Psalms 78

Open Word Bible

A maskil of Asaph. My people, listen closely to my instruction; bend your ears to what I say. I will open my mouth to speak a parable; I will bring out the hidden lessons of long ago, what we have heard and learned, what our forebears passed on to us. We will not conceal them from their children; we will pass on to those who come after us the deeds for which the LORD is praised, his strength, and the marvels he has worked. He laid down a solemn charge in Jacob and set up instruction in Israel; he ordered our forebears to teach these to their children, so that those born later, children not yet born, would know them, and would grow up and tell them to their own children, so that they would rest their hope on God, remember the works of God, and keep his commands, and would not be like their ancestors, a defiant and rebellious generation, whose hearts were never steady and whose spirits did not stay true to God. The Ephraimites, armed and skilled with the bow, fled when the day of battle came. They failed to keep the covenant God had made and would not follow his instruction. They let his deeds slip from memory, the marvels they had seen him work. In full view of their ancestors he worked marvels in Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He split the sea in two and took them across, piling up the waters in a heap. By day he guided them with the cloud, and all through the night with the glow of fire. He broke open rocks in the desert and let them drink water as plentiful as the ocean depths. He drew streams out of the cliff and sent water rushing down like rivers. Yet they kept on sinning against him, defying the Most High in the parched desert. In their hearts they challenged God, insisting on food to feed their cravings. They spoke against God and said, “Can God lay out a meal in the desert? Yes, he hit the rock and water burst out and torrents swept along; but is he able to give bread too, or to put meat before his people?” So when the LORD heard it, he was enraged; fire blazed up against Jacob, and his anger rose against Israel, because they had no faith in God and did not rely on his power to save. Even so, he gave orders to the clouds above and threw open the doors of the sky, and showered manna on them for food; he handed them grain from heaven. Everyone ate the bread of the mighty ones; he sent them supplies until they had their fill. He set the east wind moving across the sky and steered the south wind by his power. He showered meat on them as thick as dust, birds on the wing as many as the grains of sand by the sea. He brought them down in the middle of their camp, all around their tents. They ate and were more than satisfied; he gave them what they longed for. They had not yet turned away from their craving; they were still chewing their food, when the anger of God blazed against them; he slew the best-fed among them and brought down the young men of Israel. Even so they went on sinning; in spite of his marvels they would not believe. So he let their days drift away like vapor and ended their years in sudden dread. Whenever he struck them down, they would look for him; they would turn back and search hard for God. They recalled that their Rock was God, that God Most High was the one who had set them free. But their words to him were only flattery; with their tongues they lied to him, and their hearts were not set on him; they did not stay true to his covenant. Yet he was full of compassion; he covered their guilt and did not wipe them out. Many a time he held back his anger and did not let all his fury loose. He remembered that they were only flesh, a breeze that blows past and does not come back. How many times they defied him in the wilderness and caused him grief in the barren land! Once more they challenged God and wounded the Holy One of Israel. They forgot his power and the day he bought them free from the enemy, when he displayed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields around Zoan. He changed their rivers into blood, and their running water could not be drunk. He sent swarms of insects among them to eat them up, and frogs to bring them to ruin. He handed their harvest over to the grasshopper and all they had worked for to the swarming locust. He struck their vines dead with hail and froze their sycamore-figs with ice. He left their cattle at the mercy of the hail, and their herds to the flashing fire. He let loose on them the heat of his anger, rage and fury and distress, a troop of angels bringing disaster. He cleared a road for his anger; he did not hold them back from death, but handed their lives over to the plague. He cut down every firstborn in Egypt, the eldest sons, the first of their strength, throughout the tents of Ham. Then he moved his people out like sheep and herded them like a flock across the wilderness. He kept them safe as he led them, and they were not afraid; but the sea closed over their enemies. He led them to his sacred land, to these mountains that his own power had gained. He pushed out nations ahead of them and shared out their land by measuring line as a possession; he gave the tribes of Israel their tents to live in. Still they challenged God Most High and defied him; they did not keep his decrees. They turned away and broke faith as their ancestors did; they went crooked like a warped bow. They angered him with their hilltop shrines, and by their idols roused his jealous anger. When God heard, his anger blazed, and he cast Israel off entirely. He deserted the sanctuary at Shiloh, the tent where he had made his home among people. He let his might be carried off as a captive, his glory into enemy hands. He handed his people over to the sword; he raged against his own inheritance. Their young men were eaten up by fire; no one sang the wedding song for their young women. Their priests were cut down by the sword, and the widows they left could not raise a lament. Then the Lord roused himself like a sleeper waking, like a warrior shouting as the wine stirs him. He beat his enemies back and put them to lasting shame. He turned down the tent of Joseph; Ephraim’s tribe was not the one he chose, instead he picked out the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, which he holds dear. He made his sanctuary as lofty as the heavens and as firm as the earth, which he founded to last forever. He singled out David, his servant, and called him away from the sheepfolds, from walking behind the nursing ewes he brought him to care for Jacob, his people, and for Israel, his own possession, as their shepherd. He cared for them as a shepherd with an honest heart and led them with skillful hands.

Psalms

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