Psalm 78

By Asaph

O people, hear my instructions,
Listen to the words of my mouth.
I will speak in a parable,
And reveal ancient mysteries,
Stories we have heard and long known,
Passed down to us by our forebears.
From their children we will not hide them,
But to the coming generation,
Sing the praises of Jehovah,
The great deeds he has accomplished
And the miracles he has performed.

He issued decrees to Jacob
And established laws in Israel,
Commanding that our ancestors
Should explain them to their children,
So that the next generation
Even children unborn, should know them
And then teach them to their children,
So they will put their trust in God,
Not forget his wondrous deeds,
But always obey his commandments.
Then they will be not like their fathers,
A  generation rebellious
And stubborn: their hearts wavered
In loyalty, nor were their spirits
Steadfast in their devotion to God.

Ephraim’s army, pulling the bow,
Slackened on the day of battle.
They did not keep God’s covenant
And refused to live by his laws.
They had forgotten what he had done,
The miracles he had shown them,
The marvelous things he performed
In the sight of their ancestors
In Egypt, on the plain of Zoan.
He split the sea and let them pass;
He made the waters stand like a heap.
He led them in a cloud by day,
And with a fiery light by night.
In the desert he split the rocks
And gave them drink, as of from the depths.
From a stone he produced a stream
And made it to flow like a river.
Still did they sin against the Most High
And in the desert defied him.
In their minds they put God to the test
By demanding the food they craved.
They even spoke against God and asked
“Can God serve a meal in the desert?
He struck a rock and water gushed out
And it flowed like a torrent, sure,
But can he give us bread as well
And give his people meat to eat?”
Jehovah was full of anger
When he heard this. His wrath was kindled
Against the descendants of Jacob,
And indeed he vented his ire
Upon the nation of Israel,
For they had no belief in God
And had no faith in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above
And opened the doors of heaven.
He rained down manna for them to eat
And gave them the food of Heaven,
So that mortal man might consume
The sustenance of the Mighty Ones.
(He sent them all the food they needed).
He stirred up an easterly wind
And with his power over the sky
Caused breezes from the south to blow.
He rained meat down on them like dust,
Fowls like the sands of the seashore.
He made them fall inside their camp,
All around their tabernacles.
They ate until they gorged themselves.
He had given them what they craved.
But before they had sated themselves,
While the food was still in their mouths,
The wrath of God was upon them:
He slew the hardiest among them
And cut down Israel’s young men.
Despite this, they keep on sinning
And did not believe his wondrous works.
And so he brought to an end their days,
Futile, their years full of terror.

Whenever God slew them, they sought him.
Eagerly would they turn back to him.
They remembered God was their rock,
The God Most High, their deliverer.
But with their mouths they flattered him,
And with their tongues they lied to him.
Disloyal were their hearts to him,
Unfaithful, they, to his covenant.
But he, being full of mercy,
Forgave their sins and destroyed them not.
Often did he quell his anger
And did not vent all his fury.
He remembered they were but flesh,
A wind that blows but does not return.
How often did they provoke him
And distress him in the desert.
Again and again they tested God,
Vexing Israel’s Holy One.
They did not remember his power,
The day he saved them from their foe,
When he worked his wonders in Egypt,
His marvels on the plain of Zoan.
He turned their rivers into blood,
So they could not drink from their streams.
He sent flies to prey upon them
And frogs to wreak havoc on them.
He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
And their labor to the locust.
He destroyed their grapevines with hail
And their sycamore trees with downpours.
He left their cattle to the hail
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
He loosed upon them his fury,
The fiery rage of his wrath,
His indignation and rancor,
And dispatched against them a band,
The emissaries of destruction.
He gave full vent to his anger;
He did not spare their bodies from death,
But delivered their lives to the plague.
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
The first issue of their manhood,
In the tabernacles of Ham.
He freed his people from bondage,
He led them like sheep, and like a flock
He guided them through the desert.
With safety he conducted them
So that they would not be afraid,
But the sea engulfed their enemies.
To the border of his holy land
He brought them, to the hill country
That by his might he had secured.
He expelled nations before them
And by lot apportioned their lands
As an inheritance, settling
The tribes of Israel in their homes.
Yet the people disputed with him,
Rebelling against the God Most High.
Nor would they obey his commandments.
They turned away with treachery
And proved as faithless as their fathers,
Like arrows shot from a crooked bow.
They made him angry with their shrines
And made him jealous with their idols.
God heard and he was furious,
Utterly rejecting Israel.
The tabernacle of Shiloh,
His sanctuary where he lived
Among mortal men, he forsook.
The sacred symbols of his power
He sent into captivity,
His glory, into the hands of the foe.
He gave up his people to the sword,
Despising his inheritance.
The young men were consumed by fire;
The young women heard no wedding songs.
The priests had fallen by the sword
And their widows could not mourn them.
Jehovah awakened from his sleep,
Like a warrior who shouts out
When aroused from a drunken stupor.
Then he put his enemies to rout
And made them a disgrace forever.

He rejected the clan of Joseph
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
Instead he chose the tribe of Judah
And the Mount of Zion, which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary,
Sky high and solid as the earth
That he established forever.
He chose as his servant David,
Taking him out of the sheep pens.
From tending lambs and nursing ewes
He brought him in to be the shepherd
Of his people, the sons of Jacob,
His inheritance, Israel.
And David ruled them faithfully
And with his skillful hands he led them.