Psalm 78

Hear my teaching, O my people;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

That which we have heard and known, and what our forefathers have told us,

we will not hide from their children.

We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the LORD ,

and the wonderful works he has done.

He gave his decrees to Jacob and established a law for Israel,

which he commanded them to teach their children;

That the generations to come might know, and the children yet unborn;

that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

So that they might put their trust in God,

and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments;

And not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow,

turned back in the day of battle;

They did not keep the covenant of God,

and refused to walk in his law;

They forgot what he had done,

and the wonders he had shown them.

He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers,

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

He split open the sea and let them pass through;

he made the waters stand up like walls.

He led them with a cloud by day,

and all the night through with a glow of fire.

He split the hard rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink as from the great deep.

He brought streams out of the cliff,

and the waters gushed out like rivers.

But they went on sinning against him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

They tested God in their hearts,

demanding food for their craving.

They railed against God and said,

"Can God set a table in the wilderness?

True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the gullies overflowed;

but is he able to give bread or to provide meat for his people?"

When the LORD heard this, he was full of wrath;

a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger mounted against Israel;

For they had no faith in God,

nor did they put their trust in his saving power.

So he commanded the clouds above

and opened the doors of heaven.

He rained down manna upon them to eat

and gave them grain from heaven.

So mortals ate the bread of angels;

he provided for them food enough.

He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens

and led out the south wind by his might.

He rained down flesh upon them like dust

and wingèd birds like the sand of the sea.

He let it fall in the midst of their camp

and round about their dwellings.

So they ate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they craved.

But they did not stop their craving,

though the food was still in their mouths.

So God's anger mounted against them;

he slew their strongest men and laid low the youth of Israel.

In spite of all this, they went on sinning

and had no faith in his wonderful works.

So he brought their days to an end like a breath

and their years in sudden terror.

Whenever he slew them, they would seek him,

and repent, and diligently search for God.

They would remember that God was their rock,

and the Most High God their redeemer.

But they flattered him with their mouths

and lied to him with their tongues.

Their heart was not steadfast toward him,

and they were not faithful to his covenant.

But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins and did not destroy them;

many times he held back his anger and did not permit his wrath to be roused.

For he remembered that they were but flesh,

a breath that goes forth and does not return.

How often the people disobeyed him in the wilderness

and offended him in the desert!

Again and again they tempted God

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember his power

in the day when he ransomed them from the enemy;

How he wrought his signs in Egypt

and his omens in the field of Zoan.

He turned their rivers into blood,

so that they could not drink of their streams.

He sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up,

and frogs, which destroyed them.

He gave their crops to the caterpillar,

the fruit of their toil to the locust.

He killed their vines with hail

and their sycamores with frost.

He delivered their cattle to hailstones

and their livestock to hot thunderbolts.

He poured out upon them his blazing anger:

fury, indignation, and distress, a troop of destroying angels.

He gave full rein to his anger; he did not spare their souls from death;

but delivered their lives to the plague.

He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

the flower of manhood in the dwellings of Ham.

He led out his people like sheep

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

He led them to safety, and they were not afraid;

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

He brought them to his holy land,

the mountain his right hand had won.

He drove out the Canaanites before them and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot;

he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

But they tested the Most High God, and defied him,

and did not keep his commandments.

They turned away and were disloyal like their fathers;

they were undependable like a warped bow.

They grieved him with their hill-altars

they provoked his displeasure with their idols.

When God heard this, he was angry

and utterly rejected Israel.

He forsook the shrine at Shiloh,

the tabernacle where he had lived among his people.

He delivered the ark into captivity,

his glory into the adversary's hand.

He gave his people to the sword

and was angered against his inheritance.

The fire consumed their young men;

there were no wedding songs for their maidens.

Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows made no lamentation.

Then the LORD woke as though from sleep,

like a warrior refreshed with wine.

He struck his enemies on the backside

and put them to perpetual shame.

He rejected the tent of Joseph

and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

He chose instead the tribe of Judah

and Mount Zion, which he loved.

He built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven,

like the earth which he founded for ever.

He chose David his servant,

and took him away from the sheepfolds.

He brought him from following the ewes,

to be a shepherd over Jacob his people and over Israel his inheritance.

So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart

and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.