Psalm 78

Listen, my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter riddles from long ago, things we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but will recount to the coming generation the praises of the LORD, his might, and the wonders he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and set a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children, so that the coming generation might know, children yet to be born, who would arise and tell their own children, that they might put their confidence in God, not forget the deeds of God, and keep his commandments. Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The men of Ephraim, armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to walk in his law. They forgot his deeds and the wonders he had shown them. He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He split the sea and brought them through;
he made the waters stand like a heap. He led them with a cloud by day, and all night with the light of fire. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink, as from the depths. He brought streams out of the rock and made waters flow down like rivers. Yet they continued to sin against him, rebelling against the Most High in the dry land. They tested God in their hearts by asking for food to satisfy their appetite. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God set a table in the wilderness? Look, he struck the rock, and water gushed out and streams overflowed.
But can he also give bread?
Can he provide meat for his people?” So the LORD heard and was enraged;
fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in God or trust in his salvation. Yet he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven. He rained manna on them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Mortals ate the bread of the mighty ones;
he sent them provisions in abundance. He set the east wind blowing in the heavens and drove the south wind by his strength. He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas. He made them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings. They ate and were completely satisfied;
he brought them what they craved. They had not turned from their craving, and their food was still in their mouths, when God’s anger rose against them.
He killed the strongest among them and struck down the young men of Israel. Despite all this they kept on sinning and did not believe in his wonders. So he brought their days to an end like a breath, and their years in terror. When he killed them, they sought him;
they turned back and earnestly sought God. They remembered that God was their rock, and God Most High their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues. Their hearts were not steadfast toward him, and they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he was compassionate;
he atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them.
Again and again he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not return. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland! Again and again they tested God and pained the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his hand, the day he ransomed them from the adversary, when he performed his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the fields of Zoan. He turned their rivers to blood, so they could not drink from their streams. He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them, and frogs that destroyed them. He gave their crops to the devouring locust, and the fruit of their labor to the locust swarm. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-fig trees with frost. He gave their cattle over to hail, and their herds to lightning bolts. He sent upon them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress—a company of messengers of calamity. He cleared a path for his anger;
he did not spare their lives from death, but gave their lives over to pestilence. He struck every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham. But he led his people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness. He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies. He brought them to his holy territory, to this mountain his right hand had acquired. He drove out nations before them, allotted their land as an inheritance by the measuring line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. Yet they tested and rebelled against God Most High, and did not keep his testimonies. They turned back and were faithless like their fathers;
they swerved like an unreliable bow. They provoked him to anger with their high places and to jealousy with their carved images. God heard and was enraged;
he utterly rejected Israel. He forsook the dwelling at Shiloh, the tent he had established among mortals. He gave his strength over to captivity, and his splendor into the adversary’s hand. He gave his people over to the sword and was enraged against his inheritance. Fire devoured their young men, and no wedding songs were sung for their young women. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not weep. Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine. He beat his adversaries back and put them to everlasting shame. He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth he established forever. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds. From following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. He shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.

Rights and attribution