Psalm 78

¹ Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old:

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

⁶ That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children:

⁷ That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

⁸ And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

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

¹¹ And they forgat his doings, and his wondrous works that he had shewed them.

¹² Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³ He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

¹⁴ In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet went they on still to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

¹⁹ Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can he give bread also? will he provide flesh for his people?

²¹ Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;

²² Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.

²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;

²⁴ And he rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven.

²⁵ Man did eat the bread of the mighty: he sent them meat to the full.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷ He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas:

²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

²⁹ So they did eat, and were well filled; and he gave them that they lusted after.

³⁰ They were not estranged from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹ When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the fattest of them, and smote down the young men of Israel.

³² For all this they sinned still, and believed not in his wondrous works.

³³ Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When he slew them, then they inquired after him: and they returned and sought God early.

³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue.

³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ And he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰ How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹ And they turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary.

⁴³ How he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan;

⁴⁴ And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink.

⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

⁵¹ And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham:

⁵² But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ And he led them safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵ He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies;

⁵⁷ But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the adversary’s hand.

⁶² He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men; and their maidens had no marriage-song.

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

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ And he smote his adversaries backward: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰ He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹ From following the ewes that give suck he brought him, to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷² So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.