Psalm 78
Lessons from Israel’s Past
1My people, hear my instruction;
2I will declare wise sayings;
3things we have heard and known
and that our ancestors have passed down to us.78:3 Ps 44:1
4We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell a future generation
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
his might, and the wondrous works
5He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
6so that a future generation —
children yet to be born — might know.
7so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
8Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
9The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.78:9 Ps 44:10
10They did not keep God’s covenant
11They forgot what he had done,
the wondrous works he had shown them.78:11 Ps 106:13
12He worked wonders in the sight of their ancestors
13He split the sea and brought them across;
14He led them with a cloud by day
15He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.78:15 Ex 17:6; Nm 20:8–13; Is 48:21
16He brought streams out of the stone
17But they continued to sin against him,
18They deliberately78:18 Lit in their heart tested God,
demanding the food they craved.78:18 Ex 17:2,7; Ps 106:14; 1Co 10:5–10
19They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
20Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.78:20 Nm 20:11
But can he also provide bread
21Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel78:21 Nm 11:1
22because they did not believe God
23He gave a command to the clouds above
24He rained manna for them to eat;
He sent them an abundant supply of food.78:25 Ex 16:3
26He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by his might.78:26 Nm 11:31
27He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28He made them fall in the camp,
29The people ate and were completely satisfied,
30Before they had turned from what they craved,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31God’s anger flared up against them,
and he killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s fit young men.78:30–31 Nm 11:33–34; Jb 20:23
32Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe his wondrous works.78:32 Nm 14:16–17
33He made their days end in futility,
34When he killed some of them,
the rest began to seek him;
35They remembered that God was their rock,
36But they deceived him with their mouths,
37their hearts were insincere toward him,
38Yet he was compassionate;
he atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He often turned his anger aside
and did not unleash78:38 Or stir up all his wrath.78:38 Nm 14:18–20; Dt 4:31; Is 12:1
39He remembered that they were only flesh,
40How often they rebelled against him
in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert.
42They did not remember his power shown
43when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt
44He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.78:44 Ex 7:14–25; Ps 105:29
which fed on them,
46He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.78:46 Ex 10:14–15; Ps 105:34
47He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
48He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.78:47–48 Ex 9:23–24; Ps 105:32
49He sent his burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity —
50He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.78:50 Ex 12:29–30
52He led his people out like sheep
53He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
54He brought them to his holy territory,
55He drove out nations before them.78:55 Jos 11:16–23; Ps 44:2
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
56But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep his decrees.78:56 Jdg 2:11–13
57They treacherously turned away like their ancestors;
they became warped like a faulty bow.78:57 Ezk 20:27–28; Hs 7:16
58They enraged him with their high places
59God heard and became furious;
60He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
61He gave up his strength to captivity
and his splendor to the hand of a foe.78:61 1Sm 4:17
62He surrendered his people to the sword
63Fire consumed his chosen young men,
and his young women had no wedding songs.78:63 Lit virgins were not praised78:63 Jr 7:34; 16:9; Lm 2:21
64His priests fell by the sword,
65The Lord awoke as if from sleep,
66He beat back his foes;
67He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.78:67–68 Ps 87:2
69He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.78:69 1Kg 6
70He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;78:70 1Sm 16:11–13
71he brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over his people Jacob —
72He shepherded them with a pure heart
Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard
Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.