MKJV - Psalms - 78

78:1  An instruction of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; bow down your ears to the words of my mouth.

78:2  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will speak dark sayings of old,

78:3  which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

78:4  We will not hide them from their sons, showing to the generations to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done.

78:5  For He set up a testimony in Jacob, and ordered a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their sons;

78:6  so that the generation to come might know; sons shall be born, and they shall arise and tell their sons,

78:7  so that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;

78:8  and might not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God.

78:9  The sons of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle.

78:10  They did not keep the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law.

78:11  And they forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them.

78:12  He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

78:13  He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand in a heap.

78:14  And in the daytime He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

78:15  He split the rocks in the wilderness, and let them drink, as from the great depths.

78:16  He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

78:17  And they sinned still more against Him, by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.

78:18  And they tempted God in their heart by asking food for their lust.

78:19  And they spoke against God; they said, Can God set a table in the wilderness?

78:20  Behold! He struck the rock so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread? Can He provide flesh for His people?

78:21  Therefore the LORD heard, and was made furious; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel,

78:22  because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in His salvation;

78:23  though He had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens;

78:24  and had rained down manna on them to eat, and He gave them of the grain of the heavens.

78:25  Man ate the food of the mighty; He sent them meat to the full.

78:26  He caused an east wind to blow in the sky; and by His power He brought in the south wind.

78:27  and He also rained flesh on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea;

78:28  and He let them fall in the middle of their camp, all around their tents.

78:29  So they ate, and were filled to the full; for He gave them their own desire.

78:30  They were not turned away from their lust, but while their food was still in their mouths,

78:31  the wrath of God came on them and killed the fattest of them, and struck down the chosen of Israel.

78:32  For all this they still sinned, and did not believe because of His wonderful works.

78:33  Therefore He ended their days in vanity and their years in trouble.

78:34  When He killed them, then they looked for Him; and they turned back and sought after God.

78:35  And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God was their redeemer.

78:36  But they flattered Him with their mouths, and they lied to Him with their tongues.

78:37  For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.

78:38  But He, full of pity, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; yea, many times He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.

78:39  For He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again.

78:40  How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert!

78:41  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and pained to the Holy One of Israel.

78:42  They did not remember His hand, the day when He delivered them from the enemy;

78:43  how He had set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

78:44  He turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.

78:45  He sent different kinds of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

78:46  He also gave their crops to the stripping locust, and their labor to the locust.

78:47  He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with sleet.

78:48  He gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.

78:49  He sent on them the heat of His anger, wrath and fury and trouble, by sending evil angels.

78:50  He made a way to His anger; He did not save their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague,

78:51  and struck all the first-born in Egypt, the first of the strong in the tents of Ham;

78:52  and led His people forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

78:53  And He led them on safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea flooded over their enemies.

78:54  And He brought them within His own holy border, this mountain, which His right hand had bought.

78:55  He also cast out the nations before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

78:56  Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies;

78:57  but they turned back, and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceiving bow.

78:58  For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.

78:59  When God heard, He was angry, and turned away from Israel;

78:60  so that He left the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men,

78:61  and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hands.

78:62  He also gave His people over to the sword, and was angry with His inheritance.

78:63  The fire burned up their young men; and their maidens were not given in marriage.

78:64  Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows were not able to weep.

78:65  Then the Lord awakened like one out of sleep, like a mighty man rejoicing with wine.

78:66  And He drove His enemies backward; He put them to a never-ending shame.

78:67  And He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;

78:68  but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.

78:69  And He built His holy place like high palaces, like the earth which He has founded forever.

78:70  He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

78:71  from following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.

78:72  And he fed them according to the pureness of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.