Psalms, Chapter 78:
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Verses from Psalms, Chapter 78 of the book of Psalms in the Bible.
- 1. O my people, listen to my teaching; incline your ears to the words I will speak.
- 2. I will open my mouth in parables; I will tell riddles of the past,
- 3. what we hear and learn, what our parents told us.
- 4. We will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he performed.
- 5. He established a testimony in Jacob, and established the law in Israel, commanding our ancestors to pass it on to their children,
- 6. so that the generation to come would know it, and their children yet to be born, and they, in turn, might tell it to their own children,
- 7. that they might put their trust in God and not forget his deeds, but obey his commandments.
- 8. They should not be like their ancestors, an obstinate and rebellious people, a people with an unfaithful and disloyal heart towards God.
- 9. The men of Ephraim, armed with bows, retreated on the day of battle;
- 10. they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live according to his law.
- 11. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
- 12. He performed wonders before his ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
- 13. He divided the sea so that they could pass; made the water rise like a wall.
- 14. He led them with the cloud by day and with fire by night.
- 15. He opened the rocks in the desert and gave them water in abundance as from an abyss;
- 16. He made fountains come out of the rock and caused water to flow like rivers.
- 17. But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
- 18. They deliberately put God to the test by demanding what they wanted to eat.
- 19. They doubted God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
- 20. We saw him strike the rock, and water gushed out in abundance, but will he also be able to give us bread? Can you provide your people with meat?”
- 21. The Lord heard this and was angry; a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger came upon Israel,
- 22. because they did not believe in God, nor did they trust in his saving power.
- 23. Despite this, he commanded the clouds and opened the gates of heaven;
- 24. He rained manna on them so that they could eat; He gave them bread from heaven.
- 25. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them food freely.
- 26. He made the east wind blow from the heavens and drove the south wind with his power.
- 27. He rained flesh on them like dust, flocks of birds like sand on the beach.
- 28. He caused them to fall in the middle of the camp, around their tents.
- 29. They ate as much as they wanted, because he satisfied their desires.
- 30. But before they had satisfied their desire, while they still had food in their mouths,
- 31. the wrath of God was kindled against them; he smote the strongest to death, and struck down the young men of Israel.
- 32. Still, they continued to sin and did not believe in his wonders.
- 33. Therefore he ended their days in futility and their years in sudden terror.
- 34. Whenever God punished them with death, they sought him; with fervor they turned to him again.
- 35. They remembered that God was their Rock, that the Most High God was their Redeemer.
- 36. They flattered him with their mouths, deceived him with their tongues;
- 37. their hearts were not sincere, they were not faithful to their covenant.
- 38. Despite this, he was merciful; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often contained his anger and did not let his indignation flare up.
- 39. He remembered that they were only mortals, a breath that passes and does not return.
- 40. How many times did they rebel against him in the desert and grieve him in the desolate land!
- 41. Repeatedly they put God to the test and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- 42. They did not remember his power, the day he rescued them from the adversary,
- 43. when he performed his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
- 44. when he turned the rivers and streams of the Egyptians into blood, so that they could not drink;
- 45. and sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them;
- 46. when he gave his crops to the maggots, and the produce of the land to the locusts;
- 47. when he destroyed his vineyards with hail and his wild fig trees with frost;
- 48. when he gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the lightning;
- 49. when he struck them with his burning anger, with fury, indignation and hostility, sending against them a horde of destroying angels.
- 50. He opened the way for his wrath; He did not spare their lives from death, but gave them over to the pestilence.
- 51. He killed all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manly vigor in the tents of Ham.
- 52. But he took out his people like sheep and led them like a flock through the desert.
- 53. He led them safely, and they were not afraid; his enemies sank into the sea.
- 54. So he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the mountains that his right hand conquered.
- 55. He expelled nations from there to give them the land of inheritance; He distributed their lands by lot and made the tribes of Israel live in their tents.
- 56. However, they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not obey their testimonies.
- 57. They went astray and were unfaithful like their ancestors; They betrayed themselves like a defective bow.
- 58. They angered him with the idolatrous altars; they made him jealous with his idols.
- 59. When God saw this, he became angry and completely rejected Israel.
- 60. He abandoned the tabernacle in Shiloh, the tent where he lived among men.
- 61. He gave the symbol of his power into captivity, the splendor of his people into the hands of the enemy.
- 62. He let his people be killed by the sword, because he was angry with his inheritance.
- 63. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs;
- 64. the priests fell by the edge of the sword, and the widows did not mourn.
- 65. Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a warrior awakened from wine.
- 66. He attacked his enemies from behind and humiliated them with perpetual contempt.
- 67. He rejected the tent of Joseph and 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 heavens, like the earth which he established forever.
- 70. He chose David, his servant, and took him out of the sheepfold,
- 71. of the sheepfolds, to shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his inheritance.
- 72. And he shepherded them with an upright heart and guided them with skillful hands.