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78:1  A psalm of Asaph. O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying,
78:2  for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past--
78:3  stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.
78:4  We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.
78:5  For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children,
78:6  so the next generation might know them--even the children not yet born--and they in turn will teach their own children.
78:7  So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.
78:8  Then they will not be like their ancestors--stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
78:9  The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.
78:10  They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his instructions.
78:11  They forgot what he had done--the great wonders he had shown them,
78:12  the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
78:13  For he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!
78:14  In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and all night by a pillar of fire.
78:15  He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.
78:16  He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!
78:17  Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
78:18  They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.
78:19  They even spoke against God himself, saying, "God can't give us food in the wilderness.
78:20  Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat."
78:21  When the LORD heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,
78:22  for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.
78:23  But he commanded the skies to open; he opened the doors of heaven.
78:24  He rained down manna for them to eat; he gave them bread from heaven.
78:25  They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold.
78:26  He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power.
78:27  He rained down meat as thick as dust--birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!
78:28  He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents.
78:29  The people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved.
78:30  But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths,
78:31  the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel's young men.
78:32  But in spite of this, the people kept sinning. Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.
78:33  So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.
78:34  When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously.
78:35  Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.
78:36  But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues.
78:37  Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant.
78:38  Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!
78:39  For he remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.
78:40  Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.
78:41  Again and again they tested God's patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
78:42  They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.
78:43  They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders on the plain of Zoan.
78:44  For he turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams.
78:45  He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them.
78:46  He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts.
78:47  He destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.
78:48  He abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.
78:49  He loosed on them his fierce anger--all his fury, rage, and hostility. He dispatched against them a band of destroying angels.
78:50  He turned his anger against them; he did not spare the Egyptians' lives but ravaged them with the plague.
78:51  He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family, the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.
78:52  But he led his own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.
78:53  He kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.
78:54  He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them.
78:55  He drove out the nations before them; he gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.
78:56  But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High. They did not obey his laws.
78:57  They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
78:58  They angered God by building shrines to other gods; they made him jealous with their idols.
78:59  When God heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Israel.
78:60  Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.
78:61  He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured; he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.
78:62  He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because he was so angry with his own people--his special possession.
78:63  Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.
78:64  Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.
78:65  Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.
78:66  He routed his enemies and sent them to eternal shame.
78:67  But he rejected Joseph's descendants; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
78:68  He chose instead the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.
78:69  There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens, as solid and enduring as the earth.
78:70  He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.
78:71  He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob's descendants--God's own people, Israel.
78:72  He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.