Chapter
Psalms 78



Book of Psalms - Chapter 78

Psalms 78:1

Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

Psalms 78:2

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

Psalms 78:3

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

Psalms 78:4

We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

Psalms 78:5

For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

Psalms 78:6

that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

Psalms 78:7

that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

Psalms 78:8

and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

Psalms 78:9

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

Psalms 78:10

They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

Psalms 78:11

They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

Psalms 78:12

He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

Psalms 78:13

He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

Psalms 78:14

In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

Psalms 78:15

He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

Psalms 78:16

He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

Psalms 78:17

Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

Psalms 78:18

They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

Psalms 78:19

Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

Psalms 78:20

Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

Psalms 78:21

Therefore the LORD heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

Psalms 78:22

because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.

Psalms 78:23

Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

Psalms 78:24

He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

Psalms 78:25

Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

Psalms 78:26

He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

Psalms 78:27

He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

Psalms 78:28

He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

Psalms 78:29

So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

Psalms 78:30

They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

Psalms 78:31

when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

Psalms 78:32

For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

Psalms 78:33

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

Psalms 78:34

When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

Psalms 78:35

They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

Psalms 78:36

But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

Psalms 78:37

For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

Psalms 78:38

But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.

Psalms 78:39

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

Psalms 78:40

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

Psalms 78:41

They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

Psalms 78:42

They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

Psalms 78:43

how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

Psalms 78:44

he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

Psalms 78:45

He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

Psalms 78:46

He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

Psalms 78:47

He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

Psalms 78:48

He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

Psalms 78:49

He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

Psalms 78:50

He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

Psalms 78:51

and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

Psalms 78:52

But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

Psalms 78:53

He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

Psalms 78:54

He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

Psalms 78:55

He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

Psalms 78:56

Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;

Psalms 78:57

but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

Psalms 78:58

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

Psalms 78:59

When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

Psalms 78:60

So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

Psalms 78:61

and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

Psalms 78:62

He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

Psalms 78:63

Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

Psalms 78:64

Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

Psalms 78:65

Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

Psalms 78:66

He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

Psalms 78:67

Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

Psalms 78:68

But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

Psalms 78:69

He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

Psalms 78:70

He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

Psalms 78:71

from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

Psalms 78:72

So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.