Psalm 78

1Hear my instruction, my people; incline your ears to the sayings of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth with a parable; I will pour out riddles from ancient times.

3which we have heard and known, and our fathers have recounted to us.

4We will not hide them from their children, telling the following generation the praises of Yahweh, his might, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

5He established a testimony in Jacob and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children.

6so that the coming generation might know, children who will be born—who will arise and tell their children.

7that they might place their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments.

8and not be like their fathers—a rebellious and defiant generation, a generation that did not direct its heart and whose spirit was not faithful toward God.

9The sons of Ephraim, armed and drawing bows, turned back on the day of battle.

10They did not heed God's covenant, and refused to walk in his instruction.

11They forgot his deeds and his marvels that he had shown them.

12He performed wonders before their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.

13He parted the sea and brought them through; he stood the waters like a heap.

14He led them with a cloud by day, and all night with a fiery light.

15He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink like the great depths.

16He brought flowing streams out from the rock and brought waters down like rivers.

17Yet they continued to sin against him by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

18They tested God in their hearts by asking for food to satisfy their appetites.

19They spoke against God, saying, "Can God set a table in the wilderness?"

20Behold, he struck the rock, waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he prepare flesh for his people?

21Therefore Yahweh heard and was enraged; fire broke out against Jacob, and anger also rose against Israel.

22because they neither believed in God nor trusted in his salvation.

23He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven.

24He rained manna on them to eat, and gave them grain from heaven.

25Man ate angels' bread; he sent them provisions to the full.

26He brought the east wind through the heavens and led the south wind by his might.

27He rained flesh upon them like dust, and winged fowl like the sand of the seas.

28He let them fall amid their camp, all around their dwellings.

29They ate and were filled to the full, and he brought their desire to them.

30They did not turn away from their desire. Their food was still in their mouths.

31God's anger rose against them, and he slaughtered their stoutest while laying low Israel's chosen youths.

32Despite all this they still sinned and did not believe his miracles.

33He consumed their days in vanity and their years in terror.

34When he killed them, they sought him, returned, and diligently sought God.

35They remembered that God was their rock, and El Most High their redeemer.

36They deceived him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues.

37Their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful in his covenant.

38Yet he, compassionate, covered iniquity and did not destroy; many times he turned back his anger and did not rouse all his wrath.

39He remembered that they were flesh, a wind passing by that does not return.

40How many times did they rebel against him in the wilderness and distress him in the wasteland!

41They turned back and tested God, limiting the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember his hand or the day when he redeemed them from the adversary.

43how he placed his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

44He changed their rivers into blood, and their streams, so they could not drink.

45He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.

46He gave their yield to the caterpillar and their toil to the locust.

47He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost.

48He delivered their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to fiery coals.

49He sent among them the fury of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble—a band of evil angels.

50He prepared a path for his anger; he did not hold back their soul from death, but delivered their life to the pestilence.

51He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52He led his people forth like sheep and drove them in the wilderness like a flock.

53He guided them securely, and they did not fear, while the sea covered their enemies.

54He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, this mountain his right hand had acquired.

55He drove out the nations before them, cast them down by measuring line for an inheritance, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56They tested and rebelled against the Most High God, and did not keep his testimonies.

57But they backslid and betrayed like their fathers; they twisted like a treacherous bow.

58They angered him with their high places and stirred his jealousy with their carved images.

59God heard and was enraged, and utterly rejected Israel.

60He abandoned Shiloh's tabernacle, the tent he established among mankind.

61He gave his strength into captivity, his glory into the hand of the adversary.

62He delivered his people to the sword and raged against his heritage.

63Fire consumed his young men, and his virgins were not praised.

64His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.

65The Lord awoke like a sleeper, like a champion shouting from wine.

66He beat his adversaries back and gave them perpetual reproach.

67He rejected Joseph's tent and did not choose Ephraim's tribe.

68He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

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

70He chose his servant David and took him from the sheepfolds of the flock.

71From following the ewes with young he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72He shepherded them with the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.