Psalms 78

1Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.● 2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,● 3Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.● 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.● 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;● 6That the generation to come might know `them', even the children that should be born; Who should arise and tell `them' to their children,● 7That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,● 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.● 9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.● 10They kept not the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law;● 11And they forgat his doings, And his wondrous works that he had showed them.● 12Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.● 13He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; And he made the waters to stand as a heap.● 14In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, And all the night with a light of fire.● 15He clave rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.● 16He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.● 17Yet went they on still to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.● 18And they tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.● 19Yea, they spake against God; They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?● 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?● 21Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also went up against Israel;● 22Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation.● 23Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven;● 24And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven.● 25Man did eat the bread of the mighty: He sent them food to the full.● 26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; And by his power he guided the south wind.● 27He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, And winged birds as the sand of the seas:● 28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their habitations.● 29So they did eat, and were well filled; And he gave them their own desire.● 30They were not estranged from that which they desired, Their food was yet in their mouths,● 31When the anger of God went up against them, And slew of the fattest of them, And smote down the young men of Israel.● 32For all this they sinned still, And believed not in his wondrous works.● 33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, And their years in terror.● 34When he slew them, then they inquired after him; And they returned and sought God earnestly.● 35And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their redeemer.● 36But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied unto him with their tongue.● 37For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.● 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.● 39And he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.● 40How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!● 41And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.● 42They remember not his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;● 43How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan,● 44And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.● 45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.● 46He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labor unto the locust.● 47He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycomore-trees with frost.● 48He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.● 49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.● 50He made a path for his anger; He spared not their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,● 51And smote all the first-born in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.● 52But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.● 53And he led them safely, so that they feared not; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.● 54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.● 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.● 56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And kept not his testimonies;● 57But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.● 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.● 59When God heard `this', he was wroth, And greatly abhorred Israel;● 60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;● 61And delivered his strength into captivity, And his glory into the adversary's hand.● 62He gave his people over also unto the sword, And was wroth with his inheritance.● 63Fire devoured their young men; And their virgins had no marriage-song.● 64Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation.● 65Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.● 66And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach.● 67Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,● 68But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved.● 69And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he hath established for ever.● 70He chose David also his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds:● 71From following the ewes that have their young he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.● 72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. Psalm 79 A Psalm of Asaph.●