Psalm 76:1–150:6

¹In Judah God is known;

his name is great in Israel.^*

²His abode has been established in Salem,

his dwelling place in Zion.^*

³There he broke the flashing arrows,

the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.   Selah^*

⁴Glorious are you, more majestic

than the everlasting mountains.^f

⁵The courageous were stripped of their spoil;

they sank into sleep;

none of the troops

was able to lift a hand.^*

⁶At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

both rider and horse lay stunned.

⁷But you indeed are awesome!

Who can stand before you

when your anger is roused?^*

⁸From the heavens you uttered judgment;

the earth feared and was still^*

⁹when God rose up to establish judgment,

to save all the oppressed of the earth.   Selah^*

¹⁰Human wrath serves only to praise you,

when you bind the last bit of your^g wrath around you.^*

¹¹Make vows to the Lord your God and perform them;

let all who are around him bring gifts

to the one who is awesome,^*

¹²who cuts off the spirit of princes,

who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.^*

Psalm 77

God’s Mighty Deeds Recalled

To the leader: according to Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

¹I cry aloud to God,

aloud to God, that he may hear me.^*

²In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;

in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;

my soul refuses to be comforted.^*

³I think of God, and I moan;

I meditate, and my spirit faints.   Selah^*

⁴You keep my eyelids from closing;

I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

⁵I consider the days of old

and remember the years of long ago.^*

⁶I commune^h with my heart in the night;

I meditate and search my spirit:^i*

⁷“Will the Lord spurn forever

and never again be favorable?^*

⁸Has his steadfast love ceased forever?

Are his promises at an end for all time?^*

⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”   Selah^*

¹⁰And I say, “It is my grief

that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”^*

¹¹I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;

I will remember your wonders of old.^*

¹²I will meditate on all your work

and muse on your mighty deeds.

¹³Your way, O God, is holy.

What god is so great as our God?^*

¹⁴You are the God who works wonders;

you have displayed your might among the peoples.

¹⁵With your strong arm you redeemed your people,

the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.   Selah^*

¹⁶When the waters saw you, O God,

when the waters saw you, they were afraid;

the very deep trembled.^*

¹⁷The clouds poured out water;

the skies thundered;

your arrows flashed on every side.^*

¹⁸The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;

your lightnings lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook.^*

¹⁹Your way was through the sea,

your path through the mighty waters,

yet your footprints were unseen.^*

²⁰You led your people like a flock

by the hand of Moses and Aaron.^*

Psalm 78

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude

A Maskil of Asaph.

¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.^*

²I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,^*

³things that we have heard and known,

that our ancestors have told us.^*

⁴We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might

and the wonders that he has done.^*

⁵He established a decree in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our ancestors

to teach to their children,^*

⁶that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and rise up and tell them to their children,^*

⁷so that they should set their hope in God,

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments;^*

⁸and that they should not be like their ancestors,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.^*

⁹The Ephraimites, armed with^j the bow,

turned back on the day of battle.^*

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant

and refused to walk according to his law.^*

¹¹They forgot what he had done

and the miracles that he had shown them.^*

¹²In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels

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

¹³He divided the sea and let them pass through it

and made the waters stand like a heap.^*

¹⁴In the daytime he led them with a cloud

and all night long with a fiery light.^*

¹⁵He split rocks open in the wilderness

and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.^*

¹⁶He made streams come out of the rock

and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they sinned still more against him,

rebelling against the Most High in the desert.^*

¹⁸They tested God in their heart

by demanding the food they craved.^*

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?^*

²⁰Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out

and torrents overflowed,

can he also give bread

or provide meat for his people?”^*

²¹Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage;

a fire was kindled against Jacob,

his anger mounted against Israel,^*

²²because they had no faith in God

and did not trust his saving power.^*

²³Yet he commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven;^*

²⁴he rained down on them manna to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.^*

²⁵Mortals ate of the bread of angels;

he sent them food in abundance.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by his power he led out the south wind;^*

²⁷he rained flesh upon them like dust,

winged birds like the sand of the seas;^*

²⁸he let them fall within their camp,

all around their dwellings.

²⁹And they ate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they craved.^*

³⁰But before they had satisfied their craving,

while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them,

and he killed the strongest of them

and laid low the flower of Israel.^*

³²In spite of all this they still sinned;

they did not believe in his wonders.^*

³³So he made their days vanish like a breath

and their years in terror.^*

³⁴When he killed them, they searched for him;

they repented and sought God earnestly.^*

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God their redeemer.^*

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouths;

they lied to him with their tongues.^*

³⁷Their heart was not steadfast toward him;

they were not true to his covenant.

³⁸Yet he, being compassionate,

forgave their iniquity

and did not destroy them;

often he restrained his anger

and did not stir up all his wrath.^*

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,

a wind that passes and does not come again.^*

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

and grieved him in the desert!^*

⁴¹They tested God again and again

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.^*

⁴²They did not keep in mind his power

or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³when he displayed his signs in Egypt

and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood,

so that they could not drink of their streams.^*

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies that devoured them

and frogs that destroyed them.^*

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the caterpillar

and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamores with frost.^*

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle to the hail

and their flocks to thunderbolts.^*

⁴⁹He let loose on them his fierce anger,

wrath, indignation, and distress,

a company of destroying angels.^*

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave their lives over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.^*

⁵²Then he led out his people like sheep

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.^*

⁵³He led them in safety so that they were not afraid,

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.^*

⁵⁴And he brought them to his holy hill,

to the mountain that his right hand had won.^*

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them;

he apportioned them for a possession

and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.^*

⁵⁶Yet they tested the Most High God

and rebelled against him.

They did not observe his decrees^*

⁵⁷but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors;

they twisted like a treacherous bow.^*

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places;

they moved him to jealousy with their idols.^*

⁵⁹When God heard, he was full of wrath,

and he utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,

the tent where he dwelt among mortals,^*

⁶¹and delivered his power to captivity,

his glory to the hand of the foe.^*

⁶²He gave his people to the sword

and vented his wrath on his heritage.^*

⁶³Fire devoured their young men,

and their young women had no marriage song.^*

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows made no lamentation.^*

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

like a warrior shouting because of wine.^*

⁶⁶He put his adversaries to rout;

he put them to everlasting disgrace.^*

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 loves.^*

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,

like the earth, which he has founded forever.^*

⁷⁰He chose his servant David

and took him from the sheepfolds;^*

⁷¹from tending the nursing ewes he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

of Israel, his inheritance.^*

⁷²With upright heart he tended them

and guided them with skillful hand.^*

Psalm 79

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

they have defiled your holy temple;

they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.^*

²They have given the bodies of your servants

to the birds of the air for food,

the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.^*

³They have poured out their blood like water

all around Jerusalem,

and there was no one to bury them.^*

⁴We have become a taunt to our neighbors,

mocked and derided by those around us.^*

⁵How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?

Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?^*

⁶Pour out your anger on the nations

that do not know you

and on the kingdoms

…