Psalm 78 - Maschil of Asaph.
Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline
your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable:
I will utter dark sayings of old:
Which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
shewing to the generation to come the
praises of the Lord, and his strength,
and his wonderful works that he hath done.
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:
That the generation to come might
know them, even the children which
should be born; who should arise
and declare them to their children:
That they might set their hope in
God, and not forget the works of
God, but keep his commandments:
And might not be as their
fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation; a generation that set
not their heart aright, and whose
spirit was not stedfast with God.
The children of Ephraim, being
armed, and carrying bows, turned
back in the day of battle.
They kept not the covenant of God,
and refused to walk in his law;
And forgat his works, and his
wonders that he had shewed them.
Marvellous things did he in the
sight of their fathers, in the land
of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
He divided the sea, and caused
them to pass through; and he made
the waters to stand as an heap.
In the daytime also he led
them with a cloud, and all the
night with a light of fire.
He clave the rocks in the
wilderness, and gave them drink
as out of the great depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock,
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
And they sinned yet more against him by
provoking the most High in the wilderness.
And they tempted God in their heart
by asking meat for their lust.
Yea, they spake against God; they said,
Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he smote the rock, that the
waters gushed out, and the streams
overflowed; can he give bread also?
can he provide flesh for his people?
Therefore the Lord heard this,
and was wroth: so a fire was
kindled against Jacob, and anger
also came up against Israel;
Because they believed not in God,
and trusted not in his salvation:
Though he had commanded the clouds from
above, and opened the doors of heaven,
And had rained down manna upon
them to eat, and had given
them of the corn of heaven.
Man did eat angels' food: he
sent them meat to the full.
He caused an east wind to blow
in the heaven: and by his power
he brought in the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them
as dust, and feathered fowls
like as the sand of the sea:
And he let it fall in the midst of their
camp, round about their habitations.
So they did eat, and were well filled:
for he gave them their own desire;
They were not estranged from their lust.
But while their meat
was yet in their mouths,
The wrath of God came upon them,
and slew the fattest of them, and
smote down the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still, and
believed not for his wondrous works.
enquired early after God.
And they remembered that God was their
rock, and the high God their redeemer.
Nevertheless they did flatter
him with their mouth, and they
lied unto him with their tongues.
For their heart was not right
with him, neither were they
stedfast in his covenant.
But he, being full of compassion, forgave
their iniquity, and destroyed them not:
yea, many a time turned he his anger
away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
For he remembered that they were
but flesh; a wind that passeth
away, and cometh not again.
How oft did they provoke him in the
wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
Yea, they turned back and tempted God,
and limited the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand, nor the day
when he delivered them from the enemy.
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt,
and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
And had turned their rivers
into blood; and their floods,
that they could not drink.
He sent divers sorts of flies
among them, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase
unto the caterpiller, and
their labour unto the locust.
He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycomore trees with frost.
He gave up their cattle also to the hail,
and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
He cast upon them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, and
indignation, and trouble, by
sending evil angels among them.
He made a way to his anger; he spared
not their soul from death, but gave
their life over to the pestilence;
And smote all the firstborn in
Egypt; the chief of their strength
in the tabernacles of Ham:
But made his own people to go
forth like sheep, and guided them
in the wilderness like a flock.
And he led them on safely, so
that they feared not: but the
sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And he brought them to the border of
his sanctuary, even to this mountain,
which his right hand had purchased.
He cast out the heathen also before
them, and divided them an inheritance
by line, and made the tribes of
Israel to dwell in their tents.
Yet they tempted and provoked the most
high God, and kept not his testimonies:
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully
like their fathers: they were
turned aside like a deceitful bow.
For they provoked him to anger with
their high places, and moved him to
jealousy with their graven images.
When God heard this, he was wroth,
and greatly abhorred Israel:
So that he forsook the
tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent
which he placed among men;
And delivered his strength into captivity,
and his glory into the enemy's hand.
He gave his people over also unto the
sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their young men; and
their maidens were not given to marriage.
Their priests fell by the sword; and
their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awaked as one out
of sleep, and like a mighty man
that shouteth by reason of wine.
And he smote his enemies
in the hinder parts: he put
them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover he refused the
tabernacle of Joseph, and
chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
But chose the tribe of Judah,
the mount Zion which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like
high palaces, like the earth which
he hath established for ever.
He chose David also his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds:
From following the ewes great with
young he brought him to feed Jacob his
people, and Israel his inheritance.
So he fed them according to the
integrity of his heart; and guided
them by the skilfulness of his hands.