Psalms 78:2-67

²I will tell you wise sayings; I will explain mysteries from the past

³that we have heard before and reflected on; stories our forefathers passed down to us.

⁴We will not keep them from our children; we will tell the next generation about God's marvelous actions—about his power and the amazing things he has done.

⁵He gave his laws to the descendants of Jacob; his instructions to the people of Israel. He commanded our forefathers to teach them to their children,

⁶so that the next generation—children yet to be born—would understand and grow up to teach their children.

⁷In this way they should place their trust in God and not forget what God has done, and keep his commandments.

⁸Then they would not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation that was untrustworthy and unfaithful.

⁹The soldiers of Ephraim, though armed with bows, ran away on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's agreement, and refused to follow his laws.

¹¹They ignored what he had done, and the amazing things he had shown them—

¹²the miracles he had performed for their forefathers near Zoan in Egypt.

¹³He split the sea in two and led them through, making the water stand like walls on either side.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day, and by night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split open rocks in the desert to give his people plenty to drink, water as deep as the ocean.

¹⁶He made streams flow from the stone; water rushing down like rivers!

¹⁷But they repeatedly sinned against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They deliberately provoked God by demanding the foods they longed for.

¹⁹They insulted God by saying, “Can God provide food here in the desert?

²⁰Yes, he can strike a rock so that water gushes out like flowing rivers, but can he give us bread? Can he supply his people with meat?”

²¹When he heard this, the Lord became very angry, burning like fire against the descendants of Jacob, furious with the people of Israel,

²²for they didn't believe in God and didn't trust him to take care of them.

²³Even so he commanded the skies above and the doors of heaven to open,

²⁴and he made manna rain down on them to eat, giving them bread from heaven.

²⁵Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them more than enough food.

²⁶He sent the east wind blowing across the sky; by his power he drove the south wind.

²⁷He rained down meat on them as plentiful as dust; birds as numerous as sand on a beach.

²⁸He made them fall right in the middle of their camp, all around where they were living.

²⁹They ate until they were full. He gave them the food they longed for.

³⁰But before they satisfied their appetite, while the meat was still in their mouths,

³¹God became angry with them and he killed their strongest men, striking them down in the prime of life.

³²Despite all this they went right on sinning. Despite the miracles, they refused to trust him.

³³So he snuffed out their futile lives, bringing them to an end in terror.

³⁴When he began killing them, the rest came back to God in repentance, praying to him.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their Savior.

³⁶They flattered him by what they told him, but they were only lying.

³⁷Deep down they were not sincere, and did not keep the agreement they had with him.

³⁸But being compassionate he pardoned their guilt and did not destroy all of them. He often held back his anger—he did not pour out all his fury.

³⁹He remembered their mortality—that they were like a puff of wind that would not return.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, giving him grief in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they provoked God, causing pain to the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his strength when he rescued them from their oppressors,

⁴³performing miracles in Egypt, doing wonderful things on the plain of Zoan.

⁴⁴There he turned their rivers and their streams into blood so that no one could drink from them.

⁴⁵He sent flies among them to destroy them, and frogs to ruin everything.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to locusts; everything they worked had for was taken by locusts.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, and their fig trees with freezing rain.

⁴⁸He handed over their cattle to hail and their flocks to lightning bolts.

⁴⁹He poured out on them his fierce anger—rage and hostility and anguish—sending a band of destroying angels against them.

⁵⁰He sent his unrestrained anger against them; he did not spare them from death, handing them over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the first to be conceived in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led out his people like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵³He led them to safety, and they were not afraid. He drowned their enemies in the sea.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this mountainous land that he had conquered for them.

⁵⁵He drove out the heathen nations before them. He divided up the land for them to own. He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶But they provoked God Most High, rebelling against him. They did not follow what he had told them.

⁵⁷Just like their forefathers they turned away from God and were unfaithful to him, as twisted as a defective bow.

⁵⁸They made him angry with their pagan high places of worship; they made him jealous with their idols.

⁵⁹When God heard their worship he became furious and he totally rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He abandoned his place at Shiloh, the Tabernacle where he lived among the people.

⁶¹He surrendered the Ark of his power, allowing it to be captured; handing it over into enemy hands.

⁶²He handed over his people to be slaughtered by the sword; he was furious with his chosen people.

⁶³Their young men were destroyed by fire; their young women had no wedding songs.

⁶⁴Their priests were killed by the sword; their widows were unable to mourn.

⁶⁵Then the Lord woke up as if from sleep, as a warrior sobering up from drinking wine.

⁶⁶He defeated his enemies, striking them on the back, causing them everlasting shame.

⁶⁷He rejected the descendants of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.