78:1  

A maskil of Asaph.

78:2  I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter hidden things, things from of old-

78:3  what we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.

78:4  We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.

78:5  He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,

78:6  so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.

78:7  Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

78:8  They would not be like their forefathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.

78:9  The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;

78:10  they did not keep God's covenant
and refused to live by his law.

78:11  They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them.

78:12  He did miracles in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

78:13  He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand firm like a wall.

78:14  He guided them with the cloud by day
and with light from the fire all night.

78:15  He split the rocks in the desert
and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

78:16  he brought streams out of a rocky crag
and made water flow down like rivers.

78:17  But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

78:18  They willfully put God to the test
by demanding the food they craved.

78:19  They spoke against God, saying,
"Can God spread a table in the desert?

78:20  When he struck the rock, water gushed out,
and streams flowed abundantly.
But can he also give us food?
Can he supply meat for his people?"

78:21  When the LORD heard them, he was very angry;
his fire broke out against Jacob,
and his wrath rose against Israel,

78:22  for they did not believe in God
or trust in his deliverance.

78:23  Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;

78:24  he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.

78:25  Men ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.

78:26  He let loose the east wind from the heavens
and led forth the south wind by his power.

78:27  He rained meat down on them like dust,
flying birds like sand on the seashore.

78:28  He made them come down inside their camp,
all around their tents.

78:29  They ate till they had more than enough,
for he had given them what they craved.

78:30  But before they turned from the food they craved,
even while it was still in their mouths,

78:31  God's anger rose against them;
he put to death the sturdiest among them,
cutting down the young men of Israel.

78:32  In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

78:33  So he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.

78:34  Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
they eagerly turned to him again.

78:35  They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.

78:36  But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;

78:37  their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.

78:38  Yet 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.

78:39  He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.

78:40  How often they rebelled against him in the desert
and grieved him in the wasteland!

78:41  Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

78:42  They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

78:43  the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.

78:44  He turned their rivers to blood;
they could not drink from their streams.

78:45  He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.

78:46  He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.

78:47  He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

78:48  He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning.

78:49  He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility—
a band of destroying angels.

78:50  He prepared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.

78:51  He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

78:52  But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the desert.

78:53  He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.

78:54  Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to the hill country his right hand had taken.

78:55  He drove out nations before them
and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

78:56  But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.

78:57  Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow.

78:58  They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

78:59  When God heard them, he was very angry;
he rejected Israel completely.

78:60  He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among men.

78:61  He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

78:62  He gave his people over to the sword;
he was very angry with his inheritance.

78:63  Fire consumed their young men,
and their maidens had no wedding songs;

78:64  their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.

78:65  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.

78:66  He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.

78:67  Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

78:68  but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.

78:69  He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.

78:70  He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;

78:71  from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.

78:72  And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them.