A contemplation by Asaph.

78:1 Hear my teaching, my people.

Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings of old,

78:3 Which we have heard and known,

and our fathers have told us.

78:4 We will not hide them from their children,

telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh,

his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

78:5 For he established a testimony in Jacob,

and appointed a teaching in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers,

that they should make them known to their children;

78:6 that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;

who should arise and tell their children,

78:7 that they might set their hope in God,

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments,

78:8 and might not be as their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal,

whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

78:9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,

turned back in the day of battle.

78:10 They didn't keep God's covenant,

and refused to walk in his law.

78:11 They forgot his doings,

his wondrous works that he had shown them.

78:12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers,

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

78:13 He split the sea, and caused them to pass through.

He made the waters stand as a heap.

78:14 In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,

and all night with a light of fire.

78:15 He split rocks in the wilderness,

and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

78:16 He brought streams also out of the rock,

and caused waters to run down like rivers.

78:17 Yet they still went on to sin against him,

to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

78:18 They tempted God in their heart

by asking food according to their desire.

78:19 Yes, they spoke against God.

They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

78:20 Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,

and streams overflowed.

Can he give bread also?

Will he provide flesh for his people?"

78:21 Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry.

A fire was kindled against Jacob,

anger also went up against Israel,

78:22 because they didn't believe in God,

and didn't trust in his salvation.

78:23 Yet he commanded the skies above,

and opened the doors of heaven.

78:24 He rained down manna on them to eat,

and gave them food from the sky.

78:25 Man ate the bread of angels.

He sent them food to the full.

78:26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.

By his power he guided the south wind.

78:27 He rained also flesh on them as the dust;

winged birds as the sand of the seas.

78:28 He let them fall in the midst of their camp,

around their habitations.

78:29 So they ate, and were well filled.

He gave them their own desire.

78:30 They didn't turn from their cravings.

Their food was yet in their mouths,

78:31 when the anger of God went up against them,

killed some of the fattest of them,

and struck down the young men of Israel.

78:32 For all this they still sinned,

and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

78:33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,

and their years in terror.

78:34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him.

They returned and sought God earnestly.

78:35 They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God, their redeemer.

78:36 But they flattered him with their mouth,

and lied to him with their tongue.

78:37 For their heart was not right with him,

neither were they faithful in his covenant.

78:38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them.

Yes, many times he turned his anger away,

and didn't stir up all his wrath.

78:39 He remembered that they were but flesh,

a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,

and grieved him in the desert!

78:41 They turned again and tempted God,

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

78:42 They didn't remember his hand,

nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

78:43 how he set his signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the field of Zoan,

78:44 he turned their rivers into blood,

and their streams, so that they could not drink.

78:45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;

and frogs, which destroyed them.

78:46 He gave also their increase to the caterpillar,

and their labor to the locust.

78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail,

their sycamore fig trees with frost.

78:48 He gave over their livestock also to the hail,

and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

78:49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,

wrath, indignation, and trouble,

and a band of angels of evil.

78:50 He made a path for his anger.

He didn't spare their soul from death,

but gave their life over to the pestilence,

78:51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

78:52 But he led forth his own people like sheep,

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

78:53 He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid,

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

78:54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,

to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

78:55 He also drove out the nations before them,

allotted them for an inheritance by line,

and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

78:56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,

and didn't keep his testimonies;

78:57 but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.

They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

78:58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places,

and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

78:59 When God heard this, he was angry,

and greatly abhorred Israel;

78:60 So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh,

the tent which he placed among men;

78:61 and delivered his strength into captivity,

his glory into the adversary's hand.

78:62 He also gave his people over to the sword,

and was angry with his inheritance.

78:63 Fire devoured their young men.

Their virgins had no wedding song.

78:64 Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows couldn't weep.

78:65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,

like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

78:66 He struck his adversaries backward.

He put them to a perpetual reproach.

78:67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph,

and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

78:68 But chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion which he loved.

78:69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth which he has established forever.

78:70 He also chose David his servant,

and took him from the sheepfolds;

78:71 from following the ewes that have their young,

he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,

and Israel, his inheritance.

78:72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,

and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.