Psalms 78

2I will open my mouth with parables—I will utter dark sayings of old;—

3such as we have heard and known, which our fathers have related to us.

4They were not hid from their children: one generation told another the praises of the Lord, His acts of power, and the wonders which He hath done.

5Thus He raised up a testimony in Jacob, and established a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to make known to their children:

6that the succeeding generation—the children to be born, might know it, and rise and tell the same to their children:

7that they might put their trust in God, and not forget the works of God, but seek diligently His commandments—

8that they might not be like their fathers—a perverse and rebellious generation—a generation which set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

10They did not keep the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law.

11They indeed forget His acts of kindness—those wonders of His which He had shewn them—

12wonders which He did in the sight of their fathers: in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Tanis.

13He had cleft the sea and led them through it; He had stayed the waters as in a bottle.

14He had led them with a cloud by day, and all the night long with a light of fire;

15He had cleft a rock in the wilderness, and given them drink as from a great abyss;

16He had brought water out of a rock, and caused streams to flow down like rivers:

17But still they proceeded to sin against Him—they provoked the Most High in a desert.

18Still they made trial of God in their hearts, by asking for meats to their appetites.

20When He smote a rock, waters gushed out, and streams swelled to an overflowing flood. But can He also give bread, or provide a table for His people?

21Therefore the Lord heard and was provoked; and a fire was kindled among Jacob; and wrath came up against Israel.

22Because they believed not in God, nor trusted in His salvation.

24and had rained down manna for them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven,

25(man was eating the bread of angels) He sent meat for them to satiety.

26He removed the south east wind out of heaven, and by His power brought on the south west:

27and rained upon them flesh, like dust: and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea;

28they fell in the midst of their encampment, and all around their habitation.

29Though they ate and were filled abundantly, and He had given them their desire;

30their longing desire was not stayed; therefore while the meat was still in their mouths,

31the anger of God came up against them, and slew them amidst their fat viands, and fettered the chosen men of Israel.

33therefore their days glided away in vanity, and their years were attended with impatience.

34When He smote them and they sought Him, and returned and inquired early after God,

35and remembered that God was their helper, and that God the Most High was their redeemer;

36though they expressed love for Him with their mouth, they lied to Him with their tongue,

37and their heart was not right with Him, nor were they steadfast in His covenant.

38But He being merciful forgave their sins, and would not utterly destroy them. Yea, many a time did He turn away His wrath, and would not suffer all His wrath to blaze forth;

39for He remembered that they were flesh—a breath going out and not again returning.

41They actually turned back and tempted God, and provoked to wrath the Holy One of Israel.

42They remembered not His hand, on the day when He rescued them out of the hand of an oppressor;

43how He had displayed His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the plain of Tanis;

44and had turned their rivers into blood, and their cisterns so that they could not drink—

45had sent against them the dog fly which devoured them, and swarms of frogs which destroyed them;

46and had given their crops to the canker worm, and their labours to the locust—

47had smitten their vineyards with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost;

48and delivered up their cattle to hail, and their substance to the fire—

49having sent out against them His fierce anger, wrath and indignation and affliction—a mission executed by evil angels:

50He paved a way for His vengeance—He spared not their lives from death: He delivered up their cattle to pestilence,

51and smote every first-born in the land of Egypt—the first fruits of their labours in the tents of Cham;

52and brought out His people like sheep, and led them like a flock in the desert,

53and guided them safely, so that they were not afraid, though the sea overwhelmed their enemies;

54and brought them to the mount of His holiness—to this mountain which His right hand purchased;

55and drove out nations from before them, and gave them by lot their several portions, and settled in their dwellings the tribes of Israel.

57but turned back and broke covenant like their fathers. They turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58They provoked Him with their mounts, and with their graven images moved Him to jealousy.

59God heard and despised them and greatly contemned Israel,

60and He abandoned the tabernacle of Selom—the tent in which He had dwelt among men;

61and delivered up their strength to captivity, and their glory into an enemy’s hand;

62and gave up His people to the sword, and slighted His inheritance.

63A fire consumed their young men, and their virgins made no lamentation.

64Their priests fell by the sword and their widows are not to bewail them.

66and He smote His enemies in the hinder parts, and cast an everlasting reproach on them.

67But He rejected the habitation of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68but made choice of the tribe of Juda—of this mount Sion which He loved,

69and built His sanctuary like that of unicorns; in this land He founded it for this age,

70and He chose David His servant and took him from the flocks of sheep—

71He took them from tending the ewes with young to feed His servant Jacob and Israel, His inheritance.

72And He fed them in the integrity of His heart, and guided them by the skill of His hands.