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New Testament
Psalm 78
Psalm 78
How Often They Rebelled
A maskil by Asaph.
A Solemn Call to Learn From History
1Give ear, O my people, to my instruction.
Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth to share a lesson.
I will speak about puzzling problems from long ago,
3things we have heard and known,
things our fathers have told us.
4We will not hide them from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders that he has done.
5He set up testimony for Jacob.
In Israel he established the law.
He commanded our fathers to make it known to their children.
6Then the next generation would know it,
even the children not yet born.
They would rise up and tell their children.
7Then they would put their confidence in God,
and they would not forget the deeds of God,
but they would keep his commands.
8Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation that did not keep their hearts steadfast,
whose spirits were not faithful to God.
The Rebellion
9The tribe of Ephraim, equipped and armed with bows,
deserted on the day of battle.
10They did not keep God's covenant,
and they refused to walk in his law.
11They forgot his deeds, the wonders he had shown to them.
God's Goodness in the Wilderness
12In the presence of their fathers he had performed a wonder,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13He split the sea and let them to cross through it.
He made the water stand like a wall.
14He led them with the cloud by day
and all through the night with light from the fire.
15He split the rocks in the wilderness,
and he let them drink water as plentiful as the deep sea.
16He brought streams out of the rocky cliff.
He made water flow down like rivers.
Israel's Rebellion in the Wilderness
17But they continued to sin against him even more,
by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18They tested God in their hearts by demanding food for their cravings.
19Then they spoke against God.
They said, “Is God able to set a table in the wilderness?
20Sure, he struck the rock and water flowed out,
and stream beds overflowed,
but can he really give us bread?
Can he really supply meat for his people?”
God's Judgment in the Wilderness
21Then the Lord heard, and he showed his anger.
Fire broke out against Jacob,
and his anger rose against Israel,
22because they did not believe in God,
and they did not trust in his salvation.
God's Mercy in the Wilderness
23Nevertheless, he gave a command to the skies above,
and he opened the doors of the heavens.
24He rained down manna for them to eat,
and he gave them the grain of heaven.
25Each of them ate the bread of the mighty ones.
He sent them all the food they could eat.
26He sent out the east wind from the heavens,
and he led out the south wind by his power.
27Then he rained meat down on them like dust,
and flying birds like sand on the seashore.
28He made the birds fall down inside their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29Then they ate until they had more than enough,
for he had brought them what they craved.
30They had not yet turned away from what they craved.
Their food was still in their mouths.
31Then God's anger rose up against them.
He killed the strongest among them.
He cut down the best young men of Israel.
32In spite of all this, they kept sinning,
and they did not believe in his wonders.
and their years in terror.
34Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him.
Then they turned and sought God.
35Then they remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36But then they would deceive him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they would lie to him.
37Their hearts were not committed to him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
38Yet he was compassionate.
He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them.
Many times he restrained his anger,
and he did not stir up his full wrath.
39He still remembered that they were only flesh,
like a wind that goes by and does not return.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they grieved him in the wasteland!
41They repeatedly put God to the test.
God's Power Displayed in Egypt
42They did not remember the power of his hand
—the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43when he displayed his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
44when he turned their rivers to blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45He sent against them a swarm of flies that bit them.
Then he sent frogs that destroyed them.
46Then he gave their crops to the grasshopper.
He gave what they worked for to the locust.
47He killed their grapevines with hail,
and their sycamore fig trees with sleet.
48Then he turned over their cattle to hail,
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
49He sent against them his burning anger,
his wrath and indignation and distress
50He prepared a path for his anger.
He did not spare their lives from death,
but he delivered their lives to the plague.
51Then he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the first fruit of their virility in the tents of Ham.
52But he led his people out like sheep.
He led them like a flock through the wilderness.
53Then he guided them safely, so they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.
God's Power Displayed in Canaan
54Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain which his right hand had taken.
55He drove out nations before them.
He marked the boundaries of their inheritance,
and he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
Rebellion in the Land
56But they tested him.
They rebelled against God Most High,
and they did not keep his testimonies.
57Yes, they turned aside and were treacherous like their fathers.
They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
58Then they angered him with their high places,
and they made him jealous with their idols.
Judgment in the Land
59God heard, and he showed his anger.
He completely rejected Israel.
60So he abandoned his dwelling in Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelled among people.
He gave his splendor into the hand of the foe.
62He also handed over his people to the sword,
and he showed his anger against his possession.
63Fire consumed their best young men,
so their virgins were not praised in wedding songs.
64Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows did not weep.
Mercy in the Land
65Then the Lord awoke like someone who has been sleeping,
like a warrior overcome by wine.
66Then he drove back his foes.
He gave them everlasting shame.
67Then he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68But he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69Then he built up his sanctuary like the heights,
like the world that he established for all time.
70Then he chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens.
71He brought him from following the mother sheep
to shepherd his people Jacob
and his possession Israel.
72So he shepherded them with a sincere heart,
and with skillful hands he led them.
Footnotes
- 78:33 Or he made their days vanish like vapor
- 78:41 Or caused pain to. The word occurs only once in the Old Testament. God does not, of course, feel literal physical pain, but this is a dramatic way of describing his sorrow over the consequences of human sin.
- 78:49 Literally a delegation of messengers of evils. This could refer to angels like the angel of death in the tenth plague, or perhaps the plagues themselves were “evil messengers.”
- 78:61 That is, the Ark of the Covenant