Psalm 78:1-72 NIV

Psalm 78:1-72 NIV [1] My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. [2] I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— [3] things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. [4] We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. [5] He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, [6] so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. [7] Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. [8] They would not be like their ancestors—a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. [9] The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; [10] they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law. [11] They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. [12] He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. [13] He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand up like a wall. [14] He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. [15] He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas; [16] he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. [17] But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High. [18] They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. [19] They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness? [20] True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?” [21] When the LORD heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, [22] for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance. [23] Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; [24] he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. [25] Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat. [26] He let loose the east wind from the heavens and by his power made the south wind blow. [27] He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like sand on the seashore. [28] He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents. [29] They ate till they were gorged—he had given them what they craved. [30] But before they turned from what they craved, even while the food was still in their mouths, [31] God’s anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel. [32] In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe. [33] So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror. [34] Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again. [35] They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. [36] But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; [37] their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. [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. [39] He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. [40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland! [41] Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. [42] They did not remember his power—the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, [43] the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. [44] He turned their river into blood; they could not drink from their streams. [45] He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. [46] He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust. [47] He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet. [48] He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. [49] He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility—a band of destroying angels. [50] He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague. [51] He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham. [52] But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness. [53] He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies. [54] And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken. [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. [56] But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. [57] Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. [58] They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols. [59] When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely. [60] He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans. [61] He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. [62] He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance. [63] Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs; [64] their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep. [65] Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine. [66] He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame. [67] Then he rejected the tents 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 sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever. [70] He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; [71] from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. [72] And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

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