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(A special psalm by Asaph.)

What God Has Done for His People

My friends, I beg you
    to listen as I teach.
(A) I will give instruction
and explain the mystery
    of what happened long ago.
These are things we learned
    from our ancestors,
and we will tell them
    to the next generation.
We won't keep secret
    the glorious deeds
and the mighty miracles
    of the Lord.

God gave his Law
to Jacob's descendants,
    the people of Israel.
And he told our ancestors
    to teach their children,
so that each new generation
would know his Law
    and tell it to the next.
Then they would trust God
    and obey his teachings,
without forgetting anything
    God had done.
They would be different
    from their ancestors,
who were stubborn, rebellious,
    and unfaithful to God.

The warriors from Ephraim
    were armed with arrows,
but they ran away
    when the battle began.
10 They broke their agreement
    with God,
and they turned their backs
    on his teaching.
11 They forgot all he had done,
    even the mighty miracles
12 (B)(C) he did for their ancestors
    near Zoan[a] in Egypt.

13 (D) God made a path in the sea
and piled up the water
    as he led them across.
14 (E) He guided them during the day
    with a cloud,
and each night he led them
    with a flaming fire.
15 (F) God made water flow
from rocks he split open
    in the desert,
and his people drank freely,
    as though from a lake.
16 He made streams gush out
    like rivers from rocks.

17 But in the desert,
the people of God Most High
    kept sinning and rebelling.
18 (G) They stubbornly tested God
and demanded from him
    what they wanted to eat.
19 They challenged God by saying,
“Can God provide food
    out here in the desert?
20 It's true God struck the rock
and water gushed out
    like a river,
but can he give his people
    bread and meat?”

21 When the Lord heard this,
    he was angry and furious
with Jacob's descendants,
    the people of Israel.
22 They had refused to trust him,
and they had doubted
    his saving power.

23 But God gave a command
    to the clouds,
and he opened the doors
    in the skies.
24 (H) From heaven he sent grain
    that they called manna.[b]
25 He gave them more than enough,
and each one of them ate
    this special food.

26 God's mighty power
sent a strong wind
    from the southeast,
27 and it brought birds
that covered the ground,
    like sand on the beach.
28 Then God made the birds fall
in the camp of his people
    near their tents.

29 God gave his people
    all they wanted,
and each of them ate
    until they were full.
30 But before they had swallowed
    the last bite,
31 God became angry and killed
the strongest and best
    from the families of Israel.

32 But the rest kept on sinning
and would not trust
    God's miracles.
33 So he cut their lives short
    and made them terrified.
34 After he killed some of them,
the others turned to him
    with all their hearts.
35 They remembered God Most High,
the mighty rock[c]
    that kept them safe.
36 But they tried to flatter God,
    and they told him lies;
37 (I) they were unfaithful
    and broke their promises.

38 Yet God was kind.
He kept forgiving their sins
    and didn't destroy them.
He often became angry,
    but never lost his temper.
39 God remembered that they
    were made of flesh
and were like a wind
that blows once
    and then dies down.

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Footnotes

  1. 78.12 Zoan: A city in the eastern part of the Nile Delta.
  2. 78.24 manna: When the people of Israel were wandering through the desert, the Lord gave them a special kind of food to eat. It tasted like a wafer and was called “manna,” which in Hebrew means, “What is this?”
  3. 78.35 mighty rock: See the note at 18.2.

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