PSALMS 78

1 Maschil of Asaph. 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, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wondrous 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 tell 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 they forgat his doings, and his wondrous works that he had shewed them.⋮

12 Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.⋮

13 He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.⋮

14 In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.⋮

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

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

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

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.⋮

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?⋮

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can he give bread also? will he provide flesh for his people?⋮

21 Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;⋮

22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.⋮

23 Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;⋮

24 And he rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven.⋮

25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty: he sent them meat to the full.⋮

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he guided the south wind.⋮

27 He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas:⋮

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; and he gave them that they lusted after.⋮

30 They were not estranged from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,⋮

31 When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the fattest of them, and smote down the young men of Israel.⋮

32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not in his wondrous works.⋮

33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in terror.⋮

34 When he slew them, then they inquired after him: and they returned and sought God early.⋮

35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.⋮

36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue.⋮

37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful 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 And he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.⋮

40 How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!⋮

41 And they turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.⋮

42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary.⋮

43 How he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan;⋮

44 And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink.⋮

45 He sent among them swarms of flies, 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 over 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, a band of angels of evil.⋮

50 He made a path for 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 tents of Ham:⋮

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

53 And he led them safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.⋮

54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.⋮

55 He 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.⋮

56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies;⋮

57 But turned back, and dealt treacherously 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 adversary’s hand.⋮

62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.⋮

63 Fire devoured their young men; and their maidens had no marriage-song.⋮

64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.⋮

65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.⋮

66 And he smote his adversaries backward: he put them to a perpetual reproach.⋮

67 Moreover he refused the tent 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 the heights, 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 that give suck 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.⋮