Psalm 78:1-72 GW

[1] Open your ears to my teachings, my people. Turn your ears to the words from my mouth. [2] I will open my mouth to illustrate points. I will explain what has been hidden long ago, [3] things that we have heard and known about, things that our parents have told us. [4] We will not hide them from our children. We will tell the next generation about the LORD's power and great deeds and the miraculous things he has done. [5] He established written instructions for Jacob's people. He gave his teachings to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children [6] so that the next generation would know them. Children yet to be born would learn them. They will grow up and tell their children [7] to trust God, to remember what he has done, and to obey his commands. [8] Then they will not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation. Their hearts were not loyal. Their spirits were not faithful to God. [9] The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows and arrows, turned and ran on the day of battle. [10] They had not been faithful to God's promise. They refused to follow his teachings. [11] They forgot what he had done- the miracles that he had shown them. [12] In front of their ancestors he performed miracles in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. [13] He divided the sea and led them through it. He made the waters stand up like a wall. [14] He guided them by a cloud during the day and by a fiery light throughout the night. [15] He split rocks in the desert. He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water. [16] He made streams come out of a rock. He made the water flow like rivers. [17] They continued to sin against him, to rebel in the desert against the Most High. [18] They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved. [19] They spoke against God by saying, "Can God prepare a banquet in the desert? [20] True, he did strike a rock, and water did gush out, and the streams did overflow. But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?" [21] When the LORD heard this, he became furious. His fire burned against Jacob and his anger flared up at Israel [22] because they did not believe God or trust him to save them. [23] In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven. [24] He rained manna down on them to eat and gave them grain from heaven. [25] Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones, and God sent them plenty of food. [26] He made the east wind blow in the heavens and guided the south wind with his might. [27] He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like the sand on the seashore. [28] He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling place. [29] They ate more than enough. He gave them what they wanted, [30] but they still wanted more. While the food was still in their mouths, [31] the anger of God flared up against them. He killed their strongest men and slaughtered the best young men in Israel. [32] In spite of all this, they continued to sin, and they no longer believed in his miracles. [33] He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind. He brought their years to an end in terror. [34] When he killed some of them, the rest searched for him. They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God. [35] They remembered that God was their rock, that the Most High was their defender. [36] They flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues. [37] Their hearts were not loyal to him. They were not faithful to his promise. [38] But he is compassionate. He forgave their sin. He did not destroy them. He restrained his anger many times. He did not display all of his fury. [39] He remembered that they were only flesh and blood, a breeze that blows and does not return. [40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! How often they caused him grief in the desert! [41] Again and again they tested God, and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit. [42] They did not remember his power- the day he freed them from their oppressor, [43] when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the fields of Zoan. [44] He turned their rivers into blood so that they could not drink from their streams. [45] He sent a swarm of flies that bit them and frogs that ruined them. [46] He gave their crops to grasshoppers and their produce to locusts. [47] He killed their vines with hail and their fig trees with frost. [48] He let the hail strike their cattle and bolts of lightning strike their livestock. [49] He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them. He sent an army of destroying angels. [50] He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them. He let the plague take their lives. [51] He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt, the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young. [52] But he led his own people out like sheep and guided them like a flock through the wilderness. [53] He led them safely. They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies. [54] He brought them into his holy land, to this mountain that his power had won. [55] He forced nations out of their way and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents. [56] They tested God Most High and rebelled against him. They did not obey his written instructions. [57] They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. They were like arrows shot from a defective bow. [58] They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites. They made him furious because they worshiped idols. [59] When God heard, he became furious. He completely rejected Israel. [60] He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh, the tent where he had lived among humans. [61] He allowed his power to be taken captive and handed his glory over to an oppressor. [62] He let swords kill his people. He was furious with those who belonged to him. [63] Fire consumed his best young men, so his virgins heard no wedding songs. [64] His priests were cut down with swords. The widows of his priests could not even weep for them. [65] Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping, like a warrior sobering up from too much wine. [66] He struck his enemies from behind and disgraced them forever. [67] He rejected the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, [68] but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. [69] He built his holy place to be like the high heavens, like the earth which he made to last for a long time. [70] He chose his servant David. He took him from the sheep pens. [71] He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob, of Israel, the people who belonged to the LORD. [72] With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd. With skill he guided them.