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78:1  Listen, my people, to my teaching; tilt your ears toward the words of my mouth.
78:2  I will open my mouth with a proverb. I’ll declare riddles from days long gone—
78:3  ones that we’ve heard and learned about, ones that our ancestors told us.
78:4  We won’t hide them from their descendants; we’ll tell the next generation all about the praise due the Lord and his strength— the wondrous works God has done.
78:5  He established a law for Jacob and set up Instruction for Israel, ordering our ancestors to teach them to their children.
78:6  This is so that the next generation and children not yet born will know these things, and so they can rise up and tell their children
78:7  to put their hope in God— never forgetting God’s deeds, but keeping God’s commandments—
78:8  and so that they won’t become like their ancestors: a rebellious, stubborn generation, a generation whose heart wasn’t set firm and whose spirit wasn’t faithful to God.
78:9  The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, retreated on the day of battle.
78:10  They didn’t keep God’s covenant; they refused to walk in his Instruction.
78:11  They forgot God’s deeds as well as the wondrous works he showed them.
78:12  But God performed wonders in their ancestors’ presence— in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
78:13  God split the sea and led them through, making the waters stand up like a wall.
78:14  God led them with the cloud by day; by the lightning all through the night.
78:15  God split rocks open in the wilderness, gave them plenty to drink— as if from the deep itself!
78:16  God made streams flow from the rock, made water run like rivers.
78:17  But they continued to sin against God, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
78:18  They tested God in their hearts, demanded food for their stomachs.
78:19  They spoke against God! “Can God set a dinner table in the wilderness?” they asked.
78:20  “True, God struck the rock and water gushed and streams flowed, but can he give bread too? Can he provide meat for his people?”
78:21  When the Lord heard this, he became furious. A fire was ignited against Jacob; wrath also burned against Israel
78:22  because they had no faith in God, because they didn’t trust his saving power.
78:23  God gave orders to the skies above, opened heaven’s doors,
78:24  and rained manna on them so they could eat. He gave them the very grain of heaven!
78:25  Each person ate the bread of the powerful ones; God sent provisions to satisfy them.
78:26  God set the east wind moving across the skies and drove the south wind by his strength.
78:27  He rained meat on them as if it were dust in the air; he rained as many birds as the sand on the seashore!
78:28  God brought the birds down in the center of their camp, all around their dwellings.
78:29  So they ate and were completely satisfied; God gave them exactly what they had craved.
78:30  But they didn’t stop craving— even with the food still in their mouths!
78:31  So God’s anger came up against them: he killed the most hearty of them; he cut down Israel’s youth in their prime.
78:32  But in spite of all that, they kept sinning and had no faith in God’s wondrous works.
78:33  So God brought their days to an end, like a puff of air, and their years in total ruin.
78:34  But whenever God killed them, they went after him! They would turn and earnestly search for God.
78:35  They would remember that God was their rock, that the Most High was their redeemer.
78:36  But they were just flattering him with lip service. They were lying to him with their tongues.
78:37  Their hearts weren’t firmly set on him; they weren’t faithful to his covenant.
78:38  But God, being compassionate, kept forgiving their sins, kept avoiding destruction; he took back his anger so many times, wouldn’t stir up all his wrath!
78:39  God kept remembering that they were just flesh, just breath that passes and doesn’t come back.
78:40  How often they rebelled against God in the wilderness and distressed him in the desert!
78:41  Time and time again they tested God, provoking the holy one of Israel.
78:42  They didn’t remember God’s power— the day when he saved them from the enemy;
78:43  how God performed his signs in Egypt, his marvelous works in the field of Zoan.
78:44  God turned their rivers into blood; they couldn’t drink from their own streams.
78:45  God sent swarms against them to eat them up, frogs to destroy them.
78:46  God handed over their crops to caterpillars, their land’s produce to locusts.
78:47  God killed their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost.
78:48  God delivered their cattle over to disease, their herds to plagues.
78:49  God unleashed his burning anger against them— fury, indignation, distress, a troop of evil messengers.
78:50  God blazed a path for his wrath. He didn’t save them from death, but delivered their lives over to disease.
78:51  God struck down all of Egypt’s oldest males; in Ham’s tents, he struck their pride and joy.
78:52  God led his own people out like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the wilderness.
78:53  God led them in safety—they were not afraid! But the sea engulfed their enemies!
78:54  God brought them to his holy territory, to the mountain that his own strong hand had acquired.
78:55  God drove out the nations before them and apportioned property for them; he settled Israel’s tribes in their tents.
78:56  But they tested and defied the Most High God; they didn’t pay attention to his warnings.
78:57  They turned away, became faithless just like their ancestors; they twisted away like a defective bow.
78:58  They angered God with their many shrines; they angered him with their idols.
78:59  God heard and became enraged; he rejected Israel utterly.
78:60  God abandoned the sanctuary at Shiloh, the tent where he had lived with humans.
78:61  God let his power be held captive, let his glory go to the enemy’s hand.
78:62  God delivered his people up to the sword; he was enraged at his own possession.
78:63  Fire devoured his young men, and his young women had no wedding songs.
78:64  God’s priests were killed by the sword, and his widows couldn’t even cry.
78:65  But then my Lord woke up— as if he’d been sleeping! Like a warrior shaking off wine,
78:66  God beat back his foes; he made them an everlasting disgrace.
78:67  God rejected the tent of Joseph and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim.
78:68  Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah, the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
78:69  God built his sanctuary like the highest heaven and like the earth, which he established forever.
78:70  And God chose David, his servant, taking him from the sheepfolds.
78:71  God brought him from shepherding nursing ewes to shepherd his people Jacob, to shepherd his inheritance, Israel.
78:72  David shepherded them with a heart of integrity; he led them with the skill of his hands.