Psalm 78:1-72 NLT

[1] O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, [2] for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past- [3] stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. [4] We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders. [5] For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, [6] so the next generation might know them- even the children not yet born- and they in turn will teach their own children. [7] So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. [8] Then they will not be like their ancestors- stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God. [9] The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle. [10] They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his instructions. [11] They forgot what he had done- the great wonders he had shown them, [12] the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt. [13] For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls! [14] In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire. [15] He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring. [16] He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river! [17] Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. [18] They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved. [19] They even spoke against God himself, saying, "God can't give us food in the wilderness. [20] Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat." [21] When the LORD heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel, [22] for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them. [23] But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven. [24] He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven. [25] They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold. [26] He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power. [27] He rained down meat as thick as dust- birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore! [28] He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents. [29] The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved. [30] But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths, [31] the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel's young men. [32] But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him. [33] So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror. [34] When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously. [35] Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer. [36] But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues. [37] Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant. [38] Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury! [39] For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns. [40] Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland. [41] Again and again they tested God's patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel. [42] They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies. [43] They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan. [44] For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams. [45] He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them. [46] He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts. [47] He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet. [48] He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. [49] He loosed on them his fierce anger- all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels. [50] He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians' lives but ravaged them with the plague. [51] He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt. [52] But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness. [53] He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies. [54] He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them. [55] He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes. [56] But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws. [57] They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow. [58] They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols. [59] When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel. [60] Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people. [61] He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands. [62] He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people-his special possession. [63] Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs. [64] Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths. [65] Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor. [66] He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame. [67] But he rejected Joseph's descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. [68] He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved. [69] There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth. [70] He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens. [71] He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob's descendants- God's own people, Israel. [72] He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.