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78:1  A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
78:3  things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
78:4  We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.
78:5  He established a decree in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children,
78:6  that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
78:7  so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
78:8  and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
78:9  The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
78:10  They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to walk according to his law.
78:11  They forgot what he had done and the miracles that he had shown them.
78:12  In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
78:13  He divided the sea and let them pass through it and made the waters stand like a heap.
78:14  In the daytime he led them with a cloud and all night long with a fiery light.
78:15  He split rocks open in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
78:16  He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
78:17  Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
78:18  They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.
78:19  They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
78:20  Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?”
78:21  Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
78:22  because they had no faith in God and did not trust his saving power.
78:23  Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven;
78:24  he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.
78:25  Mortals ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.
78:26  He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;
78:27  he rained flesh upon them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;
78:28  he let them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings.
78:29  And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
78:30  But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,
78:31  the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the flower of Israel.
78:32  In spite of all this they still sinned; they did not believe in his wonders.
78:33  So he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in terror.
78:34  When he killed them, they searched for him; they repented and sought God earnestly.
78:35  They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.
78:36  But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.
78:37  Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not true to his covenant.
78:38  Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; often he restrained his anger and did not stir up all his wrath.
78:39  He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
78:40  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
78:41  They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
78:42  They did not keep in mind his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
78:43  when he displayed his signs in Egypt and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
78:44  He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.
78:45  He sent among them swarms of flies that devoured them and frogs that destroyed them.
78:46  He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
78:47  He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost.
78:48  He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.
78:49  He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
78:50  He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave their lives over to the plague.
78:51  He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
78:52  Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
78:53  He led them in safety so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
78:54  And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.
78:55  He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
78:56  Yet they tested the Most High God and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees
78:57  but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
78:58  For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
78:59  When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.
78:60  He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals,
78:61  and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.
78:62  He gave his people to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage.
78:63  Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no marriage song.
78:64  Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
78:65  Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.
78:66  He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting disgrace.
78:67  He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
78:68  but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
78:69  He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.
78:70  He chose his servant David and took him from the sheepfolds;
78:71  from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.
78:72  With upright heart he tended them and guided them with skillful hand.