God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.

A [a]Maskil of Asaph.

1Listen, my people, to my [b]instruction;

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will tell riddles of old,

3Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

4We will not conceal them from their children,

But we will tell the generation to come the praises of the LORD,

And His power and His wondrous works that He has done.

5For He established a testimony in Jacob,

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers

That they were to [c]teach them to their children,

6So that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born,

That they would arise and tell them to their children,

7So that they would put their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But comply with His commandments,

8And not be like their fathers,

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not [d]prepare its heart

And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9The sons of Ephraim [e]were archers equipped with bows,

Yet they turned back on the day of battle.

10They did not keep the covenant of God

And refused to walk in His Law;

11They forgot His deeds

And His [f]miracles that He had shown them.

12He performed wonders before their fathers

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

13He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,

And He made the waters stand up like a heap.

14Then He led them with the cloud by day

And all the night with a light of fire.

15He split the rocks in the wilderness

And gave them plenty to drink like the ocean depths.

16He brought forth streams from the rock

And made waters run down like rivers.

17Yet they still continued to sin against Him,

To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18And in their heart they put God to the test

By asking for food [g]that suited their taste.

19Then they spoke against God;

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out,

And streams were overflowing;

Can He also provide bread?

Will He prepare meat for His people?”

21Therefore the LORD heard and [h]was full of wrath;

And a fire was kindled against Jacob,

And anger also mounted against Israel,

22Because they did not believe in God

And did not trust in His salvation.

23Yet He commanded the clouds above

And opened the doors of heaven;

24He rained down manna upon them to eat,

And gave them [i]food from heaven.

25Man ate the bread of [j]angels;

He sent them [k]food [l]in abundance.

26He made the east wind blow in the sky

And by His [m]power He directed the south wind.

27When He rained meat upon them like the dust,

Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,

28He let them fall in the midst of [n]their camp,

All around their dwellings.

29So they ate and were well filled,

And He [o]satisfied their longing.

30[p]Yet before they had abandoned their longing,

While their food was in their mouths,

31The anger of God rose against them

And killed [q]some of their strongest ones,

And [r]subdued the choice men of Israel.

32In spite of all this they still sinned

And did not believe in His wonderful works.

33So He brought their days to an end in futility,

And their years to an end in sudden terror.

34When He killed them, then they sought Him,

And they returned and searched diligently for God;

35And they remembered that God was their rock,

And the Most High God their Redeemer.

36But they flattered Him with their mouth

And lied to Him with their tongue.

37For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,

Nor were they faithful with His covenant.

38But He, being compassionate, [s]forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them;

And often He [t]restrained His anger

And did not stir up all His wrath.

39So He remembered that they were only flesh,

A [u]wind that passes and does not return.

40How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness

And grieved Him in the desert!

41Again and again they [v]tempted God,

And pained the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember His [w]power,

The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

43When He performed His signs in Egypt

And His marvels in the field of Zoan,

44And turned their rivers to blood,

And their streams, so that they could not drink.

45He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them,

And frogs that destroyed them.

46He also gave their crops to the grasshopper

And the product of their labor to the locust.

47He [x]destroyed their vines with hailstones

And their sycamore trees with frost.

48He also turned their cattle over to the hailstones,

And their herds to bolts of lightning.

49He sent His burning anger upon them,

Fury and indignation and trouble,

A band of [y]destroying angels.

50He leveled a path for His anger;

He did not spare their souls from death,

But turned their lives over to the plague,

51And struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

The first and best of their vigor in the tents of Ham.

52But He led His own people out like sheep,

And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

53He led them safely, so that they did not fear;

But the sea engulfed their enemies.

54So He brought them to His holy [z]land,

To this [aa]hill country which His right hand had gained.

55He also drove out the nations from them

And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,

And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

56Yet they [ab]tempted and rebelled against the Most High God

And did not keep His testimonies,

57But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;

They turned aside like a treacherous bow.

58For they provoked Him with their high places

And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.

59When God heard them, He [ac]was filled with wrath

And He utterly rejected Israel;

60So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,

The tent [ad]which He had pitched among people,

61And He gave up His strength to captivity

And His glory into the hand of the enemy.

62He also turned His people over to the sword,

And [ae]was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

63Fire devoured [af]His young men,

And [ag]His virgins had no wedding songs.

64[ah]His priests fell by the sword,

And [ai]His widows could not weep.

65Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,

Like a warrior [aj]overcome by wine.

66He [ak]drove His adversaries backward;

He put on them an everlasting disgrace.

67He also rejected the tent of Joseph,

And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68But chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which He loved.

69And He built His sanctuary like the heights,

Like the earth which He has established forever.

70He also chose His servant David

And took him from the sheepfolds;

71From [al]the care of the [am]ewes with nursing lambs He brought him

To shepherd Jacob His people,

And Israel His inheritance.

72So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,

And guided them with his skillful hands.

[a] PSALM 78Title Possibly, Contemplative; or Didactic; or Skillful Psalm
[b] 1 Or law, teaching
[c] 5 Lit make them known
[d] 8 Or put right
[e] 9 Or being
[f] 11 Or wonderful works
[g] 18 Lit to their soul
[h] 21 Or became infuriated
[i] 24 Lit grain
[j] 25 Lit mighty ones
[k] 25 Or provision
[l] 25 Lit to satiation
[m] 26 Or strength
[n] 28 Lit His
[o] 29 Lit brought to them their
[p] 30 Lit They did not turn away from their
[q] 31 Lit among their fat ones
[r] 31 Lit caused to bow down
[s] 38 Lit covered over, atoned for
[t] 38 Lit turned away
[u] 39 Or breath
[v] 41 Or put God to the test
[w] 42 Lit hand
[x] 47 Lit was killing
[y] 49 Lit angels of evil ones; another reading is evil angels
[z] 54 Lit border, territory
[aa] 54 Or mountain
[ab] 56 Or put to the test
[ac] 59 Or became infuriated
[ad] 60 Some ancient versions where He dwelt
[ae] 62 Or became infuriated
[af] 63 Or their
[ag] 63 Or their
[ah] 64 Or their
[ai] 64 Or their
[aj] 65 Or sobered up from
[ak] 66 Lit struck
[al] 71 Lit following
[am] 71 Lit ewes that wet-nurse, He