Psalm 78

HCSB

Psalm 78

Lessons from Israel’s Past

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1} A Maskil of Asaph.^(A)

My people, hear my instruction;
listen to what I say.^(B)

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2}

I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past^(C)—

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things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us.^(D)

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4}

We must not hide them from their children,
but must tell a future generation
the praises of the Lord,
His might, and the wonderful works
He has performed.^(E)

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5}

He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
to teach to their children^(F)

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so that a future generation—
children yet to be born—might know.
They were to rise and tell their children^(G)

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so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
but keep His commands.^(H)

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Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.^(I)

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9}

The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.^(J)

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10}

They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by His law.^(K)

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11}

They forgot what He had done,
the wonderful works He had shown them.^(L)

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12}

He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, the region of Zoan.^(M)

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13}

He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.^(N)

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14}

He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.^(O)

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15}

He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.^(P)

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16}

He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.^(Q)

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17}

But they continued to sin against Him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.^(R)

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18}

They deliberately^(a) tested God,
demanding the food they craved.^(S)

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19}

They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?

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Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.^(T)
But can He also provide bread
or furnish meat for His people?”^(U)

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Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel^(V)

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because they did not believe God
or rely on His salvation.^(W)

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23}

He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.^(X)

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24}

He rained manna for them to eat;
He gave them grain from heaven.^(Y)

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25}

People^(b) ate the bread of angels.^(c)
He sent them an abundant supply of food.^(Z)

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26}

He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by His might.^(AA)

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He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.

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28}

He made them fall in His camp,
all around His tent.^(d)^(e)^(AB)

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29}

They ate and were completely satisfied,
for He gave them what they craved.^(AC)

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30}

Before they had satisfied their desire,
while the food was still in their mouths,

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31}

God’s anger flared up against them,
and He killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s choice young men.^(AD)

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32}

Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe His wonderful works.^(AE)

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33}

He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.^(AF)

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34}

When He killed some of them,
the rest began to seek Him;
they repented and searched for God.^(AG)

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35}

They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their Redeemer.^(AH)

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36}

But they deceived Him with their mouths,
they lied to Him with their tongues,^(AI)

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37}

their hearts were insincere toward Him,
and they were unfaithful to His covenant.^(AJ)

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38}

Yet He was compassionate;
He atoned for^(f) their guilt
and did not destroy them.
He often turned His anger aside
and did not unleash^(g) all His wrath.^(AK)

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39}

He remembered that they were only flesh,
a wind that passes and does not return.^(AL)

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40}

How often they rebelled against Him
in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert.

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41}

They constantly tested God^(AM)
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.^(AN)

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42}

They did not remember His power shown
on the day He redeemed them from the foe,^(AO)

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when He performed His miraculous signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the region of Zoan.^(AP)

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He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.^(AQ)

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He sent among them swarms of flies,^(AR)
which fed on them,
and frogs, which devastated them.^(AS)

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He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.^(AT)

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He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.

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48}

He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.^(AU)

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49}

He sent His burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity—
a band of deadly messengers.^(h)^(AV)

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50}

He cleared a path for His anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.^(AW)

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51}

He struck all the firstborn^(AX) in Egypt,
the first progeny of the tents of Ham.⁽ⁱ⁾^(AY)

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52}

He led His people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.^(AZ)

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53}

He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.^(BA)

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54}

He brought them to His holy land,
to the mountain His right hand acquired.^(BB)

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55}

He drove out nations before them.^(BC)
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.^(BD)

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56}

But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep His decrees.^(BE)

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57}

They treacherously turned away like their fathers;
they became warped like a faulty bow.^(BF)

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They enraged Him with their high places
and provoked His jealousy with their carved images.^(BG)

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59}

God heard and became furious;
He completely rejected Israel.^(BH)

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60}

He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where He resided among men.^(j)^(BI)

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61}

He gave up His strength^(k) to captivity
and His splendor to the hand of a foe.^(BJ)

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62}

He surrendered His people to the sword
because He was enraged with His heritage.^(BK)

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63}

Fire consumed His chosen young men,
and His young women had no wedding songs.^(l)^(BL)

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His priests fell by the sword,
but the^(m) widows could not lament.⁽ⁿ⁾^(BM)

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65}

Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.^(BN)

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66}

He beat back His foes;
He gave them lasting shame.^(BO)

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67}

He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

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68}

He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.^(BP)

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69}

He built His sanctuary like the heights,^(o)
like the earth that He established forever.^(BQ)

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70}

He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;^(BR)

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71}

He brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over His people Jacob—
over Israel, His inheritance.^(BS)

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72}

He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.^(BT)

Footnotes:

a. Psalm 78:18: Lit in their heart

b. Psalm 78:25: Lit Man

c. Psalm 78:25: Lit mighty ones

d. Psalm 78:28: LXX, Syr read in their camp, all around their tents

e. Psalm 78:28: Or in its camp, all around its tents

f. Psalm 78:38: Or He wiped out, or He forgave

g. Psalm 78:38: Or stir up

h. Psalm 78:49: Or angels

i. Psalm 78:51: Ham’s descendants who settled in Egypt

j. Psalm 78:60: Hb adam

k. Psalm 78:61: the ark of the covenant

l. Psalm 78:63: Lit virgins were not praised

m. Psalm 78:64: Lit His

n. Psalm 78:64: War probably prevented customary funerals.

o. Psalm 78:69: Either the heights of heaven or the mountain heights

Cross references:

B. Psalm 78:1: Proverbs 5:7; Proverbs 7:24; Isaiah 55:3

C. Psalm 78:2: Psalm 49:4; Proverbs 1:6; Matthew 13:35

D. Psalm 78:3: Psalm 44:1

E. Psalm 78:4: Deuteronomy 6:7; Deuteronomy 11:19; Psalm 145:4

F. Psalm 78:5: Psalm 19:7; Psalm 81:5; Psalm 147:19

G. Psalm 78:6: Deuteronomy 11:19; Psalm 22:31; Psalm 102:18

H. Psalm 78:7: Deuteronomy 6:12; Psalm 103:2; Proverbs 3:1

I. Psalm 78:8: Deuteronomy 31:27; 2 Chronicles 30:7

J. Psalm 78:9: Psalm 44:10

K. Psalm 78:10: Jeremiah 32:23

L. Psalm 78:11: Psalm 106:13

M. Psalm 78:12: Exodus 1:7-12; Psalm 78:43

N. Psalm 78:13: Exodus 14:21; Exodus 15:8; Psalm 136:13

O. Psalm 78:14: Exodus 13:21; Numbers 14:14; Psalm 105:39

P. Psalm 78:15: Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8-13; Isaiah 48:21

Q. Psalm 78:16: Psalm 105:41; Psalm 114:8

R. Psalm 78:17: Deuteronomy 9:22; Isaiah 63:10; Hebrews 3:16

S. Psalm 78:18: Exodus 17:2; Exodus 17:7; Psalm 106:14; 1 Corinthians 10:5-10

T. Psalm 78:20: Numbers 20:11

U. Psalm 78:19: Exodus 16:3; Numbers 11:4; Numbers 21:5

V. Psalm 78:21: Numbers 11:1

W. Psalm 78:22: Deuteronomy 1:23; Deuteronomy 9:23; Hebrews 3:18

X. Psalm 78:23: Genesis 7:11; Malachi 3:10

Y. Psalm 78:24: Exodus 16:4; Exodus 16:31; John 6:31

Z. Psalm 78:25: Exodus 16:3

AA. Psalm 78:26: Numbers 11:31

AB. Psalm 78:27: Exodus 16:13; Psalm 105:40

AC. Psalm 78:29: Numbers 11:4; Numbers 11:34

AD. Psalm 78:30: Numbers 11:33-34; Job 20:23

AE. Psalm 78:32: Numbers 14:16-17

AF. Psalm 78:33: Numbers 14:29; Numbers 14:35

AG. Psalm 78:34: Numbers 21:7; Psalm 63:1

AH. Psalm 78:35: Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 44:8

AI. Psalm 78:36: Isaiah 29:13; Isaiah 57:11; Ezekiel 33:31

AJ. Psalm 78:37: Psalm 51:10; Psalm 78:8; Acts 8:21

AK. Psalm 78:38: Numbers 14:18-20; Deuteronomy 4:31; Isaiah 12:1

AL. Psalm 78:39: Deuteronomy 31:27; Psalm 107:11

AM. Psalm 78:41: Psalm 95:8-9

AN. Psalm 78:41: Deuteronomy 9:7-8; Deuteronomy 9:22; Psalm 106:29

AO. Psalm 78:42: Judges 8:34; Psalm 44:3; Psalm 106:10

AP. Psalm 78:43: Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:3; Psalm 105:27

AQ. Psalm 78:44: Exodus 7:14-25; Psalm 105:29

AR. Psalm 78:45: Exodus 8:17; Psalm 105:31

AS. Psalm 78:45: Exodus 8:3-6; Psalm 105:30

AT. Psalm 78:46: Exodus 10:14-15; Psalm 105:34

AU. Psalm 78:47: Exodus 9:23-24; Psalm 105:32

AV. Psalm 78:49: Exodus 12:13; Exodus 12:23

AW. Psalm 78:50: Exodus 12:29-30

AX. Psalm 78:51: Exodus 13:15; Psalm 105:36

AY. Psalm 78:51: Psalm 105:23; Psalm 105:27

AZ. Psalm 78:52: Exodus 15:22; Psalm 77:20

BA. Psalm 78:53: Exodus 1:14; Exodus 15:19; Joshua 24:7; Psalm 106:11

BB. Psalm 78:54: Exodus 15:17; Psalm 74:2

BC. Psalm 78:55: Joshua 11:16-23; Psalm 44:2

BD. Psalm 78:55: Joshua 13:7; Joshua 23:4; Psalm 135:12

BE. Psalm 78:56: Judges 2:11-13

BF. Psalm 78:57: Ezekiel 20:27-28

BG. Psalm 78:58: Judges 2:12; Ezekiel 20:28

BH. Psalm 78:59: Deuteronomy 32:19; Psalm 106:40; Amos 6:8

BI. Psalm 78:60: Jeremiah 7:12; Jeremiah 7:14; Jeremiah 26:6

BJ. Psalm 78:61: 1 Samuel 4:17

BK. Psalm 78:62: Judges 20:21

BL. Psalm 78:63: Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 16:9

BM. Psalm 78:64: Job 27:15; Ezekiel 24:23

BN. Psalm 78:65: Psalm 73:20; Psalm 121:4; Isaiah 42:13

BO. Psalm 78:66: Psalm 40:14

BP. Psalm 78:67: Psalm 87:2

BQ. Psalm 78:69: 1 Kings 1:6

BR. Psalm 78:70: 1 Samuel 16:11-13

BS. Psalm 78:71: Psalm 28:9; Isaiah 40:11

BT. Psalm 78:72: Psalm 101:2