
36And — they deceive Him with their mouth, And with their tongue do lie to Him,
37And their heart hath not been right with Him, And they have not been stedfast in His covenant.
38And He — the Merciful One, Pardoneth iniquity, and destroyeth not, And hath often turned back His anger, And waketh not up all His fury.
39And He remembereth that they [are] flesh, A wind going on — and it returneth not.
40How often do they provoke Him in the wilderness, Grieve Him in the desolate place?
41Yea, they turn back, and try God, And the Holy One of Israel have limited.
42They have not remembered His hand The day He ransomed them from the adversary.
43When He set His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan,
44And He turneth to blood their streams, And their floods they drink not.
45He sendeth among them the beetle, and it consumeth them, And the frog, and it destroyeth them,
46And giveth to the caterpillar their increase, And their labour to the locust.
47He destroyeth with hail their vine, And their sycamores with frost,
48And delivereth up to the hail their beasts, And their cattle to the burning flames.
49He sendeth on them the fury of His anger, Wrath, and indignation, and distress — A discharge of evil messengers.
50He pondereth a path for His anger, He kept not back their soul from death, Yea, their life to the pestilence He delivered up.
51And He smiteth every first-born in Egypt, The first-fruit of the strong in tents of Ham.
52And causeth His people to journey as a flock, And guideth them as a drove in a wilderness,
53And He leadeth them confidently, And they have not been afraid, And their enemies hath the sea covered.
54And He bringeth them in unto the border of His sanctuary, This mountain His right hand had got,
55And casteth out nations from before them, And causeth them to fall in the line of inheritance, And causeth the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents,
56And they tempt and provoke God Most High, And His testimonies have not kept.
57And they turn back, And deal treacherously like their fathers, They have been turned like a deceitful bow,
58And make Him angry with their high places, And with their graven images make Him zealous,
59God hath heard, and sheweth Himself wroth. And kicketh exceedingly against Israel.
60And He leaveth the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent He had placed among men,
61And He giveth His strength to captivity, And His beauty into the hand of an adversary,
62And delivereth up to the sword His people, And with His inheritance shewed Himself angry.
63His young men hath fire consumed, And His virgins have not been praised.
64His priests by the sword have fallen, And their widows weep not.
65And the Lord waketh as a sleeper, As a mighty one crying aloud from wine.
66And He smiteth His adversaries backward, A reproach age-during He hath put on them,
67And He kicketh against the tent of Joseph, And on the tribe of Ephraim hath not fixed.
68And He chooseth the tribe of Judah, With mount Zion that He loved,
69And buildeth His sanctuary as a high place, Like the earth, He founded it to the age.
70And He fixeth on David His servant, And taketh him from the folds of a flock,
71From behind suckling ones He hath brought him in, To rule over Jacob His people, And over Israel His inheritance.
72And he ruleth them according to the integrity of his heart, And by the skilfulness of his hands leadeth them!
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