Psalm 78
1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words
of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of
old:
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the
generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful
works that he hath done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in
Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to
their children:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works
of God, but keep his commandments:
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was
not stedfast with God.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned
back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his
law;
11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the
land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made
the waters to stand as an heap.
14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night
with a light of fire.
15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out
of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to
run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High
in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their
lust.
19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table
in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the
streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21 Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was
kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his
salvation:
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the
doors of heaven,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them
of the corn of heaven.
25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power
he brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like
as the sand of the sea:
28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their
habitations.
29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their
own desire;
30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat
was yet in their mouths,
31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them,
and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his
wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years
in trouble.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and
enquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God
their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they
lied unto him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they
stedfast in his covenant.
38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave 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 he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth
away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him
in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One
of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them
from the enemy.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the
field of Zoan.
44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that
they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their
labour unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore 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, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their
strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them
in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea
overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this
mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an
inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not
his testimonies:
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they
were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved
him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he
placed among men;
61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into
the enemy's hand.
62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with
his inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not
given to marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no
lamentation.
65 Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man
that shouteth by reason of wine.
66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a
perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the
tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth
which he hath established for ever.
70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the
sheepfolds:
71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed
Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and
guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
