Psalms - 78(77) - How many times did they tempt God!

This psalm draws a lesson from the history of Israel: God’s blessings and the ingratitude of his people.

^{① 1}Give heed, O my people, to my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth!

²I will speak in parables, I will talk of old mysteries ³which we have heard and known, which our ancestors have told us.

⁴We will not keep them hidden from our children; we will announce them to the coming generation: the glorious deeds of the Lord, his might and the wonders he has done.

⁵He issued decrees for Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,

⁶so the next generation would learn and teach their own children.

⁷They would then put their trust in God, and not forget his deeds and his commands.

⁸And not be like their ancestors, stubborn and rebellious people, a people of inconstant heart whose spirit was fickle.

⁹Well-armed with bow, the Ephraimites took flight when the time came to do battle.

¹⁰It is because they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.

¹¹They forgot the marvels he had done, ¹²what their ancestors had seen in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

¹³He divided the sea and led them across; he made the water stand like a wall.

¹⁴By day he led them with a cloud, and by night with a fiery light.

¹⁵In the desert he split rocks to give them abundant drink.

¹⁶He made streams come out of a rock and caused water to flow like a river.

¹⁷Yet they sinned even more against him and rebelled against the Most High in the desert. ¹⁸They tested God, demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They blasphemed against God, saying: “Can God spread a table in the desert?

²⁰He made water flow out of the rock; can he also give his people bread or meat?”

²¹When the Lord heard this he was enraged; a fire raged against Jacob, his anger flared against Israel, ²²for they had no faith in God nor trust in his deliverance.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; ²⁴he rained down manna upon them and fed them with the heavenly grain.

²⁵They ate and had more than their fill of the bread of angels.

²⁶Then from heaven he stirred the east wind, and by his power let loose the south wind, ²⁷to rain down meat on them like dust.
Birds as thick as the sand on the seashore ²⁸fell inside their camp, lying all around their tents.

²⁹They ate till they were satisfied, for he had given them what they craved.

³⁰But even before they were finished, while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger rose against them; he slew the strongest among them and laid low the flower of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning and did not believe,

³³so he swept away their days suddenly as a storm, and their years in terror. ³⁴When he slew them, they repented and sought him earnestly.

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

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues, ³⁷while their hearts were unfaithful; they were untrue to his covenant. ³⁸Even then, in his compassion, he forgave their offenses and did not destroy them.
Many a time he restrained his anger and did not fully stir up his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, a breeze that passes and never returns.

⁴⁰How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness, how often did they grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tested him, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power in redeeming them from the oppressor; ⁴³neither his marvels shown in Egypt nor his wonders in the fields of Zoan, ⁴⁴when he turned the rivers to blood and the oppressors had nothing to drink.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the caterpillar and their produce to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost.

⁴⁸He struck their herds with plague and their flocks with thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He unleashed his fury against them, his wrath, indignation and strife – a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰Giving vent to his anger, he did not spare them from death, but gave them over to the plague.

⁵¹He struck down Egypt’s firstborn, manhood’s first fruits in the tents of Ham.

⁵²Then he led forth his people like a flock, and guided them like sheep through the desert.

⁵³He led them safely, they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to his holy land, to the mountain his right hand had won.

⁵⁵He drove out peoples before them and gave them the land as their inheritance; they pitched their tents in it.

⁵⁶But they challenged and rebelled against God the Most High, and disobeyed his decrees.

⁵⁷They were unfaithful like their ancestors, deceitful and crooked as a twisted bow.

⁵⁸They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹Filled with wrath, God rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among humans.

⁶¹He lead his glory into captivity, his ark into the hand of the enemy.

⁶²He gave his people over to the sword, so furious was he at his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men; their maidens were deprived of wedding songs.

⁶⁴As their priests fell by the sword, no lament was heard from their widows.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke, shouting, as from sleep induced by wine; ⁶⁶he struck his enemies on their back and put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷He rejected the house of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, ⁶⁸but the tribe of Judah and Zion, his beloved mountain.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like heaven, like the earth he founded forever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; ⁷¹from tending the sheep and their young, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, the people of Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²And with upright heart David pastured them; with skillful hands he led them.