1.3 – Read Psalm 78

ASSIGNMENT:

1. Read Psalm 78.
2. Write a short essay or discuss with your instructor the following questions: How does this Psalm both give a sense of history and also communicate the importance of history?

SELECTION: Psalm 78, a Maskil of Asaph.


¹ Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
    incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
² I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
³ things that we have heard and known,
    that our fathers have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

⁵ He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
⁶ that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
⁷     so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;
⁸ and that they should not be like their fathers,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
    whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
    turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant,
    but refused to walk according to his law.
¹¹ They forgot his works
    and the wonders that he had shown them.
¹² In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
    in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
    and made the waters stand like a heap.
¹⁴ In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
    and all the night with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness
    and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock
    and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against him,
    rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their heart
    by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying,
    “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ He struck the rock so that water gushed out
    and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
    or provide meat for his people?”

²¹ Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
    a fire was kindled against Jacob;
    his anger rose against Israel,
²² because they did not believe in God
    and did not trust his saving power.
²³ Yet he commanded the skies above
    and opened the doors of heaven,
²⁴ and he rained down on them manna to eat
    and gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Man ate of the bread of the angels;
    he sent them food in abundance.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
    and by his power he led out the south wind;
²⁷ he rained meat on them like dust,
    winged birds like the sand of the seas;
²⁸ he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
²⁹ And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they had satisfied their craving,
    while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them,
    and he killed the strongest of them
    and laid low the young men of Israel.

³² In spite of all this, they still sinned;
    despite his wonders, they did not believe.
³³ So he made their days vanish like a breath,
    and their years in terror.
³⁴ When he killed them, they sought him;
    they repented and sought God earnestly.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock,
    the Most High God their redeemer.
³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths;
    they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
    they were not faithful to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate,
    atoned for their iniquity
    and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
    and did not stir up all his wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a wind that passes and comes not again.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the desert!
⁴¹ They tested God again and again
    and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember his power
    or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
⁴³ when he performed his signs in Egypt
    and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood,
    so that they could not drink of their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
    and frogs, which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the destroying locust
    and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamores with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail
    and their flocks to thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ He let loose on them his burning anger,
    wrath, indignation, and distress,
    a company of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger;
    he did not spare them from death,
    but gave their lives over to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
    the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵² Then he led out his people like sheep
    and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
    but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain which his right hand had won.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them;
    he apportioned them for a possession
    and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
    and did not keep his testimonies,
⁵⁷ but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
    they twisted like a deceitful bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
    they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard, he was full of wrath,
    and he utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
⁶¹ and delivered his power to captivity,
    his glory to the hand of the foe.
⁶² He gave his people over to the sword
    and vented his wrath on his heritage.
⁶³ Fire devoured their young men,
    and their young women had no marriage song.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
    and their widows made no lamentation.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    like a strong man shouting because of wine.
⁶⁶ And he put his adversaries to rout;
    he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph;
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
    like the earth, which he has founded forever.
⁷⁰ He chose David his servant
    and took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹ from following the nursing ewes he brought him
    to shepherd Jacob his people,
    Israel his inheritance.
⁷² With upright heart he shepherded them
    and guided them with his skillful hand.