Psalm 78

⁵ 
For He established a testimony (a specific precept) in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach to their children [the great facts of God’s transactions with Israel],
⁶ 
That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born
May arise and recount them to their children,
⁷ 
That they should place their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,
⁸ 
And not be like their fathers—
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart to know and follow God,
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ 
The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
¹⁰ 
They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk according to His law;
¹¹ 
And they forgot His [incredible] works
And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.
¹² 
He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].
¹³ 
He divided the [Red] Sea and allowed them to pass through it,
And He made the waters stand up like [water behind] a dam.
¹⁴ 
In the daytime He led them with a cloud
And all the night with a light of fire.
¹⁵ 
He split rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant [water to] drink like the ocean depths.
¹⁶ 
He brought streams also from the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh]
And caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ 
Yet they still continued to sin against Him
By rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ 
And in their hearts they put God to the test
By asking for food according to their [selfish] appetite.
¹⁹ 
Then they spoke against God;
They said, “Can God prepare [food for] a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ 
“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out
And the streams overflowed;
Can He give bread also?
Or will He provide meat for His people?”

²¹ 
Therefore, when the Lord heard, He was full of wrath;
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
And His anger mounted up against Israel,
²² 
Because they did not believe in God [they did not rely on Him, they did not adhere to Him],
And they did not trust in His salvation (His power to save).
²³ 
Yet He commanded the clouds from above
And opened the doors of heaven;
²⁴ 
And He rained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ 
Man ate the bread of angels;
God sent them provision in abundance.
²⁶ 
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
And by His [unlimited] power He guided the south wind.
²⁷ 
He rained meat upon them like the dust,
And winged birds (quail) like the sand of the seas.
²⁸ 
And He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
Around their tents.
²⁹ 
So they ate and were well filled,
He gave them what they craved.
³⁰ 
Before they had satisfied their desire,
And while their food was in their mouths,
³¹ 
The wrath of God rose against them
And killed some of the strongest of them,
And subdued the choice young men of Israel.
³² 
In spite of all this they still sinned,
For they did not believe in His wonderful and extraordinary works.
³³ 
Therefore He consumed their days like a breath [in emptiness and futility]
And their years in sudden terror.

³⁴ 
When He killed [some of] them, then those remaining sought Him,
And they returned [to Him] and searched diligently for God [for a time].
³⁵ 
And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
³⁶ 
Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths
And lied to Him with their tongues.
³⁷ 
For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful to His covenant.
^38 
[a]But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;
Many times He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.
³⁹ 
For He [graciously] remembered that they were mere [human] flesh,
A wind that goes and does not return.

⁴⁰ 
How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!
⁴¹ 
Again and again they tempted God,
And distressed the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² 
They did not remember [the miracles worked by] His [powerful] hand,
Nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
⁴³ 
How He worked His miracles in Egypt
And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided],
⁴⁴ 
And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
⁴⁵ 
He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them,
And frogs which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ 
He also gave their crops to the grasshopper,
And the fruit of their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ 
He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
⁴⁸ 
He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones,
And their flocks and herds to thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ 
He sent upon them His burning anger,
His fury and indignation and distress,
A band of angels of destruction [among them].
⁵⁰ 
He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned over their lives to the plague.
⁵¹ 
He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first and best of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.
⁵² 
But God led His own people forward like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock.
⁵³ 
He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴ 
So He brought them to His holy land,
To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.
⁵⁵ 
He also drove out the nations before the sons of Israel
And allotted their land as an inheritance, measured out and partitioned;
And He had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents [the tents of those who had been dispossessed].
⁵⁶ 
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies (laws).
⁵⁷ 
They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].
⁵⁸ 
For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [devoted to idol worship]
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images [by denying Him the love, worship, and obedience that is rightfully and uniquely His].
⁵⁹ 
When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath;
And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways],
⁶⁰ 
So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
The tent in which He had dwelled among men,
⁶¹ 
And gave up His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity,
And His glory into the hand of the enemy (the Philistines).
⁶² 
He also handed His people over to the sword,
And was infuriated with His inheritance (Israel).
⁶³ 
The fire [of war] devoured His young men,
And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs.
⁶⁴ 
His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword,
And His widows could not weep.

⁶⁵ 
Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,
Like a [mighty] warrior who awakens from the sleep of wine [fully conscious of his power].
⁶⁶ 
He drove His enemies backward;
He subjected them to lasting shame and dishonor.
⁶⁷ 
Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].
⁶⁸ 
But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader],
Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].
⁶⁹ 
And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens],
Like the earth which He has established forever.
⁷⁰ 
He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
^71 
[b]From ^[c]tending the ewes with nursing young He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
⁷² 
So David shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart;
And guided them with his skillful hands.