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Psalm 78

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude

A Maskil of Asaph.

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

He established a decree in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach to their children,(E)
that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,(F)
    so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;(G)
and that they should not be like their ancestors,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
    whose spirit was not faithful to God.(H)

The Ephraimites, armed with[a] the bow,
    turned back on the day of battle.(I)
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
    and refused to walk according to his law.(J)
11 They forgot what he had done
    and the miracles that he had shown them.(K)
12 In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
    in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.(L)
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it
    and made the waters stand like a heap.(M)
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud
    and all night long with a fiery light.(N)
15 He split rocks open in the wilderness
    and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.(O)
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.(P)
18 They tested God in their heart
    by demanding the food they craved.(Q)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
    “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?(R)
20 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out
    and torrents overflowed,
can he also give bread
    or provide meat for his people?”(S)

21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage;
    a fire was kindled against Jacob,
    his anger mounted against Israel,(T)
22 because they had no faith in God
    and did not trust his saving power.(U)
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
    and opened the doors of heaven;(V)
24 he rained down on them manna to eat
    and gave them the grain of heaven.(W)
25 Mortals ate of the bread of 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;(X)
27 he rained flesh upon them like dust,
    winged birds like the sand of the seas;(Y)
28 he let them fall within their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved.(Z)
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 flower of Israel.(AA)

32 In spite of all this they still sinned;
    they did not believe in his wonders.(AB)
33 So he made their days vanish like a breath
    and their years in terror.(AC)
34 When he killed them, they searched for him;
    they repented and sought God earnestly.(AD)
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
    the Most High God their redeemer.(AE)
36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
    they lied to him with their tongues.(AF)
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
    they were not true to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
    forgave their iniquity
    and did not destroy them;
often he restrained his anger
    and did not stir up all his wrath.(AG)
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a wind that passes and does not come again.(AH)
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the desert!(AI)
41 They tested God again and again
    and provoked the Holy One of Israel.(AJ)
42 They did not keep in mind his power
    or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 when he displayed his signs in Egypt
    and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood,
    so that they could not drink of their streams.(AK)
45 He sent among them swarms of flies that devoured them
    and frogs that destroyed them.(AL)
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar
    and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamores with frost.(AM)
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail
    and their flocks to thunderbolts.(AN)
49 He let loose on them his fierce anger,
    wrath, indignation, and distress,
    a company of destroying angels.(AO)
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 all the firstborn in Egypt,
    the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.(AP)
52 Then he led out his people like sheep
    and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.(AQ)
53 He led them in safety so that they were not afraid,
    but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.(AR)
54 And he brought them to his holy hill,
    to the mountain that his right hand had won.(AS)
55 He drove out nations before them;
    he apportioned them for a possession
    and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.(AT)

56 Yet they tested the Most High God
    and rebelled against him.
    They did not observe his decrees(AU)
57 but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors;
    they twisted like a treacherous bow.(AV)
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
    they moved him to jealousy with their idols.(AW)
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,
    and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the tent where he dwelt among mortals,(AX)
61 and delivered his power to captivity,
    his glory to the hand of the foe.(AY)
62 He gave his people to the sword
    and vented his wrath on his heritage.(AZ)
63 Fire devoured their young men,
    and their young women had no marriage song.(BA)
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
    and their widows made no lamentation.(BB)
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    like a warrior shouting because of wine.(BC)
66 He put his adversaries to rout;
    he put them to everlasting disgrace.(BD)

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.(BE)
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
    like the earth, which he has founded forever.(BF)
70 He chose his servant David
    and took him from the sheepfolds;(BG)
71 from tending the nursing ewes he brought him
    to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
    of Israel, his inheritance.(BH)
72 With upright heart he tended them
    and guided them with skillful hand.(BI)

Psalm 79

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
    they have defiled your holy temple;
    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.(BJ)
They have given the bodies of your servants
    to the birds of the air for food,
    the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.(BK)
They have poured out their blood like water
    all around Jerusalem,
    and there was no one to bury them.(BL)
We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
    mocked and derided by those around us.(BM)

How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
    Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?(BN)
Pour out your anger on the nations
    that do not know you
and on the kingdoms
    that do not call on your name.(BO)
For they have devoured Jacob
    and laid waste his habitation.

Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;
    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.(BP)
Help us, O God of our salvation,
    for the glory of your name;
deliver us and forgive our sins,
    for your name’s sake.(BQ)
10 Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
    be known among the nations before our eyes.(BR)

11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
    according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die.(BS)
12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors
    the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!(BT)
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,
    will give thanks to you forever;
    from generation to generation we will recount your praise.(BU)

Psalm 80

Prayer for Israel’s Restoration

To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth(BV)
    before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
    and come to save us!(BW)

Restore us, O God;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved.(BX)

O Lord God of hosts,
    how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?(BY)
You have fed them with the bread of tears
    and given them tears to drink in full measure.(BZ)
You make us the scorn[b] of our neighbors;
    our enemies laugh among themselves.(CA)

Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved.

You brought a vine out of Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.(CB)
You cleared the ground for it;
    it took deep root and filled the land.(CC)
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea
    and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?(CD)
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
    and all that move in the field feed on it.(CE)

14 Turn again, O God of hosts;
    look down from heaven and see;
have regard for this vine,(CF)
15     the stock that your right hand planted.[c]
16 It has been burned with fire; it has been cut down;
    may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.(CG)
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
    the one whom you made strong for yourself.(CH)
18 Then we will never turn back from you;
    give us life, and we will call on your name.(CI)

19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Psalm 81

God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel

To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

Sing aloud to God our strength;
    shout for joy to the God of Jacob.(CJ)
Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
    the sweet lyre with the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
    at the full moon, on our festal day.(CK)
For it is a statute for Israel,
    an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
He made it a decree in Joseph,
    when he went out over[d] the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:(CL)
“I relieved your[e] shoulder of the burden;
    your[f] hands were freed from the basket.(CM)
In distress you called, and I rescued you;
    I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah(CN)
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!(CO)
There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.(CP)
10 I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.(CQ)

11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would not submit to me.(CR)
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.(CS)
13 O that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!(CT)
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes.(CU)
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
    and their doom would last forever.
16 I would feed you[g] with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”(CV)

Psalm 82

A Plea for Justice

A Psalm of Asaph.

God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:(CW)
“How long will you judge unjustly
    and show partiality to the wicked? Selah(CX)
Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
    maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.(CY)
Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”(CZ)

They have neither knowledge nor understanding;
    they walk around in darkness;
    all the foundations of the earth are shaken.(DA)

I say, “You are gods,
    children of the Most High, all of you;(DB)
nevertheless, you shall die like mortals
    and fall like any prince.”[h](DC)

Rise up, O God, judge the earth,
    for all the nations belong to you!(DD)

Footnotes

  1. 78.9 Heb armed with shooting
  2. 80.6 Syr: Heb strife
  3. 80.15 Heb adds from 80.17 and upon the one whom you made strong for yourself
  4. 81.5 Or against
  5. 81.6 Heb his
  6. 81.6 Heb his
  7. 81.16 Cn: Heb he would feed him
  8. 82.7 Or fall as one man, O princes