Psalm 78 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Psa 78:1A psalm[fn] of Asaph.

O my people, listen to my instructions.
Open your ears to what I am saying,

Psa 78:2for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—

Psa 78:3stories we have heard and known,
stories our ancestors handed down to us.

Psa 78:4We will not hide these truths from our children;
we will tell the next generation
about the glorious deeds of the LORD,
about his power and his mighty wonders.

Psa 78:5

Psa 78:5For he issued his laws to Jacob;
he gave his instructions to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children,

Psa 78:6

Psa 78:6so the next generation might know them—
even the children not yet born—
and they in turn will teach their own children.

Psa 78:7

Psa 78:7So each generation should set its hope anew on God,
not forgetting his glorious miracles
and obeying his commands.

Psa 78:8

Psa 78:8Then they will not be like their ancestors—
stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,
refusing to give their hearts to God.

Psa 78:9

Psa 78:9The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.

Psa 78:10

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

Psa 78:11

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

Psa 78:12

Psa 78:12the miracles he did for their ancestors
on the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

Psa 78:13

Psa 78:13For he divided the sea and led them through,
making the water stand up like walls!

Psa 78:14

Psa 78:14In the daytime he led them by a cloud,
and all night by a pillar of fire.

Psa 78:15

Psa 78:15He split open the rocks in the wilderness
to give them water, as from a gushing spring.

Psa 78:16

Psa 78:16He made streams pour from the rock,
making the waters flow down like a river!

Psa 78:17

Psa 78:17Yet they kept on sinning against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

Psa 78:18

Psa 78:18They stubbornly tested God in their hearts,
demanding the foods they craved.

Psa 78:19

Psa 78:19They even spoke against God himself, saying,
“God can’t give us food in the wilderness.

Psa 78:20

Psa 78:20Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out,
but he can’t give his people bread and meat.”

Psa 78:21

Psa 78:21When the LORD heard them, he was furious.
The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob.
Yes, his anger rose against Israel,

Psa 78:22

Psa 78:22for they did not believe God
or trust him to care for them.

Psa 78:23

Psa 78:23But he commanded the skies to open;
he opened the doors of heaven.

Psa 78:24

Psa 78:24He rained down manna for them to eat;
he gave them bread from heaven.

Psa 78:25

Psa 78:25They ate the food of angels!
God gave them all they could hold.

Psa 78:26

Psa 78:26He released the east wind in the heavens
and guided the south wind by his mighty power.

Psa 78:27

Psa 78:27He rained down meat as thick as dust—
birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!

Psa 78:28

Psa 78:28He caused the birds to fall within their camp
and all around their tents.

Psa 78:29

Psa 78:29The people ate their fill.
He gave them what they craved.

Psa 78:30

Psa 78:30But before they satisfied their craving,
while the meat was yet in their mouths,

Psa 78:31

Psa 78:31the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed their strongest men.
He struck down the finest of Israel’s young men.

Psa 78:32

Psa 78:32But in spite of this, the people kept sinning.
Despite his wonders, they refused to trust him.

Psa 78:33

Psa 78:33So he ended their lives in failure,
their years in terror.

Psa 78:34

Psa 78:34When God began killing them,
they finally sought him.
They repented and took God seriously.

Psa 78:35

Psa 78:35Then they remembered that God was their rock,
that God Most High[fn] was their redeemer.

Psa 78:36

Psa 78:36But all they gave him was lip service;
they lied to him with their tongues.

Psa 78:37

Psa 78:37Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They did not keep his covenant.

Psa 78:38

Psa 78:38Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins
and did not destroy them all.
Many times he held back his anger
and did not unleash his fury!

Psa 78:39

Psa 78:39For he remembered that they were merely mortal,
gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

Psa 78:40

Psa 78:40Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.

Psa 78:41

Psa 78:41Again and again they tested God’s patience
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

Psa 78:42

Psa 78:42They did not remember his power
and how he rescued them from their enemies.

Psa 78:43

Psa 78:43They did not remember his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders on the plain of Zoan.

Psa 78:44

Psa 78:44For he turned their rivers into blood,
so no one could drink from the streams.

Psa 78:45

Psa 78:45He sent vast swarms of flies to consume them
and hordes of frogs to ruin them.

Psa 78:46

Psa 78:46He gave their crops to caterpillars;
their harvest was consumed by locusts.

Psa 78:47

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

Psa 78:48

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

Psa 78:49

Psa 78:49He loosed on them his fierce anger—
all his fury, rage, and hostility.
He dispatched against them
a band of destroying angels.

Psa 78:50

Psa 78:50He turned his anger against them;
he did not spare the Egyptians’ lives
but ravaged them with the plague.

Psa 78:51

Psa 78:51He killed the oldest son in each Egyptian family,
the flower of youth throughout the land of Egypt.[fn]

Psa 78:52

Psa 78:52But he led his own people like a flock of sheep,
guiding them safely through the wilderness.

Psa 78:53

Psa 78:53He kept them safe so they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.

Psa 78:54

Psa 78:54He brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this land of hills he had won for them.

Psa 78:55

Psa 78:55He drove out the nations before them;
he gave them their inheritance by lot.
He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.

Psa 78:56

Psa 78:56But they kept testing and rebelling against God Most High.
They did not obey his laws.

Psa 78:57

Psa 78:57They turned back and were as faithless as their parents.
They were as undependable as a crooked bow.

Psa 78:58

Psa 78:58They angered God by building shrines to other gods;
they made him jealous with their idols.

Psa 78:59

Psa 78:59When God heard them, he was very angry,
and he completely rejected Israel.

Psa 78:60

Psa 78:60Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,
the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.

Psa 78:61

Psa 78:61He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured;
he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.

Psa 78:62

Psa 78:62He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword,
because he was so angry with his own people—his special possession.

Psa 78:63

Psa 78:63Their young men were killed by fire;
their young women died before singing their wedding songs.

Psa 78:64

Psa 78:64Their priests were slaughtered,
and their widows could not mourn their deaths.

Psa 78:65

Psa 78:65Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep,
like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.

Psa 78:66

Psa 78:66He routed his enemies
and sent them to eternal shame.

Psa 78:67

Psa 78:67But he rejected Joseph’s descendants;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

Psa 78:68

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

Psa 78:69

Psa 78:69There he built his sanctuary as high as the heavens,
as solid and enduring as the earth.

Psa 78:70

Psa 78:70He chose his servant David,
calling him from the sheep pens.

Psa 78:71

Psa 78:71He took David from tending the ewes and lambs
and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants—
God’s own people, Israel.

Psa 78:72

Psa 78:72He cared for them with a true heart
and led them with skillful hands.

See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NLT Footnotes

(78:1)

Hebrew maskil. This may be a literary or musical term.

(78:35)

Hebrew El-Elyon.

(78:51)

Hebrew in the tents of Ham.

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For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

Psalm Chapter 78 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Psalm 78 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

NLT Footnotes

Psalm Chapter 78 — Additional Translations:

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