Psalm 76:1–150:6

¹God is known in Judah. 

His name is great in Israel. 

²His tent is in Salem. 

His home is in Zion. 

³There he destroyed flaming arrows, 

shields, swords, and weapons of war. 

Selah 

⁴You are the radiant one. 

You are more majestic than the ancient mountains.^a

⁵Brave people were robbed. 

They died. 

None of the warriors were able to lift a hand. 

⁶At your stern warning, O God of Jacob, 

chariot riders and horses were put to sleep. 

⁷You alone must be feared! 

Who can stand in your presence when you become angry? 

⁸From heaven you announced a verdict. 

The earth was fearful and silent 

⁹when you rose to judge, O God, 

when you rose to save every oppressed person on earth. 

Selah 

¹⁰Even angry mortals will praise you. 

You will wear the remainder of ⸤their⸥ anger. 

¹¹Make vows to the Lord your God, and keep them. 

Let everyone around him bring gifts to the one who must be feared. 

¹²He cuts short the lives of influential people. 

He terrifies the kings of the earth. 

Psalm 77

For the choir director; according to Jeduthun; a psalm by Asaph. 

¹Loudly, I cried to God. 

Loudly, I cried to God 

so that he would open his ears to ⸤hear⸥ me. 

²On the day I was in trouble, I went to the Lord for help. 

At night I stretched out my hands in prayer without growing tired. 

Yet, my soul refused to be comforted. 

³I sigh as I remember God. 

I begin to lose hope as I think about him. 

Selah 

⁴(You keep my eyelids open.) 

I am so upset that I cannot speak. 

⁵I have considered the days of old, 

the years long ago. 

⁶I remember my song in the night 

and reflect ⸤on it⸥. 

My spirit searches ⸤for an answer⸥: 

⁷Will the Lord reject ⸤me⸥ for all time? 

Will he ever accept me? 

⁸Has his mercy come to an end forever? 

Has his promise been canceled throughout every generation? 

⁹Has God forgotten to be merciful? 

Has he locked up his compassion because of his anger? Selah 

¹⁰Then I said, “It makes me feel sick 

that the power of the Most High is no longer the same.” 

¹¹I will remember the deeds of the Lord. 

I will remember your ancient miracles. 

¹²I will reflect on all your actions 

and think about what you have done. 

¹³O God, your ways are holy! 

What god is as great as our God? 

¹⁴You are the God who performs miracles. 

You have made your strength known among the nations. 

¹⁵With your might you have defended your people, 

the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. 

Selah 

¹⁶The water saw you, O God. 

The water saw you and shook. 

Even the depths of the sea trembled. 

¹⁷The clouds poured out water. 

The sky thundered. 

Even your arrows flashed in every direction. 

¹⁸The sound of your thunder rumbled in the sky. 

Streaks of lightning lit up the world. 

The earth trembled and shook. 

¹⁹Your road went through the sea. 

Your path went through raging water, 

but your footprints could not be seen. 

²⁰Like a shepherd, you led your people. 

You had Moses and Aaron take them by the hand. 

Psalm 78

A maskil by Asaph. 

¹Open your ears to my teachings, my people. 

Turn your ears to the words from my mouth. 

²I will open my mouth to illustrate points. 

I will explain what has been hidden long ago, 

³things that we have heard and known about, 

things that our parents have told us. 

⁴We will not hide them from our children. 

We will tell the next generation 

about the Lord’s power and great deeds 

and the miraculous things he has done. 

⁵He established written instructions for Jacob’s people. 

He gave his teachings to Israel. 

He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children 

⁶so that the next generation would know them. 

Children yet to be born ⸤would learn them⸥. 

They will grow up and tell their children 

⁷to trust God, to remember what he has done, 

and to obey his commands. 

⁸Then they will not be like their ancestors, 

a stubborn and rebellious generation. 

Their hearts were not loyal. 

Their spirits were not faithful to God. 

⁹The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows ⸤and arrows⸥, 

turned ⸤and ran⸥ on the day of battle. 

¹⁰They had not been faithful to God’s promise.^a

They refused to follow his teachings. 

¹¹They forgot what he had done— 

the miracles that he had shown them. 

¹²In front of their ancestors he performed miracles 

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

¹³He divided the sea and led them through it. 

He made the waters stand up like a wall. 

¹⁴He guided them by a cloud during the day 

and by a fiery light throughout the night. 

¹⁵He split rocks in the desert. 

He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water. 

¹⁶He made streams come out of a rock. 

He made the water flow like rivers. 

¹⁷They continued to sin against him, 

to rebel in the desert against the Most High. 

¹⁸They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved. 

¹⁹They spoke against God by saying, 

“Can God prepare a banquet in the desert? 

²⁰True, he did strike a rock, 

and water did gush out, 

and the streams did overflow. 

But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?” 

²¹When the Lord heard this, he became furious. 

His fire burned against Jacob 

and his anger flared up at Israel 

²²because they did not believe God 

or trust him to save them. 

²³In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above 

and opened the doors of heaven. 

²⁴He rained manna down on them to eat 

and gave them grain from heaven. 

²⁵Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones, 

and God sent them plenty of food. 

²⁶He made the east wind blow in the heavens 

and guided the south wind with his might. 

²⁷He rained meat down on them like dust, 

birds like the sand on the seashore. 

²⁸He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp, 

all around his dwelling place. 

²⁹They ate more than enough. 

He gave them what they wanted, 

³⁰but they still wanted more. 

While the food was still in their mouths, 

³¹the anger of God flared up against them. 

He killed their strongest men 

and slaughtered the best young men in Israel. 

³²In spite of all this, they continued to sin, 

and they no longer believed in his miracles. 

³³He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind. 

He brought their years to an end in terror. 

³⁴When he killed ⸤some of⸥ them, ⸤the rest⸥ searched for him. 

They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God. 

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, 

that the Most High was their defender. 

³⁶They flattered him with their mouths 

and lied to him with their tongues. 

³⁷Their hearts were not loyal to him. 

They were not faithful to his promise. 

³⁸But he is compassionate. 

He forgave their sin. 

He did not destroy them. 

He restrained his anger many times. 

He did not display all of his fury. 

³⁹He remembered that they were only flesh and blood, 

a breeze that blows and does not return. 

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! 

How often they caused him grief in the desert! 

⁴¹Again and again they tested God, 

and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit. 

⁴²They did not remember his power— 

the day he freed them from their oppressor, 

⁴³when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt, 

his wonders in the fields of Zoan. 

⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood 

so that they could not drink from their streams. 

⁴⁵He sent a swarm of flies that bit them 

and frogs that ruined them. 

⁴⁶He gave their crops to grasshoppers 

and their produce to locusts. 

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail 

and their fig trees with frost. 

⁴⁸He let the hail strike their cattle 

and bolts of lightning strike their livestock. 

⁴⁹He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them. 

He sent an army of destroying angels. 

⁵⁰He cleared a path for his anger. 

He did not spare them. 

He let the plague take their lives. 

⁵¹He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt, 

the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young. 

⁵²But he led his own people out like sheep 

and guided them like a flock through the wilderness. 

⁵³He led them safely. 

They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies. 

⁵⁴He brought them into his holy land, 

to this mountain that his power had won. 

⁵⁵He forced nations out of their way 

and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. 

He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents. 

⁵⁶They tested God Most High and rebelled against him. 

They did not obey his written instructions. 

⁵⁷They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. 

They were like arrows shot from a defective bow. 

⁵⁸They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites. 

They made him furious because they worshiped idols. 

⁵⁹When God heard, he became furious. 

He completely rejected Israel. 

⁶⁰He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh, 

the tent where he had lived among humans. 

⁶¹He allowed his power to be taken captive 

and handed his glory over to an oppressor. 

⁶²He let swords kill his people. 

He was furious with those who belonged to him. 

⁶³Fire consumed his best young men, 

so his virgins heard no wedding songs. 

⁶⁴His priests were cut down with swords. 

The widows ⸤of his priests⸥ could not even weep ⸤for them⸥. 

⁶⁵Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping, 

like a warrior sobering up from ⸤too much⸥ wine. 

⁶⁶He struck his enemies from behind 

and disgraced them forever. 

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph. 

He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 

⁶⁸but he chose the tribe of Judah, 

Mount Zion which he loved. 

⁶⁹He built his holy place to be like the high heavens, 

like the earth which he made to last for a long time. 

⁷⁰He chose his servant David. 

He took him from the sheep pens. 

⁷¹He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs 

so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob, 

of Israel, the people who belonged to the Lord. 

⁷²With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd. 

With skill he guided them. 

Psalm 79

A psalm by Asaph. 

¹O God, the nations have invaded the land that belongs to you. 

They have dishonored your holy temple. 

They have left Jerusalem in ruins. 

²They have given the dead bodies of your servants 

to the birds for food. 

They have given the flesh of your godly ones 

to the animals. 

³They have shed the blood of your people around Jerusalem 

as though it were water. 

There is no one…