Psalm 78:1-72 WEB

[1] Hear my teaching, my people. Turn 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 Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. [5] For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; [6] that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, [7] that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments, [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. [9] The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. [10] They didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law. [11] They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them. [12] He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. [13] He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap. [14] In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire. [15] He split 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 they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert. [18] They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire. [19] Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? [20] Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?” [21] Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel, [22] because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation. [23] Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven. [24] He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky. [25] Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full. [26] He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind. [27] He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas. [28] He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations. [29] So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. [30] They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths, [31] when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel. [32] For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works. [33] Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. [34] When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. [35] They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. [36] But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. [37] For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant. [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. [39] He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again. [40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert! [41] They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. [42] They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; [43] how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan, [44] he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. [45] He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. [46] He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. [47] He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. [48] He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. [49] He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil. [50] He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, [51] and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. [52] But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. [53] He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. [54] He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken. [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. [56] Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies, [57] but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow. [58] For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images. [59] When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel, [60] so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, [61] and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand. [62] He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance. [63] Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song. [64] Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep. [65] Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine. [66] He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach. [67] Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim, [68] But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. [69] He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever. [70] He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; [71] from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. [72] So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.