Psalm 78 :: New International Version (NIV)

Psa 78:1A maskil[fn] of Asaph. My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.

Psa 78:2I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

Psa 78:3things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.

Psa 78:4We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.

Psa 78:5

Psa 78:5He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,

Psa 78:6

Psa 78:6so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

Psa 78:7

Psa 78:7Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.

Psa 78:8

Psa 78:8They would not be like their ancestors— a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.

Psa 78:9

Psa 78:9The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;

Psa 78:10

Psa 78:10they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.

Psa 78:11

Psa 78:11They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

Psa 78:12

Psa 78:12He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

Psa 78:13

Psa 78:13He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand up like a wall.

Psa 78:14

Psa 78:14He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.

Psa 78:15

Psa 78:15He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

Psa 78:16

Psa 78:16he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.

Psa 78:17

Psa 78:17But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.

Psa 78:18

Psa 78:18They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.

Psa 78:19

Psa 78:19They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness?

Psa 78:20

Psa 78:20True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?”

Psa 78:21

Psa 78:21When the LORD heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,

Psa 78:22

Psa 78:22for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.

Psa 78:23

Psa 78:23Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens;

Psa 78:24

Psa 78:24he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.

Psa 78:25

Psa 78:25Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.

Psa 78:26

Psa 78:26He let loose the east wind from the heavens and by his power made the south wind blow.

Psa 78:27

Psa 78:27He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like sand on the seashore.

Psa 78:28

Psa 78:28He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents.

Psa 78:29

Psa 78:29They ate till they were gorged— he had given them what they craved.

Psa 78:30

Psa 78:30But before they turned from what they craved, even while the food was still in their mouths,

Psa 78:31

Psa 78:31God’s anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.

Psa 78:32

Psa 78:32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

Psa 78:33

Psa 78:33So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.

Psa 78:34

Psa 78:34Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.

Psa 78:35

Psa 78:35They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

Psa 78:36

Psa 78:36But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues;

Psa 78:37

Psa 78:37their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.

Psa 78:38

Psa 78:38Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.

Psa 78:39

Psa 78:39He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

Psa 78:40

Psa 78:40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!

Psa 78:41

Psa 78:41Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

Psa 78:42

Psa 78:42They did not remember his power— the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

Psa 78:43

Psa 78:43the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.

Psa 78:44

Psa 78:44He turned their river into blood; they could not drink from their streams.

Psa 78:45

Psa 78:45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

Psa 78:46

Psa 78:46He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust.

Psa 78:47

Psa 78:47He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

Psa 78:48

Psa 78:48He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

Psa 78:49

Psa 78:49He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility— a band of destroying angels.

Psa 78:50

Psa 78:50He prepared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.

Psa 78:51

Psa 78:51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

Psa 78:52

Psa 78:52But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness.

Psa 78:53

Psa 78:53He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.

Psa 78:54

Psa 78:54And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.

Psa 78:55

Psa 78:55He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

Psa 78:56

Psa 78:56But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.

Psa 78:57

Psa 78:57Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.

Psa 78:58

Psa 78:58They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

Psa 78:59

Psa 78:59When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely.

Psa 78:60

Psa 78:60He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans.

Psa 78:61

Psa 78:61He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

Psa 78:62

Psa 78:62He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance.

Psa 78:63

Psa 78:63Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs;

Psa 78:64

Psa 78:64their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.

Psa 78:65

Psa 78:65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.

Psa 78:66

Psa 78:66He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame.

Psa 78:67

Psa 78:67Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

Psa 78:68

Psa 78:68but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

Psa 78:69

Psa 78:69He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

Psa 78:70

Psa 78:70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

Psa 78:71

Psa 78:71from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.

Psa 78:72

Psa 78:72And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

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NIV Footnotes

(78:1)

Title: Probably a literary or musical term

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