FBV GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

PSA Sg1 Sg2 Sg3 Sg4 Sg5 Sg6 Sg7 Sg8 Sg9 Sg10 Sg11 Sg12 Sg13 Sg14 Sg15 Sg16 Sg17 Sg18 Sg19 Sg20 Sg21 Sg22 Sg23 Sg24 Sg25 Sg26 Sg27 Sg28 Sg29 Sg30 Sg31 Sg32 Sg33 Sg34 Sg35 Sg36 Sg37 Sg38 Sg39 Sg40 Sg41 Sg42 Sg43 Sg44 Sg45 Sg46 Sg47 Sg48 Sg49 Sg50 Sg51 Sg52 Sg53 Sg54 Sg55 Sg56 Sg57 Sg58 Sg59 Sg60 Sg61 Sg62 Sg63 Sg64 Sg65 Sg66 Sg67 Sg68 Sg69 Sg70 Sg71 Sg72 Sg73 Sg74 Sg75 Sg76 Sg77 Sg79 Sg80 Sg81 Sg82 Sg83 Sg84 Sg85 Sg86 Sg87 Sg88 Sg89 Sg90 Sg91 Sg92 Sg93 Sg94 Sg95 Sg96 Sg97 Sg98 Sg99 Sg100 Sg101 Sg102 Sg103 Sg104 Sg105 Sg106 Sg107 Sg108 Sg109 Sg110 Sg111 Sg112 Sg113 Sg114 Sg115 Sg116 Sg117 Sg118 Sg119 Sg120 Sg121 Sg122 Sg123 Sg124 Sg125 Sg126 Sg127 Sg128 Sg129 Sg130 Sg131 Sg132 Sg133 Sg134 Sg135 Sg136 Sg137 Sg138 Sg139 Sg140 Sg141 Sg142 Sg143 Sg144 Sg145 Sg146 Sg147 Sg148 Sg149 Sg150

FBV PSA Chapter 78

◄ PSA 78 ► ║ ═ ©

78 A psalm (maskil) of Asaph.

1 Listen to what I have to teach you, my people; hear what I have to say.

2 I will tell you wise sayings;[fn] I will explain mysteries from the past

3 that we have heard before and reflected on; stories our forefathers passed down to us.

4 We will not keep them from our children; we will tell the next generation about God's marvelous actions—about his power and the amazing things he has done.

5 He gave his laws to the descendants of Jacob; his instructions to the people of Israel. He commanded our forefathers to teach them to their children,

6 so that the next generation—children yet to be born—would understand and grow up to teach their children.

7 In this way they should place their trust in God and not forget what God has done, and keep his commandments.

8 Then they would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation that was untrustworthy and unfaithful.

9 The soldiers of Ephraim,[fn] though armed with bows, ran away on the day of battle.

10 They did not keep God's agreement, and refused to follow his laws.

11 They ignored[fn] what he had done, and the amazing things he had shown them—

12 the miracles he had performed for their forefathers near Zoan[fn] in Egypt.

13 He split the sea in two and led them through, making the water stand like walls on either side.[fn]

14 He led them with a cloud by day, and by night with a light of fire.

15 He split open rocks in the desert to give his people plenty to drink, water as deep as the ocean.

16 He made streams flow from the stone; water rushing down like rivers!

17 But they repeatedly sinned against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

18 They deliberately provoked God by demanding the foods they longed for.

19 They insulted God by saying, “Can God provide food[fn] here in the desert?

20 Yes, he can strike a rock so that water gushes out like flowing rivers, but can he give us bread? Can he supply his people with meat?”

21 When he heard this, the Lord became very angry, burning like fire against the descendants of Jacob, furious with the people of Israel,

22 for they didn't believe in God and didn't trust him to take care of them.

23 Even so he commanded the skies above and the doors of heaven to open,

24 and he made manna rain down on them to eat, giving them bread from heaven.

25 Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them more than enough food.

26 He sent the east wind blowing across the sky; by his power he drove the south wind.[fn]

27 He rained down meat on them as plentiful as dust; birds as numerous as sand on a beach.

28 He made them fall right in the middle of their camp, all around where they were living.

29 They ate until they were full. He gave them the food they longed for.

30 But before they satisfied their appetite, while the meat was still in their mouths,

31 God became angry with them and he killed their strongest men, striking them down in the prime of life.

32 Despite all this they went right on sinning. Despite the miracles, they refused to trust him.

33 So he snuffed out their futile lives, bringing them to an end in terror.

34 When he began killing them, the rest came back to God in repentance, praying to him.

35 They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their Savior.

36 They flattered him by what they told him, but they were only lying.

37 Deep down they were not sincere, and did not keep the agreement[fn] they had with him.

38 But being compassionate he pardoned their guilt and did not destroy all of them. He often held back his anger—he did not pour out all his fury.

39 He remembered their mortality—that they were like a puff of wind that would not return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, giving him grief in the desert!

41 Again and again they provoked God, causing pain to the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember his strength when he rescued them from their oppressors,

43 performing miracles in Egypt, doing wonderful things on the plain of Zoan.

44 There he turned their[fn] rivers and their streams into blood so that no one could drink from them.

45 He sent flies among them to destroy[fn] them, and frogs to ruin everything.

46 He gave their crops to locusts; everything they worked had for was taken by locusts.[fn]

47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their fig trees with freezing rain.

48 He handed over their cattle to hail and their flocks to lightning bolts.

49 He poured out on them his fierce anger—rage and hostility and anguish—sending a band of destroying angels against them.

50 He sent his unrestrained anger against them; he did not spare them from death, handing them over to the plague.

51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the first to be conceived in the tents of Ham.[fn]

52 But he led out his people like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

53 He led them to safety, and they were not afraid. He drowned their enemies in the sea.

54 He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this mountainous land that he had conquered for them.

55 He drove out the heathen nations before them. He divided up the land for them to own. He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56 But they provoked God Most High, rebelling against him. They did not follow what he had told them.

57 Just like their forefathers they turned away from God and were unfaithful to him, as twisted as a defective bow.[fn]

58 They made him angry with their pagan high places of worship; they made him jealous with their idols.

59 When God heard their worship he became furious and he totally rejected Israel.

60 He abandoned his place at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he lived among the people.

61 He surrendered the Ark of his power, allowing it to be captured; handing it over into enemy hands.

62 He handed over his people to be slaughtered by the sword; he was furious with his chosen people.

63 Their young men were destroyed by fire; their young women had no wedding songs.[fn]

64 Their priests were killed by the sword; their widows were unable to mourn.

65 Then the Lord woke up as if from sleep, as a warrior sobering up from drinking wine.

66 He defeated his enemies, striking them on the back, causing them everlasting shame.

67 He rejected the descendants of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.[fn]

68 Instead he chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion which he loves.

69 There he built his sanctuary, high like the heavens, on earth that he made to last forever.

70 He chose his servant David, taking him from the sheep pens,

71 taking him from caring for the sheep and lambs to be a shepherd to the descendants of Jacob—God's special people, Israel.

72 Like a shepherd, he took care of them with sincere devotion, leading them with skillful hands.

78:2 Or “proverbs.”

78:9 Ephraim is often used as a term for the whole northern kingdom.

78:11 Literally, “forgot,” but here it means more than simply poor memory.

78:12 Identified as the city of Rameses (see Exodus 1:11).

78:13 “On either side”: implied.

78:19 Literally, “set a table.”

78:26 A reference to the miraculous arrival of quail (Numbers 11:31).

78:37 Or “covenant.”

78:44 “Their”—referring to the Egyptians.

78:45 Literally, “consume” but it is unlikely that flies could be seen as eating human beings.

78:46 Two different words are used for “locusts.”

78:51 Ham—referring to Egypt.

78:57 “Defective bow”—a bow that could not shoot arrows straight.

78:63 Literally, “were not praised.” Either that the men were dead so they could not marry, or they were killed themselves.

78:67 This is a reference to the Ark once it had been returned. 1 Samuel 6; 2 Samuel 6.