Study

78. Psalm 78

    ⁹ The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
   turned back on the day of battle;
¹⁰ they did not keep God’s covenant
   and refused to live by his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
   the wonders he had shown them.
¹² He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
   in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea and led them through;
   he made the water stand up like a wall.
¹⁴ He guided them with the cloud by day
   and with light from the fire all night.
¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness
   and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
¹⁶ he brought streams out of a rocky crag
   and made water flow down like rivers.

    ¹⁷ But they continued to sin against him,
   rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
¹⁸ They willfully put God to the test
   by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God;
   they said, “Can God really
   spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ True, he struck the rock,
   and water gushed out,
   streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
   Can he supply meat for his people?”
²¹ When the LORD heard them, he was furious;
   his fire broke out against Jacob,
   and his wrath rose against Israel,
²² for they did not believe in God
   or trust in his deliverance.
²³ Yet he gave a command to the skies above
   and opened the doors of the heavens;
²⁴ he rained down manna for the people to eat,
   he gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Human beings ate the bread of angels;
   he sent them all the food they could eat.
²⁶ He let loose the east wind from the heavens
   and by his power made the south wind blow.
²⁷ He rained meat down on them like dust,
   birds like sand on the seashore.
²⁸ He made them come down inside their camp,
   all around their tents.
²⁹ They ate till they were gorged—
   he had given them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they turned from what they craved,
   even while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ God’s anger rose against them;
   he put to death the sturdiest among them,
   cutting down the young men of Israel.

    ³² In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
   in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
³³ So he ended their days in futility
   and their years in terror.
³⁴ Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
   they eagerly turned to him again.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their Rock,
   that God Most High was their Redeemer.
³⁶ But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
   lying to him with their tongues;
³⁷ their hearts were not loyal to him,
   they were not faithful to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he was merciful;
   he forgave their iniquities
   and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
   and did not stir up his full wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
   a passing breeze that does not return.

    ⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
   and grieved him in the wasteland!
⁴¹ Again and again they put God to the test;
   they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember his power—
   the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
⁴³ the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
   his wonders in the region of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their river into blood;
   they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
   and frogs that devastated them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
   their produce to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail
   and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail,
   their livestock to bolts of lightning.
⁴⁹ He unleashed against them his hot anger,
   his wrath, indignation and hostility—
   a band of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He prepared a path for his anger;
   he did not spare them from death
   but gave them over to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
   the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
⁵² But he brought his people out like a flock;
   he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
⁵³ He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
   but the sea engulfed their enemies.
⁵⁴ And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
   to the hill country his right hand had taken.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them
   and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
   he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

    ⁵⁶ But they put God to the test
   and rebelled against the Most High;
   they did not keep his statutes.
⁵⁷ Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
   as unreliable as a faulty bow.
⁵⁸ They angered him with their high places;
   they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard them, he was furious;
   he rejected Israel completely.
⁶⁰ He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
   the tent he had set up among humans.
⁶¹ He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
   his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
⁶² He gave his people over to the sword;
   he was furious with his inheritance.
⁶³ Fire consumed their young men,
   and their young women had no wedding songs;
⁶⁴ their priests were put to the sword,
   and their widows could not weep.

    ⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
   as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
⁶⁶ He beat back his enemies;
   he put them to everlasting shame.
⁶⁷ Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
   he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,
   Mount Zion, which he loved.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights,
   like the earth that he established forever.
⁷⁰ He chose David his servant
   and took him from the sheep pens;
⁷¹ from tending the sheep he brought him
   to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
   of Israel his inheritance.
⁷² And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
   with skillful hands he led them.