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PsalmsChapter 78

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A maskil of Asaph. Listen, my people, to my teaching; turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour out riddles from of old,
things we have heard and known, things our fathers told us.
We will not hide them from their children, but tell the next generation the praises of the LORD, his might, and the wonders he has done.
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children,
so that the next generation would know them, the children yet to be born, and rise up and tell their own children,
so they would put their confidence in God and not forget what God has done, but keep his commandments,
and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
The men of Ephraim, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
They did not keep God's covenant; they refused to walk in his law.
They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
In the sight of their fathers he worked marvels in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
He split the sea and brought them through; he made the waters stand up like a wall.
He led them with a cloud by day, and all night long with a light of fire.
He split rocks open in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
He brought streams out of the rock and made water run down like rivers.
But they went on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
They put God to the test in their hearts by demanding the food they craved.
They spoke against God, saying, "Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?
True, he struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. But can he also give bread? Can he provide meat for his people?"
When the LORD heard, he was furious; fire broke out against Jacob, and his anger rose against Israel,
because they did not believe God or trust in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained down manna for them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.
Everyone ate the bread of angels; he sent them provisions in abundance. [Footnote: Hebrew "bread of the mighty ones."]
He stirred up the east wind in the heavens and drove the south wind by his power.
He rained meat on them like dust, birds on the wing like the sand of the seas.
He made them fall inside their camp, all around their tents.
They ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,
the anger of God rose against them; he killed their strongest men and laid low the young men of Israel.
In spite of all this they kept on sinning; they did not believe his wonders.
So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.
Whenever he killed them, they sought him; they turned back and searched for God.
They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.
But they flattered him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
their hearts were not steadfast toward him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.
Yet he was merciful; he forgave their guilt and did not destroy them. Again and again he held back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were only flesh, a passing breath that does not return.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!
Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his power, the day he redeemed them from the enemy,
when he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
He turned their rivers to blood, and they could not drink from their streams.
He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that ruined them.
He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with sleet.
He handed their cattle over to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.
He unleashed against them his burning anger, wrath, fury, and distress—a band of destroying angels.
He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but handed their lives over to the plague.
He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
But he brought his people out like sheep and led them like a flock through the wilderness.
He guided them safely, and they were unafraid, but the sea covered their enemies.
He brought them to his holy land, to the mountain his right hand had won.
He drove out nations before them and measured out their land as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
Yet they tested God Most High and rebelled against him; they did not keep his decrees.
They turned away and were as faithless as their fathers; they twisted aside like a faulty bow.
They angered him with their high places and stirred his jealousy with their idols.
When God heard, he was furious, and he utterly rejected Israel.
He abandoned the dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he lived among men.
He gave his strength over to captivity, his splendor into the hand of the enemy.
He handed his people over to the sword; he was furious with his own inheritance.
Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs.
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.
Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting from wine.
He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.
He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.
He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he founded forever.
He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds;
from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.
And he shepherded them with an upright heart and guided them with skillful hands.
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