PSALM 78
1An Asaph maskil.
Hearken, my people, to my teaching.
Lend your ear to the sayings of my mouth.
2Let me open my mouth in a rhapsody,
let me voice the verses of old,
3that we have heard and we have known,
and that our fathers recounted to us.
4We shall not conceal from their sons,
to the last generation recounting
the praise of the LORD and His might
and His wonders that He did.
5He established a precept in Jacob
and His teaching put forth in Israel,
this He charged to our fathers
to make them known to their sons,
6so that the last generation might know,
sons yet to be born
might arise and recount to their sons,
7and place their trust in God
and forget not the acts of God,
and observe His commands.
8That they be not like their fathers,
a wayward, rebellious generation,
a generation that was not firm of heart,
and its spirit not faithful to God.
9The Ephraimites, deft wielders of bows,
turned tail on the day of battle,
10and did not keep God’s pact,
and His teaching refused to follow.
11And they forgot His acts
and His wonders that He showed them.
12Before their fathers He did wonders,
in the land of Egypt, in Zoan’s field.
13He split open the sea and let them pass through,
He made water stand up like a heap.
14And He led them with the cloud by day
and all night long with the light of fire.
15He split apart rocks in the wilderness
and gave drink as from the great deep.
16He brought forth streams from stone,
and poured down water like rivers.
17And still they offended him more,
to rebel against the High One in parched land.
18And they tried God in their heart
19And they spoke against God.
They said: “Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20Look, He struck the rock and water flowed
and currents streamed.
Can He also give bread?
Will He ready flesh for His people?”
21Then the LORD heard and was angered,
and a fire was lit against Jacob
and wrath, too, went up against Israel.
22For they had no faith in God
and did not trust in His rescue.
23And He charged the skies above,
and the doors of the heavens He opened,
24and rained on them manna to eat
and the grain of the heavens He gave to them.
25Princely bread a man did eat,
provisions He sent them to sate them.
26He moved the east wind across the heavens
and drove the south wind with His might,
27and rained flesh upon them like dust
and like sand of the seas wingèd fowl,
28brought it down in the midst of His camp,
round about His dwelling place.
29And they ate and were fully sated,
what they craved He brought to them.
30They were not revolted by their craving,
their food was still in their mouths,
31when God’s wrath went up against them,
and He killed their stoutest fellows.
Israel’s young men He brought to their knees.
32Even so, they offended still
and had no faith in His wonders.
33And they wasted their days in mere vapor
and their years in dismay.
34When He killed them, they sought Him out,
and came back and looked for God.
35And they recalled that God was their rock
and the Most High God their redeemer.
36Yet they beguiled Him with their lips,
and with their tongue they lied to Him
37and their heart was not firm with Him,
and they were not faithful to His pact.
38Yet He is compassionate, He atones for crime and does not destroy,
and abundantly takes back His wrath
and does not arouse all His fury.
39And He recalls that they are flesh,
a spirit that goes off and does not come back.
40How much they rebelled against Him in the wilderness,
caused Him pain in the wasteland!
41And again did they try God,
and Israel’s Holy One they provoked.
42They did not recall His great hand,
the day He ransomed them from the foe,
43when He set out His signs in Egypt
and His portents in Zoan’s field,
44and He turned their rivers to blood,
their currents they could not drink.
45He sent against them the horde to consume them
and the frogs to destroy them.
46And He gave to the cicada their produce
and their labor to the locust.
47He blighted their vines with the hail,
and their sycamores with the frost.
48He gave over to the pestilence their beasts,
and their cattle to the murrain.
49He sent against them His smoldering fury,
anger, indignation, and distress,
a cohort of evil messengers.
50He blazed a path for His fury,
He did not keep them from death,
and to the pestilence He gave their life.
51And He struck down each firstborn in Egypt,
first fruit of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52And He led His people forward like sheep,
drove them like sheep in the wilderness.
53And He guided them safely—they feared not,
and their enemies the sea covered.
54And He brought them to His holy realm,
the mount His right hand had acquired.
55And He drove out nations before them
and set them down in a plot of estate,
and made Israel’s tribes dwell in their tents.
56Yet they tried God the Most High and rebelled,
and His precepts they did not keep.
57They fell back and betrayed like their fathers,
whipped around like an untrusty bow.
58They vexed Him with their high places,
incensed Him with their idols.
59God heard and was angry,
wholly rejected Israel.
60He abandoned the sanctuary of Shiloh,
the tent where He dwelled among men.
61And He let His might become captive,
gave His splendor to the hand of the foe.
62He gave over his people to the sword,
against His estate He was enraged.
63His young men the fire consumed
and His virgins no wedding song knew.
64His priests fell to the sword,
and His widows did not keen.
65And the Master awoke as one sleeping,
like a warrior shaking off wine.
66And He beat back His foes,
everlasting disgrace He gave them.
67Yet He rejected the tent of Joseph,
and the tribe of Ephraim He did not choose.
68And He chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion that He loves.
69And He built on the heights His sanctuary,
like the earth He had founded forever.
70And He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds.
71From the nursing ewes He brought him
and Israel His estate.
72And with his heart’s innocence he shepherded them,
with skilled hands he guided them.