Psalm 78

Lessons From History

This is one of the longest psalms! It's like a history lesson about how God's people kept forgetting Him even after He did amazing miracles. It reminds us to pass on the stories of God's goodness to the next generation — that's what this website is doing!

¹O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.
²I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter hidden things from of old—
³what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.
⁴We will not hide them from their children, but will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His might, and the wonders He has performed.
⁵He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach their children,
⁶so that the next generation would know them—children yet to be born—and they in turn would tell their own children.
⁷Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds, but would keep His commandments.
⁸They would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to Him.
⁹The Ephraimites, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law.
¹¹They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.
¹²He did wonders in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
¹³He split the sea and led them through; He made the water stand up like a wall.
¹⁴He guided them with a cloud by day and with the light of fire all night long.
¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.
¹⁶He brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
¹⁷But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸They tested God in their heart by demanding food for their appetite.
¹⁹They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰Yes, He struck the rock and water gushed out and streams overflowed, but can He also give us bread? Can He provide meat for His people?"
²¹When the LORD heard this, He was full of wrath; His fire broke out against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,
²²because they did not believe in God or trust in His salvation.
²³Yet He gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens.
²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵Men ate the bread of angels; He sent them an abundance of provisions.
²⁶He stirred up the east wind in the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.
²⁷He rained down meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
²⁸He made them fall in the midst of the camp, all around their tents.
²⁹So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them what they craved.
³⁰But before they had satisfied their desire, while their food was still in their mouths,
³¹the wrath of God rose against them, and He slew their sturdiest men and struck down the young men of Israel.
³²In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite His wonders, they did not believe.
³³So He made their days end like a breath, their years in sudden terror.
³⁴Whenever He slew them, they would seek Him; they would return and search for God.
³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.
³⁶But they flattered Him with their mouths and lied to Him with their tongues.
³⁷Their hearts were not loyal to Him; they were not faithful to His covenant.
³⁸Yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
⁴⁰How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
⁴¹Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴²They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the foe,
⁴³how He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper and their produce to the locust.
⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
⁴⁸He gave over their livestock to hail and their flocks to bolts of lightning.
⁴⁹He unleashed on them His burning anger, His wrath and indignation and calamity—a band of angels of destruction.
⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.
⁵¹He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵²But He brought out His people like sheep and led them through the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³He guided them safely so that they were not afraid, but the sea engulfed their enemies.
⁵⁴He brought them to His holy land, to this mountain His right hand had acquired.
⁵⁵He drove out the nations before them, allotted their inheritance by lot, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
⁵⁶But they tested and rebelled against God Most High; they did not keep His statutes.
⁵⁷They turned back and were disloyal like their fathers; they were twisted like a deceitful bow.
⁵⁸They provoked Him to anger with their high places and aroused His jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹When God heard this, He was full of wrath; He utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent He had set up among men.
⁶¹He gave His might into captivity and His splendor into the hand of the foe.
⁶²He delivered His people over to the sword; He was full of wrath against His inheritance.
⁶³Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding song.
⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.
⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior roused by wine.
⁶⁶He drove back His foes and put them to everlasting shame.
⁶⁷He rejected the tents of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.
⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that He established forever.
⁷⁰He chose His servant David and took him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹From tending the ewes with young He brought him to shepherd His people Jacob, His inheritance, Israel.
⁷²And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB)