Song (Psalm) 78

A song[fn] by Asaf.

A Maskil of Asaph.; A maskil of Asaph.; A maskil: for Asaph; A psalm of Asaph.

78 Hear my teaching, my people.

≈Listen to ≈what I’m saying.

2 I will ≈speak out in parables;

≈I will sing about hidden things about the past.

3 These are things that we have heard and learnt—

things that our ancestors have told us.

4 We won’t keep them from their descendants.

We’ll tell the next generation about Yahweh’s praiseworthy actions,

his strength, and the ≈miracles that he has done.

5 ≈Also he established a rule in Yakov

≈and appointed a law in Yisrael.

He commanded our ancestors

→that they were to teach them to their children.

6 He commanded this so that the generation to come might know his decrees—

the children not yet born who should tell them in turn to their own children.

7 Then they would place their hope in God

and not forget ≈what he’s done

but ≈obey his commands.

8 Then they would not be like their ancestors,

who were a stubborn and rebellious generation—

a generation who ≈didn’t control their hearts,

and whose spirits were not committed and faithful to God.

9 The Efrayimites had many archers,

but they turned back on the day of battle.

10 They didn’t keep &their agreement with God,

and they refused to ≈obey his law.

11 They forgot ≈about what he’d done—

the wonderful things that he had shown them.

12 They forgot the marvellous things that he’d done

in the sight of their ancestors in Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim) in the Tsoan region.

13 He divided the sea and led them across it.

≈He made the ≈water on each side stand up like walls.

14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,

^and ≈throughout the night with the light from fire.

15 He split the rocks in the wilderness,

and he gave them ≈plenty of water—≈enough to fill the ocean.

16 He made streams flow out of the rock

≈and made the water flow like rivers.

17 ≈Yet they continued to sin against him,

rebelling against the highest >one in the wilderness.

18 They challenged God in their hearts

by asking for food to satisfy their appetites.

19 They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God really lay out food on a table for us in the wilderness?

20 See, when he struck the rock, #water gushed out

≈and streams overflowed.

But can he give food also?

≈Will he provide meat for his people?”

21 When Yahweh heard that, he was angry

and his fire burned against Yakov.

His anger attacked Yisrael,

22 because they didn’t believe in God

and didn’t trust ≈that he would save them.

23 Yet he commanded the skies above

and opened the doors in the sky.

24 He rained down manna for them to eat.

≈He gave them the grain from heaven.

25 People ate angels’ bread.

He sent them plenty of food.

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky,

≈and by his power he guided the south wind.

27 He rained meat down on them like dust—

→birds as numerous as the sand ≈on the seashore.

28 They fell in the middle of their camp—

all around their tents.

29 So they ate and were full.

≈He gave them what they craved.

30 But they hadn’t filled their stomachs yet—

their food was still in their mouths

31 and then God’s anger attacked them

and killed the strongest of them.

≈He brought down Yisrael’s young men.

32 Despite that, they continued to sin

and ≈wouldn’t trust in the wonderful things he would do.

33 ≈So their days were ended uselessly.

Their years were filled with terror.

34 Whenever God afflicted them, they would start to search for him,

and they would return and earnestly look for him.

35 They would call to mind that God was their ≈security

≈and that the highest God was their rescuer.

36 But they’d flatter him with their mouth,

≈and lie to him with their words.

37 Their hearts weren’t firmly fixed on him,

and they weren’t faithful to his agreement.

38 Yet he, being merciful, forgave their ≈disobedience and didn’t destroy them.

≈Yes, many times he held back his anger

≈and didn’t stir up all his rage.

39 He called to mind that they were only made of flesh—

a breath of wind that passes away and doesn’t return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,

≈and grieved him in &those barren regions.

41 Again and again they ≈challenged God

≈and offended the holy one of Yisrael.

42 They didn’t think about his power,

≈or ≡about how he’d rescued them from &their enemy,

43 when he performed his miracles in Egypt

≈and his wonders in the Tsoan region.

44 He turned the Egyptians’ rivers into blood

≈so that they couldn’t drink from their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies that ≈bit them

≈and frogs that overran their land.

46 He gave their crops to the #grasshoppers

≈and the results of their labour to the #locusts.

47 He destroyed their grapevines with hail

≈and their sycamore fig trees with frost.

48 He rained hail on their cattle

≈and hurled lightning bolts at their livestock.

49 The fierceness of his anger lashed out against them.

He sent rage, fury, and trouble

like agents to bring disaster.

50 He levelled a path for his anger.

He didn’t spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

51 He killed all the firstborn in Egypt—

the firstborn of their reproductive strength in Ham’s tents.

52 He led his own people out like sheep

and guided them through the wilderness like a flock.

53 He led them secure and unafraid,

≈but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 Then he brought them to the border of his holy land—

to this mountain that he acquired ≈with his power.

55 He drove out the nations ahead of them

and assigned them their inheritance.

He settled the Israeli tribes in their tents.[ref]

56 ≈Yet they challenged and defied the highest God

and didn’t ≈obey his solemn commands.

57 They were unfaithful and acted treacherously like their ancestors.

They were as unreliable as a faulty bow.

58 They made him angry with their ≈hilltop shrines

≈and provoked him to jealous anger with their idols.

59 When God heard this, he was angry

and completely rejected Yisrael.

60 He abandoned the sanctuary at Shiloh—

the tent where he had lived among people.[ref]

61 He allowed his strength[fn] to be captured

and gave ≈control of his splendour to the enemy.

62 He handed his people over to the sword,

and he was angry with his heritage.

63 Fire devoured their young men,

and their young women had no wedding songs.

64 Their priests fell by the sword,

and their widows ≈had no opportunity to weep.

65 Then my master awakened like someone who’d been asleep—

like a warrior who shouts because ≈he’s been drinking.

66 He drove his opponents back.

He put them to perpetual shame.

67 He rejected Yosef’s tent,

and he didn’t chose the tribe of Efrayim.

68 He chose the tribe of Yehudah

and Mt. Tsiyyon (Zion) that he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heavens—

≈like the earth that he has established forever.

70 He chose his servant David,

≈and took him from the sheep pens.

71 He took him from following the ewes with their young,

and he brought him to shepherd Yakov, his people,

≈and Yisrael, his heritage.

72 David shepherded them with ≈sincere integrity,

and he guided them with his ≈skillful hands.