A maskil of Asaph
78
📚✭✭Give ear, O my people,to my law.
Bow down your ears to the words
of my mouth.
2 📚✭✭I will open my mouth
in a parable;
I will utter difficult sayings
of old,
3 📚Which we have heard
and known,
and which our fathers
have told us.
4 📚We will not hide them
from their children,
declaring to the generation
to come the praises of the LORD,
and his strength, and his wonderful
deeds which he has done.
5 📚For he established a testimony
in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known
to their children,
6 📚That the generation to come
might know them,
the children who would be born;
who should arise and declare
them to their children,
7 📚✭That they might set their hope
on God,
and not forget the works
of God,
but keep his commandments,
8 📚And might not be like
their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not
prepare their heart rightly,
and whose spirit was not steadfast
with God.
9 📚✭The children of Ephraim,
armed and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
10 📚✭They did not keep the covenant
of God,
and refused to walk in his law,
11 📚And they forgot his deeds
and his wonders that he had
shown them.
12 📚✭He did marvellous things
in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt, in
the field of Zoan.
13 📚He divided the sea
and caused them to
pass through,
and he made the waters stand
like a heap.
14 📚Also in the daytime he led
them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light
of the fire.
15 📚He split the rocks
in the wilderness,
and gave them drink as
out of the great depths.
16 📚He also brought streams out
of the rock,
and caused waters to run down
like rivers.
17 📚✭And they sinned still more
against him by provoking
the Most High in the desert.
18 📚And they tempted God
in their heart by asking for
their desired food.
19 📚✭Yes, they spoke against God.
They said, “Can God prepare
a table in the wilderness?
20 📚Look, he struck the rock,
so that the waters gushed out,
and the streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?
Can he provide meat for his people?”
21 📚✭Therefore the LORD heard
this and was angry.
So a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and anger also came up against
Israel,
22 📚✭Because they did not believe
in God,
and did not trust in his salvation,
23 📚Though he had commanded
the clouds from above,
and had opened the doors
of heaven,
24 📚And had rained down manna
on them to eat,
and had given them the grain
of heaven.
25 📚Man ate angels’ food.
He sent them food to the full.
26 📚He caused an east wind
to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he brought
in the south wind.
27 📚He also rained meat on them
like dust,
and feathered birds like the sand
of the sea,
28 And let them fall in the
middle of their camp,
around their homes.
29 📚So they ate, and were well
satisfied,
for he gave them their own desire;
30 📚They were not turned away
from their craving.
But while their food was still
in their mouths,
31 📚The wrath of God came on them,
and killed the stoutest of them,
and struck down the chosen
men of Israel.
32 📚✭In spite of all this
they still sinned,
and did not believe even though
they saw his wonderful
works.
33 📚✭Therefore, he consumed their
days in futility,
and their years in trouble.
34 📚When he killed them, then they sought him,
and they turned back and soon
inquired after God.
35 📚✭And they remembered
that God was their rock,
and the high God their redeemer.
36 📚✭Nevertheless they flattered him
with their mouth and lied to him
with their tongues.
37 📚For their heart was not right
with him,
they were not firm in his covenant.
38 📚✭But he, being full
of compassion, forgave
their wickedness,
and did not destroy them.
Yes, many times he turned his
anger away,
and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 📚For he remembered that
they were but flesh,
a wind that passes away and
does not come again.
40 📚How often they provoked him
in the wilderness,
and grieved him in the desert!
41 📚Yes, they turned back and tested
God,
and limited✭ the Holy One of Israel.
42 📚✭They did not remember
his hand,
or the day when he delivered
them from the enemy,
43 📚✭How he appointed his signs
in Egypt,
and his wonders in the field
of Zoan,
44 📚And turned their rivers
and their streams
into blood,
so that they could not drink.
45 📚He sent swarms of flies among
them which devoured them,
and frogs which destroyed them.
46 📚He also gave their crops
to the caterpillar,
and their labour to the locust.
47 📚He destroyed their vines
with hail,
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 📚He also gave up their cattle
to the hail,
and their flocks to flaming
thunderbolts.
49 📚He cast on them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, and
indignation, and trouble,
by sending destroying angels
among them.
50 📚He made a path for
his anger.
He did not spare their soul
from death,
but gave their life over to the plague,
51 📚And struck down all the firstborn
in Egypt,
the chief of their strength
in the tents of Ham,
52 📚But caused his own people
to go out like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness
like a flock.
53 📚And he led them on safely,
so that they were not afraid;
but the sea overwhelmed
their enemies.
54 📚And he brought them
to his holy territory,
to this mountain,
which his right hand
had obtained.
55 📚He also drove out the nations
before them,
and apportioned an inheritance
to them,
and caused the tribes of Israel
to live in their tents.
56 📚✭Yet they tested and provoked
the Most High God,
and did not keep his testimonies,
57 📚But turned back and behaved
unfaithfully like their fathers.
They were turned aside like
a deceitful bow.
58 📚For they provoked him
to anger with their high places,
and moved him to jealousy
with their carved idols.
59 📚✭When God heard this,
he was enraged,
and greatly abhorred✭ Israel,
60 📚✭So that he forsook the tabernacle
at Shiloh,
the tent which he placed
among men,
61 📚✭And delivered his strength
into captivity,
and his glory into the enemy’s
hand.
62 📚He also gave his people over
to the sword,
and was angry with his
inheritance.
63 📚The fire consumed their
young men,
and their maidens were not
given in marriage.
64 📚Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no
lamentation.
65 📚✭Then the Lord awoke like
one out of sleep,
and like a mighty man
who shouts because of wine.
66 📚And he beat back his enemies;
he put them to continual shame.
67 📚Moreover, he refused the tent
of Joseph,
and did not choose the tribe
of Ephraim,
68 📚But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
69 📚And he built his sanctuary like
heights,
like the earth which he established
forever.
70 📚He also chose David his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds,
71 📚From following the ewes great
with young.
He brought him to feed his people
Jacob, and his inheritance Israel.
72 📚✭So he shepherded them according
to the integrity of his heart,
and guided them by the skillfulness of
his hands.