VerseAI

NIV

Psalms 78

  1. 1<pb/><e>A maskil</e><f>[146]</f> of Asaph. <pb/><t>My people, hear my teaching;</t> <t>listen to the words of my mouth.</t>
  2. 2<t>I will open my mouth with a parable;</t> <t>I will utter hidden things, things from of old—</t>
  3. 3<t>things we have heard and known,</t> <t>things our ancestors have told us.</t>
  4. 4<t>We will not hide them from their descendants;</t> <t>we will tell the next generation</t> <t>the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,</t> <t>his power, and the wonders he has done.</t>
  5. 5<t>He decreed statutes for Jacob</t> <t>and established the law in Israel,</t> <t>which he commanded our ancestors</t> <t>to teach their children,</t>
  6. 6<t>so the next generation would know them,</t> <t>even the children yet to be born,</t> <t>and they in turn would tell their children.</t>
  7. 7<t>Then they would put their trust in God</t> <t>and would not forget his deeds</t> <t>but would keep his commands.</t>
  8. 8<t>They would not be like their ancestors—</t> <t>a stubborn and rebellious generation,</t> <t>whose hearts were not loyal to God,</t> <t>whose spirits were not faithful to him. <pb/></t>
  9. 9<t>The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,</t> <t>turned back on the day of battle;</t>
  10. 10<t>they did not keep God’s covenant</t> <t>and refused to live by his law.</t>
  11. 11<t>They forgot what he had done,</t> <t>the wonders he had shown them.</t>
  12. 12<t>He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors</t> <t>in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.</t>
  13. 13<t>He divided the sea and led them through;</t> <t>he made the water stand up like a wall.</t>
  14. 14<t>He guided them with the cloud by day</t> <t>and with light from the fire all night.</t>
  15. 15<t>He split the rocks in the wilderness</t> <t>and gave them water as abundant as the seas;</t>
  16. 16<t>he brought streams out of a rocky crag</t> <t>and made water flow down like rivers. <pb/></t>
  17. 17<t>But they continued to sin against him,</t> <t>rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.</t>
  18. 18<t>They willfully put God to the test</t> <t>by demanding the food they craved.</t>
  19. 19<t>They spoke against God;</t> <t>they said, “Can God really</t> <t>spread a table in the wilderness?</t>
  20. 20<t>True, he struck the rock,</t> <t>and water gushed out,</t> <t>streams flowed abundantly,</t> <t>but can he also give us bread?</t> <t>Can he supply meat for his people?”</t>
  21. 21<t>When the LORD heard them, he was furious;</t> <t>his fire broke out against Jacob,</t> <t>and his wrath rose against Israel,</t>
  22. 22<t>for they did not believe in God</t> <t>or trust in his deliverance.</t>
  23. 23<t>Yet he gave a command to the skies above</t> <t>and opened the doors of the heavens;</t>
  24. 24<t>he rained down manna for the people to eat,</t> <t>he gave them the grain of heaven.</t>
  25. 25<t>Human beings ate the bread of angels;</t> <t>he sent them all the food they could eat.</t>
  26. 26<t>He let loose the east wind from the heavens</t> <t>and by his power made the south wind blow.</t>
  27. 27<t>He rained meat down on them like dust,</t> <t>birds like sand on the seashore.</t>
  28. 28<t>He made them come down inside their camp,</t> <t>all around their tents.</t>
  29. 29<t>They ate till they were gorged—</t> <t>he had given them what they craved.</t>
  30. 30<t>But before they turned from what they craved,</t> <t>even while the food was still in their mouths,</t>
  31. 31<t>God’s anger rose against them;</t> <t>he put to death the sturdiest among them,</t> <t>cutting down the young men of Israel. <pb/></t>
  32. 32<t>In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;</t> <t>in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.</t>
  33. 33<t>So he ended their days in futility</t> <t>and their years in terror.</t>
  34. 34<t>Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;</t> <t>they eagerly turned to him again.</t>
  35. 35<t>They remembered that God was their Rock,</t> <t>that God Most High was their Redeemer.</t>
  36. 36<t>But then they would flatter him with their mouths,</t> <t>lying to him with their tongues;</t>
  37. 37<t>their hearts were not loyal to him,</t> <t>they were not faithful to his covenant.</t>
  38. 38<t>Yet he was merciful;</t> <t>he forgave their iniquities</t> <t>and did not destroy them.</t> <t>Time after time he restrained his anger</t> <t>and did not stir up his full wrath.</t>
  39. 39<t>He remembered that they were but flesh,</t> <t>a passing breeze that does not return. <pb/></t>
  40. 40<t>How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness</t> <t>and grieved him in the wasteland!</t>
  41. 41<t>Again and again they put God to the test;</t> <t>they vexed the Holy One of Israel.</t>
  42. 42<t>They did not remember his power—</t> <t>the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,</t>
  43. 43<t>the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,</t> <t>his wonders in the region of Zoan.</t>
  44. 44<t>He turned their river into blood;</t> <t>they could not drink from their streams.</t>
  45. 45<t>He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,</t> <t>and frogs that devastated them.</t>
  46. 46<t>He gave their crops to the grasshopper,</t> <t>their produce to the locust.</t>
  47. 47<t>He destroyed their vines with hail</t> <t>and their sycamore-figs with sleet.</t>
  48. 48<t>He gave over their cattle to the hail,</t> <t>their livestock to bolts of lightning.</t>
  49. 49<t>He unleashed against them his hot anger,</t> <t>his wrath, indignation and hostility—</t> <t>a band of destroying angels.</t>
  50. 50<t>He prepared a path for his anger;</t> <t>he did not spare them from death</t> <t>but gave them over to the plague.</t>
  51. 51<t>He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,</t> <t>the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.</t>
  52. 52<t>But he brought his people out like a flock;</t> <t>he led them like sheep through the wilderness.</t>
  53. 53<t>He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;</t> <t>but the sea engulfed their enemies.</t>
  54. 54<t>And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,</t> <t>to the hill country his right hand had taken.</t>
  55. 55<t>He drove out nations before them</t> <t>and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;</t> <t>he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes. <pb/></t>
  56. 56<t>But they put God to the test</t> <t>and rebelled against the Most High;</t> <t>they did not keep his statutes.</t>
  57. 57<t>Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,</t> <t>as unreliable as a faulty bow.</t>
  58. 58<t>They angered him with their high places;</t> <t>they aroused his jealousy with their idols.</t>
  59. 59<t>When God heard them, he was furious;</t> <t>he rejected Israel completely.</t>
  60. 60<t>He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,</t> <t>the tent he had set up among humans.</t>
  61. 61<t>He sent the ark of his might into captivity,</t> <t>his splendor into the hands of the enemy.</t>
  62. 62<t>He gave his people over to the sword;</t> <t>he was furious with his inheritance.</t>
  63. 63<t>Fire consumed their young men,</t> <t>and their young women had no wedding songs;</t>
  64. 64<t>their priests were put to the sword,</t> <t>and their widows could not weep. <pb/></t>
  65. 65<t>Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,</t> <t>as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.</t>
  66. 66<t>He beat back his enemies;</t> <t>he put them to everlasting shame.</t>
  67. 67<t>Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,</t> <t>he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;</t>
  68. 68<t>but he chose the tribe of Judah,</t> <t>Mount Zion, which he loved.</t>
  69. 69<t>He built his sanctuary like the heights,</t> <t>like the earth that he established forever.</t>
  70. 70<t>He chose David his servant</t> <t>and took him from the sheep pens;</t>
  71. 71<t>from tending the sheep he brought him</t> <t>to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,</t> <t>of Israel his inheritance.</t>
  72. 72<t>And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;</t> <t>with skillful hands he led them.</t>