78:1 A maskil of Asaph. O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.

78:2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--

78:3 what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.

78:4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.

78:5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,

78:6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

78:7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.

78:8 They would not be like their forefathers--a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.

78:9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;

78:10 they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.

78:11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

78:12 He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

78:13 He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall.

78:14 He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.

78:15 He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

78:16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.

78:17 But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

78:18 They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.

78:19 They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert?

78:20 When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?"

78:21 When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,

78:22 for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.

78:23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;

78:24 he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.

78:25 Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.

78:26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power.

78:27 He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.

78:28 He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.

78:29 They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved.

78:30 But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths,

78:31 God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.

78:32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

78:33 So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.

78:34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.

78:35 They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

78:36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;

78:37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.

78:38 Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.

78:39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland!

78:41 Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

78:42 They did not remember his power--the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

78:43 the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.

78:44 He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.

78:45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

78:46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.

78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

78:48 He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

78:49 He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility--a band of destroying angels.

78:50 He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.

78:51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

78:52 But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.

78:53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.

78:54 Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.

78:55 He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

78:56 But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.

78:57 Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.

78:58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

78:59 When God heard them, he was very angry; he rejected Israel completely.

78:60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.

78:61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

78:62 He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.

78:63 Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;

78:64 their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.

78:65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.

78:66 He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.

78:67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

78:68 but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

78:69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

78:70 He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

78:71 from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.

78:72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.