Psalm 78

*||Maschil of Asaph.

1  aGive ear, O my people, to my law:

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2  bI will open my mouth in a cparable:

I will dutter edark sayings of old:

3  Which we have heard and known,

And four fathers have told us.

4  gWe will not hide them from their children,

hShewing to the generation to come

The praises of the Lord, and his strength,

And ihis wonderful works that he hath done.

5  For he established ja testimony in kJacob,

And appointed a law in kIsrael,

Which he commanded our fathers,

gThat they should make them known to their children:

6  That lthe generation to come might know them, even mthe children which should be born;

Who should arise and gdeclare them to their children:

7  That they might set their nhope in God,

And not forget the works of God,

But nnkeep his commandments:

8  And omight not be as their fathers,

A pqstubborn and prrebellious generation;

A generation †that set not their heart aright,

And whose spirit was not sstedfast with God.

9  The children of Ephraim, being tarmed, and †carrying tubows,

wTurned back in the day of battle.

10  They kept not the covenant of God,

And refused to walk in his law;

11  And xforgat his works,

And ihis wonders that he had shewed them.

12  yMarvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,

In the land of Egypt, in zthe field of Zoan.

13  He adivided the sea, and caused them to pass through;

And he bmade the waters to stand as an heap.

14  cIn the daytime also he led them with a cloud,

And all the night with a light of fire.

15  dHe clave the rocks in the wilderness,

And gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16  He brought ddstreams also out of ethe rock,

And caused waters to run down like rivers.

17  And they sinned yet more against him

By fprovoking the most High in the gwilderness.

18  And hthey tempted God in their heart

By asking meat for their lust.

19  Yea, they spake against God; they said,

iCan God †furnish a table in the wilderness?

20  Behold, jhe smote the rock, that kthe waters gushed out,

And the streams overflowed;

Can he give bread also?

Can he lprovide flesh for his people?

21  Therefore the Lord heard this, and mwas wroth:

So na fire was kindled against oJacob,

And anger also pcame up against oIsrael;

22  Because they qbelieved not in God,

And trusted not in his salvation:

23  Though he had commanded the clouds from above,

And ropened the doors of heaven,

24  And had srained down manna upon them to eat,

And had given them of tthe corn of heaven.

25  ||Man did eat uangels’ food:

He sent them meat wto the full.

26  He caused an east wind †to blow in the heaven:

And by his power he xbrought in the south wind.

27  He rained flesh also upon them yas dust,

And †feathered fowls like zas the sand of the sea:

28  aAnd he let it fall in the midst of their camp,

Round about their habitations.

29  bSo they did eat, and were well filled:

For he gave them their own cdesire;

30  They were not estranged from their clust.

But dwhile their meat was yet in their mouths,

31  The wrath of God ecame upon them,

And slew the ffattest of them,

And †smote down the ||chosen men of Israel.

32  For all this gthey sinned still,

And hbelieved not for his wondrous works.

33  Therefore itheir days did he consume in kvanity,

And their years in trouble.

34  When he slew them, then they lsought him:

And they lreturned and lminquired early after God.

35  And they remembered that nGod was their rock,

And the high God otheir redeemer.

36  Nevertheless they did pflatter him with their mouth,

And they qlied unto him with their tongues.

37  For rtheir heart was not sright with him,

Neither were they hstedfast in his covenant.

38  But he, being tfull of compassion, uforgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:

Yea, many a time turned he his anger away,

And did not stir up all his wrath.

39  For whe remembered that they were but xflesh;

wyA wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

40  How oft did they ||provoke him in the wilderness,

And zgrieve him in athe desert!

41  Yea, they turned back and btempted God,

And climited the dHoly One of Israel.

42  They eremembered not his hand,

Nor the day when he delivered them ||from the enemy.

43  fHow he had †wrought his gsigns in Egypt,

And his ghwonders in ithe field of Zoan:

44  And khad turned their rivers into blood;

And their lfloods, that they could not drink.

45  He sent mdivers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them;

And nfrogs, which destroyed them.

46  He gave also their increase unto othe caterpiller,

And their labour unto pthe locust.

47  qHe †destroyed their vines with hail,

And their rsycomore trees with ||frost.

48  †He gave up their cattle also to the hail,

And their flocks to ||hot thunderbolts.

49  He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,

Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,

sBy sending evil angels among them.

50  †He made a way to his anger;

He spared not their soul from death,

But tgave ||their life over to the pestilence;

51  And usmote all the firstborn in Egypt;

xThe chief of their strength in the tabernacles yof Ham:

52  But zmade his own people to go forth alike sheep,

And zguided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53  And bhe aled them on safely, so that they feared not:

But cthe sea †overwhelmed their enemies.

54  And he brought them to the border of his dsanctuary,

Even to this demountain, which his right hand had purchased.

55  fHe cast out the heathen also before them,

And gdivided them an inheritance by hline,

And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56  iYet they ktempted and lprovoked the most high God,

And kept not his testimonies:

57  But mturned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers:

They were turned aside nlike a deceitful bow.

58  For they oprovoked him to anger with their phigh places,

And qmoved him to jealousy with their rgraven images.

59  When God heard this, he swas wroth,

And greatly tabhorred Israel:

60  uSo that he forsook the vtabernacle of wShiloh,

xThe tent which he uplaced among men;

61  And delivered yhis strength into zcaptivity,

And his glory into the enemy’s hand.

62  He agave his people over also bunto the sword;

And cwas wroth with his inheritance.

63  The fire consumed their young men;

And their maidens were not †given to marriage.

64  dTheir priests fell by the sword;

eAnd their widows fmade no lamentation.

65  Then the Lord gawaked as one out of sleep,

And hlike a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

66  And ihe smote his enemies in the hinder parts:

He put them to a perpetual reproach.

67  Moreover he jrefused the tabernacle of jjJoseph,

And chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

68  But chose the tribe of Judah,

The mount Zion kwhich he loved.

69  And he built his sanctuary like high palaces,

Like the earth which he hath †established for ever.

70  mHe chose David also his servant,

And took him from the nsheepfolds:

71  †From following the ewes ogreat with young he brought him

To pfeed qJacob his people,

And qIsrael rhis inheritance.

72  So he fed them according to the sintegrity of his heart;

And tguided them by the skilfulness of his hands.