Psalm 78
C.M. D
1Come listen, O my people, to the teaching we’ve been told.
2My mouth will speak in parables, things hidden from of old.
3What we have heard and we have known, our fathers told each one,
4We’ll not hide from our children, but will tell what God has done.
We’ll tell the praises of the Lord, His pow’r and wonders wrought,
5The statutes giv’n to Jacob and the law which we were taught;
6So that each generation and the children yet unborn,
Would know these things and in their turn, would tell of God the Lord.
7Our children, then, would trust in God, and not forget His deeds;
But they would keep all His commands; His covenant they’d heed.
8They’d not be like our fathers were, who stumbled and rebelled—
Those stubborn ones, unfaithful to the God of Israel.
9For Ephra’m’s men, though armed with bows, yet turned back from the fray;
10Refused to keep God’s covenant; His law would not obey.
11Forgetting all that He had done, the wonders by His hand,
12The miracles done in their sight, in Egypt’s land, Zo-an.
13He led them through divided sea; made water stand upright.
14He guided them with cloud by day, with light from fire all night.
15He split the rocks in desert land, gave water great as seas.
16He brought them streams out of the rock that flowed abundantly.
17But they continued in their sin; rebelled ’gainst the Most High;
18They put God to the test when they demanded food and cried.
19They spoke against Him as they said, “Can God produce this feat?
20He struck the rock for water, but can He supply us meat?”
21The Lord heard them—His anger burned, His fire on Isr’el came;
22For they did not believe in God or trust that He could save.
23Yet still He gave command to heav’n, to open wide the door;
24He rained down manna for their food, gave bread of heav’n and more.
25Men ate the bread of angels—God sent them all they could eat.
26/27He loosed the winds from heaven, and sent birds to them for meat.
28He made them come inside their camp, in tents their hands had made.
29They ate till they had no more lack; He gave them what they craved.
30But while they still were eating food—it still was in their mouths,
31God’s anger rose against them and their men He did strike down.
32In spite of this, they sinned the more—they turned defiantly;
33So He ended their years in fear and in futility.
34When God slew them, they turned to Him, to seek Him once again;
35For God Most High, their Rock and their Redeemer e’er had been.
36But then their mouths would flatter Him, and with their tongues they’d lie;
37Their hearts were still unfaithful to His cov’nant from on high.
38Yet in His mercy, He forgave; did not destroy their path;
Time after time, held anger back; did not stir up His wrath.
39For He remembered they were flesh, a breeze that does not stand.
40How often they rebelled ’gainst Him in that great desert land!
41The Holy One of Is-ra-el they grieved repeatedly,
42For they forgot His pow’r the day He saved and set them free:
43How He displayed His wondrous signs in Egypt and Zo-an;
44He turned their rivers into blood, no wholesome water ran.
45He sent them swarms of flies, and frogs that devastated them.
46To grasshoppers, He gave their crops—the locusts finished them.
47/48With hail and sleet destroyed their vines; their cattle also fell.
49His anger, wrath, destruction He unleashed through His an-gels.
50He spared them not from death and plague; His anger found a path—
51He struck down Egypt’s firstborn sons, Ham’s first-fruits knew His wrath.
52But He brought forth His people like a flock of sheep safely;
53He guided them, but the great sea engulfed their enemy.
54Thus He brought them up to the edge of His new holy land.
55He drove out nations, so the tribes of Isr’el there could stand.
56They put God to the test again, though He had heard their cry.
They did not keep His law, and they rebelled ’gainst the Most High.
57Just like their fathers, they rebelled in their unfaithfulness;
58They angered Him with idols and false gods they did confess.
59When God heard them, His anger burned, His jealousy arose;
60He turned from Isr’el and the tent at Shiloh that He chose.
61He sent the ark of His great might into captivity—
His splendor and His light into the hands of enemies.
62/63He gave His people to the sword; His fire consumed their men;
63/64Their priests were killed, their widows and their maids were grieving then.
65Then God awoke as from a sleep, as man wakes from much wine;
66He beat back all His enemies; and shamed them in His time.
67The tents of Joseph He chose not, nor tribe of Eph-ra-im;
68But Judah’s tribe and Zion’s Mount, He loved and He chose them.
69He built His sanctuary like the heights of earth built sure,
70And He chose David there to be His servant evermore.
71From tending sheep was David brought to shepherd Israel,
72And with integrity of heart and skill he led them well.