The Psalms

Psalm 78

Maschil of Asaph.

 ^78:1Give ear, O my people, to my law:

 Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

 ^78:2I will open my mouth in a parable;

 I will utter dark sayings of old,

 ^78:3Which we have heard and known,

 And our fathers have told us.

 ^78:4We will not hide them from their children,

 Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,

 And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.

 ^78:5For 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;

 ^78:6That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born;

 Who should arise and tell them to their children,

 ^78:7That they might set their hope in God,

 And not forget the works of God,

 But keep his commandments,

 ^78:8And 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.

 ^78:9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,

 Turned back in the day of battle.

 ^78:10They kept not the covenant of God,

 And refused to walk in his law;

 ^78:11And they forgat his doings,

 And his wondrous works that he had showed them.

 ^78:12Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,

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

 ^78:13He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through;

 And he made the waters to stand as a heap.

 ^78:14In the day-time also he led them with a cloud,

 And all the night with a light of fire.

 ^78:15He clave rocks in the wilderness,

 And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

 ^78:16He brought streams also out of the rock,

 And caused waters to run down like rivers.

 ^78:17Yet went they on still to sin against him,

 To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

 ^78:18And they tempted God in their heart

 By asking food according to their desire.

 ^78:19Yea, they spake against God;

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

 ^78:20Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out,

 And streams overflowed;

 Can he give bread also?

 Will he provide flesh for his people?

 ^78:21Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth;

 And a fire was kindled against Jacob,

 And anger also went up against Israel;

 ^78:22Because they believed not in God,

 And trusted not in his salvation.

 ^78:23Yet he commanded the skies above,

 And opened the doors of heaven;

 ^78:24And he rained down manna upon them to eat,

 And gave them food from heaven.

 ^78:25Man did eat the bread of the mighty:

 He sent them food to the full.

 ^78:26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens;

 And by his power he guided the south wind.

 ^78:27He rained flesh also upon them as the dust,

 And winged birds as the sand of the seas:

 ^78:28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,

 Round about their habitations.

 ^78:29So they did eat, and were well filled;

 And he gave them their own desire.

 ^78:30They were not estranged from that which they desired,

 Their food was yet in their mouths,

 ^78:31When the anger of God went up against them,

 And slew of the fattest of them,

 And smote down the young men of Israel.

 ^78:32For all this they sinned still,

 And believed not in his wondrous works.

 ^78:33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,

 And their years in terror.

 ^78:34When he slew them, then they inquired after him;

 And they returned and sought God earnestly.

 ^78:35And they remembered that God was their rock,

 And the Most High God their redeemer.

 ^78:36But they flattered him with their mouth,

 And lied unto him with their tongue.

 ^78:37For their heart was not right with him,

 Neither were they faithful in his covenant.

 ^78:38But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:

 Yea, many a time turned he his anger away,

 And did not stir up all his wrath.

 ^78:39And he remembered that they were but flesh,

 A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

 ^78:40How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness,

 And grieve him in the desert!

 ^78:41And they turned again and tempted God,

 And provoked the Holy One of Israel.

 ^78:42They remember not his hand,

 Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

 ^78:43How he set his signs in Egypt,

 And his wonders in the field of Zoan,

 ^78:44And turned their rivers into blood,

 And their streams, so that they could not drink.

 ^78:45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;

 And frogs, which destroyed them.

 ^78:46He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar,

 And their labor unto the locust.

 ^78:47He destroyed their vines with hail,

 And their sycomore-trees with frost.

 ^78:48He gave over their cattle also to the hail,

 And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

 ^78:49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,

 Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,

 A band of angels of evil.

 ^78:50He made a path for his anger;

 He spared not their soul from death,

 But gave their life over to the pestilence,

 ^78:51And smote all the first-born in Egypt,

 The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

 ^78:52But he led forth his own people like sheep,

 And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

 ^78:53And he led them safely, so that they feared not;

 But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

 ^78:54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary,

 To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.

 ^78:55He drove out the nations also before them,

 And allotted them for an inheritance by line,

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

 ^78:56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,

 And kept not his testimonies;

 ^78:57But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers:

 They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

 ^78:58For they provoked him to anger with their high places,

 And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

 ^78:59When God heard this, he was wroth,

 And greatly abhorred Israel;

 ^78:60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,

 The tent which he placed among men;

 ^78:61And delivered his strength into captivity,

 And his glory into the adversary's hand.

 ^78:62He gave his people over also unto the sword,

 And was wroth with his inheritance.

 ^78:63Fire devoured their young men;

 And their virgins had no marriage-song.

 ^78:64Their priests fell by the sword;

 And their widows made no lamentation.

 ^78:65Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,

 Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

 ^78:66And he smote his adversaries backward:

 He put them to a perpetual reproach.

 ^78:67Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph,

 And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

 ^78:68But chose the tribe of Judah,

 The mount Zion which he loved.

 ^78:69And he built his sanctuary like the heights,

 Like the earth which he hath established for ever.

 ^78:70He chose David also his servant,

 And took him from the sheepfolds:

 ^78:71From following the ewes that have their young he brought him,

 To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

 ^78:72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,

 And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.