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 art thou, more majestic

than the everlasting mountains.

⁵The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;

they sank into sleep;

all the men of war

were unable to use their hands.

⁶At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,

both rider and horse lay stunned.

⁷But thou, terrible art thou!

Who can stand before thee

when once thy anger is roused?

⁸From the heavens thou didst utter judgment;

the earth feared and was still,

⁹when God arose to establish judgment

to save all the oppressed of the earth. [Selah]

¹⁰Surely the wrath of men shall praise thee;

the residue of wrath thou wilt gird upon thee.

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

let all around him bring gifts

to him who is to be feared,

¹²who cuts off the spirit of princes,

who is terrible to the kings of the earth.

PSALM 77

To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

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]

⁴Thou dost hold my eyelids from closing;

I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

⁵I consider the days of old,

I remember the years long ago.

⁶I commune with my heart in the night;

I meditate and search my spirit:

⁷“Will the Lord spurn for ever,

and never again be favorable?

⁸Has his steadfast love for ever ceased?

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;

yea, I will remember thy wonders of old.

¹²I will meditate on all thy work,

and muse on thy mighty deeds.

¹³Thy way, O God, is holy.

What god is great like our God?

¹⁴Thou art the God who workest wonders,

who hast manifested thy might among the peoples.

¹⁵Thou didst with thy arm redeem thy people,

the sons of Jacob and Joseph. [Selah]

¹⁶When the waters saw thee, O God,

when the waters saw thee, they were afraid,

yea, the deep trembled.

¹⁷The clouds poured out water;

the skies gave forth thunder;

thy arrows flashed on every side.

¹⁸The crash of thy thunder was in the whirlwind;

thy lightnings lighted up the world;

the earth trembled and shook.

¹⁹Thy way was through the sea,

thy path through the great waters;

yet thy footprints were unseen.

²⁰Thou didst lead thy people like a flock

by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

PSALM 78

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 fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders which he has wrought.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob,

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children;

⁶that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise 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 fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,

turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant,

but 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 fathers he wrought 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 the night with a fiery light.

¹⁵He cleft rocks 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?

²⁰He smote the rock so that water gushed out

and streams overflowed.

Can he also give bread,

or provide meat for his people?”

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

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;

²⁴and he rained down upon them manna to eat,

and gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵Man ate of the bread of the 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 in the midst of their camp,

all around their habitations.

²⁹And they ate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰But before they had sated their craving,

while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹the anger of God rose against them

and he slew the strongest of them,

and laid low the picked men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this they still sinned;

despite his wonders they did not believe.

³³So he made their days vanish like a breath,

and their years in terror.

³⁴When he slew them, they sought 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;

he restrained his anger often,

and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,

a wind that passes and comes not again.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹They tested him 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 wrought 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, which devoured them,

and frogs, which 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 smote all the first-born in Egypt,

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

⁵²Then he led forth 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 land,

to the mountain which 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 and rebelled against the Most High God,

and did not observe his testimonies,

⁵⁷but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;

they twisted like a deceitful bow.

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

they moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹When God heard, he was full of wrath,

and he utterly rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,

the tent where he dwelt among men,

⁶¹and delivered his power to captivity,

his glory to the hand of the foe.

⁶²He gave his people over to the sword,

and vented his wrath on his heritage.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men,

and their maidens 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 strong man shouting because of wine.

⁶⁶And he put his adversaries to rout;

he put them to everlasting shame.

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 for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant,

and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹from tending the ewes that had young he brought him

to be the shepherd of Jacob his people,

of Israel his inheritance.

⁷²With upright heart he tended them,

and guided them with skilful hand.

PSALM 79

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance;

they have defiled thy holy temple;

they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

²They have given the bodies of thy servants

to the birds of the air for food,

the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth.

³They have poured out their blood like water

round about Jerusalem,

and there was none to bury them.

⁴We have become a taunt to our neighbors,

mocked and derided by those round about us.

⁵How long, O Lord? Wilt thou be angry for ever?

Will thy jealous wrath burn like fire?

⁶Pour out thy anger on the nations

that do not know thee,

and on the kingdoms

that do not call on thy name!

⁷For they have devoured Jacob,

and laid waste his habitation.

⁸Do not remember against us the…