Scriptures
Psalm 78


Psalm 78

The Israelites are to teach the Lord’s law to their children—Disobedient Israel provoked the Lord in the wilderness—The Egyptian plagues are recounted—The Lord chooses and blesses Judah and David.

Maschil of Asaph.

1 Give aear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a aparable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our afathers have told us.

4 We will not ahide them from their children, bshewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their achildren:

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8 And might not be as their afathers, a bstubborn and crebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10 They kept not the acovenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

12 aMarvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of bZoan.

13 He adivided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

14 In the daytime also he led them with a acloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

15 He aclave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking ameat for their blust.

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a atable in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

21 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a afire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22 Because they abelieved not in God, and btrusted not in his salvation:

23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the acorn of heaven.

25 Man did eat aangels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.

26 He caused an aeast wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered afowls like as the sand of the sea:

28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

30 They were not estranged from their alust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

33 Therefore their days did he consume in avanity, and their years in trouble.

34 When he aslew them, then they sought him: and they breturned and cinquired early after God.

35 And they remembered that God was their arock, and the high God their redeemer.

36 Nevertheless they did aflatter him with their mouth, and they blied unto him with their tongues.

37 For their aheart was not right with him, neither were they bsteadfast in his covenant.

38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

39 For he remembered that they were but aflesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

40 How oft did they aprovoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their afloods, that they could not drink.

45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the alocust.

47 He destroyed their vines with ahail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending aevil angels among them.

50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51 And smote all the afirstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the btabernacles of cHam:

52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the asea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 And he brought them ato the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a adeceitful bow.

58 For they aprovoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of aShiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the Lord aawaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for aever.

70 He chose aDavid also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72 So he fed them according to the aintegrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.