Psalm 78 - Modern English Version

A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph.

¹ Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will speak mysteries of old,

³ which we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and the wonderful works that He has done.

⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

⁶ that the generation to come might know them, the children yet to be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children,

⁷ so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;

⁸ and that they may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ The Ephraimites, being armed with 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 they forgot His works and the wonders that He had shown them.

¹² In the sight of their fathers He performed marvelous wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

¹³ He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and He made the waters stand up like a heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them plenty to drink like the depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ But they sinned still more against Him by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ They tested God in their heart by asking for the food they craved.

¹⁹ Then they spoke against God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?”

²¹ Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath; 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 Yet He had commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴ and He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵ Men ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

²⁶ He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens, and by His power He directed the south wind.

²⁷ He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;

²⁸ then He let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

²⁹ So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire.

³⁰ They were not separated from their desire; but while their food was still in their mouths,

³¹ the wrath of God came upon them, and He killed the strongest of them and struck down the young men of Israel.

³² For all this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works.

³³ Therefore their days did He consume like a breath, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When He killed them, then they sought Him; they turned back and sought earnestly for God.

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.

³⁶ Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths, and they lied to Him with their tongues;

³⁷ for their heart was not steadfast toward Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant.

³⁸ But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger, 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 return.

⁴⁰ How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

⁴¹ Again and again they tested God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They did not remember His power, nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

⁴³ when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan,

⁴⁴ and turned their rivers into blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.

⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the grasshopper and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave up their cattle to the hail and their flocks to fiery lightning.

⁴⁹ He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, by sending angels of destruction.

⁵⁰ He made a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague,

⁵¹ and struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² But He led forth His own people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

⁵³ He led them on safely, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain which His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁵ He cast out the nations before them, and divided for them their tribal allotments, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies,

⁵⁷ but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, He was filled with wrath and greatly abhorred Israel,

⁶⁰ so that He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt among men,

⁶¹ and delivered His strength to captivity and His glory to the enemy’s hand.

⁶² He gave His people over to the sword, and was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

⁶³ The fire consumed their young men, and their young women were not given in marriage.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.

⁶⁶ He routed His enemies back; He made them a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loves.

⁶⁹ He built His sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth that He has established forever.

⁷⁰ He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹ from following the nursing ewes He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

⁷² So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.