Psalms 78 On understanding. By Asaph. Attend, my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ On understanding. By Asaph. Attend, my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. ² I will open my mouth with parables; I will utter dark sayings of old; ³ such as we have heard and known, which our fathers have related to us. ⁴ They were not hid from their children: one generation told another the praises of the Lord, his acts of power, and the wonders which he hath done. ⁵ Thus he raised up a testimony in Jacob, and established a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children: ⁶ that the succeeding generation; the children to be born, might know it, and rise and tell the same to their children: ⁷ that they might put their trust in God, and not forget the works of God, but seek diligently his commandments; ⁸ that they might not be like their fathers; a perverse and rebellious generation; a generation which set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. ⁹ The sons of Ephraim, who bend and shoot the bow, were turned back in the day of battle. ¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God, and would not walk in his law. ¹¹ They indeed forgot his acts of kindness; those wonders of his which he had shewn them; ¹² wonders which he did in the sight of their fathers: in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Tanis. ¹³ He had cleft the sea and led them through it; he had stayed the waters as in a bottle. ¹⁴ He had led them with a cloud by day, and all the night long with a light of fire; ¹⁵ he had cleft a rock in the wilderness, and given them drink as from a great abyss; ¹⁶ he had brought water out of a rock, and caused streams to flow down like rivers: ¹⁷ But still they proceeded to sin against him; they provoked the Most High in a desert. ¹⁸ Still they made trial of God in their hearts, by asking for meats to their appetites. ¹⁹ Nay, they spoke against God and said, "Can God provide a table in a desert? ²⁰ When he smote a rock, waters gushed out, and streams swelled to an overflowing flood. But can He also give bread, or provide a table for his people?" ²¹ Therefore the Lord heard and was provoked; and a fire was kindled among Jacob; and wrath came up against Israel. ²² Because they believed not in God, nor trusted in his salvation. ²³ Though he had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of heaven, ²⁴ and had rained down manna for them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven, ²⁵ [Man was eating the bread of angels] he sent meat for them to satiety. ²⁶ He removed the south east wind out of heaven, and by his power brought on the south west: ²⁷ and rained upon them flesh, like dust: and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea; ²⁸ they fell in the midst of their encampment, and all around their habitation. ²⁹ Though they ate and were filled abundantly, and he had given them their desire; ³⁰ their longing desire was not stayed; therefore while the meat was still in their mouth, ³¹ the anger of God came up against them, and slew them amidst their fat viands, and fettered the chosen men of Israel. ³² Notwithstanding all these things they still sinned, and did not believe his wonderous works; ³³ therefore their days glided away in vanity, and their years were attended with impatience. ³⁴ When he smote them and they sought him, and returned and inquired early after God, ³⁵ and remembered that God was their helper, and that God the Most High was their redeemer; ³⁶ though they expressed love for him with their mouth, they lied to him with their tongue, ³⁷ and their heart was not right with him, nor were they stedfast in his covenant. ³⁸ But he being merciful forgave their sins, and would not utterly destroy them. Yea, many a time did he turn away his wrath, and would not suffer all his wrath to blaze forth; ³⁹ for he remembered that they were flesh; a breath going out and not again returning. ⁴⁰ How often did they provoke him in the wilderness, and excite him to anger in the desert? ⁴¹ They actually turned back and tempted God, and provoked to wrath the holy One of Israel. ⁴² They remembered not his hand, on the day when he rescued them out of the hand of an oppressor; ⁴³ how he had displayed his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the plain of Tanis; ⁴⁴ and had turned their rivers into blood, and their cisterns so that they could not drink; ⁴⁵ had sent against them the dog fly which devoured them, and swarms of frogs which destroyed them; ⁴⁶ and had given their crops to the canker Worm, and their labours to the locust; ⁴⁷ had smitten their vineyards with hail, and their sycamine trees with frost; ⁴⁸ and delivered up their cattle to hail, and their substance to the fire; ⁴⁹ having sent out against them his fierce anger, wrath and indignation and affliction; a mission executed by evil angels: ⁵⁰ he paved a way for his vengeance; he spared not their lives from death: he delivered up their cattle to pestilence, ⁵¹ and smote every first born in the land of Egypt; the first fruits of their labours in the tents of Cham; ⁵² and brought out his people like sheep, and led them like a flock in the desert, ⁵³ and guided them safely, so that they were not afraid, though the sea overwhelmed their enemies; ⁵⁴ and brought them to the mount of his holiness; to this mountain which his right hand purchased; ⁵⁵ and drove out nations from before them, and gave them by lot their several portions, and settled in their dwellings the tribes of Israel. ⁵⁶ Still they tempted and provoked God the Most High, and did not keep his testimonies; ⁵⁷ but turned back and broke covenant like their fathers. They turned aside like a deceitful bow. ⁵⁸ They provoked him with their mounts, and with their graven images moved him to jealousy. ⁵⁹ God heard and despised them and greatly contemned Israel, ⁶⁰ and he abandoned the tabernacle of Selom; the tent in which he had dwelt among men; ⁶¹ and delivered up their strength to captivity, and their glory into an enemy's hand; ⁶² and gave up his people to the sword, and slighted his inheritance. ⁶³ A fire consumed their young men, and their virgins made no lamentation. ⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword and their widows are not to bewail them. ⁶⁵ At length the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, as a mighty man recovered from wine; ⁶⁶ and he smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and cast an everlasting reproach on them. ⁶⁷ But he rejected the habitation of Joseph, and did not chuse the tribe of Ephraim; ⁶⁸ but made choice of the tribe of Juda; of this mount Sion which he loved, ⁶⁹ and built his sanctuary like that of unicorns; in this land he founded it for this age, ⁷⁰ and he chose David his servant and took him from the flocks of sheep; ⁷¹ he took them from tending the ewes with young to feed his servant Jacob and Israel his inheritance. ⁷² And he fed them in the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skill of his hands.