The Lantern

Psalms78

A maskil of Asaph. Give ear, my people, to my instruction; stretch out your ear to the sayings of my mouth.

I Will Open My Mouth in Parables

I will open my mouth in a proverb; I will pour out riddles from of old,

which we have heard and known, and our fathers have recounted to us.

We will not conceal them from their sons, recounting to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his might and his wonders that he has done.

And he raised a testimony in Jacob, and set an instruction in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their sons,

so that the generation to come would know — sons yet to be born — that they might rise and recount to their sons,

and set their confidence in God, and not forget the deeds of the Mighty One, but keep his commandments;

and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make its heart firm, and whose spirit was not faithful to the Mighty One.

The sons of Ephraim, armed shooters of the bow, turned back in the day of battle.

They did not keep the covenant of God, and in his instruction they refused to walk.

And they forgot his deeds and his wonders that he had shown them.

Before their fathers he did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.

He split the sea and brought them through, and he made the waters stand like a heap.

And he led them with the cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire.

He split rocks in the wilderness and gave drink abundantly, as from the deeps.

And he brought streams out of a crag and brought down water like rivers.

But they went on sinning against him still, rebelling against the Most High in the dry land.

And they tested the Mighty One in their heart by asking food for their appetite.

And they spoke against God; they said, “Is the Mighty One able to arrange a table in the wilderness?

See, he struck a rock and waters flowed and torrents overflowed. Is he also able to give bread? Can he prepare meat for his people?”

Therefore the LORD heard and was furious; and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel,

because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation.

Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven,

and he rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.

Each ate the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.

He made an east wind blow in the heavens, and by his strength he drove the south wind.

And he rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas,

and he made them fall in the midst of his camp, all around his dwellings.

And they ate and were very full, and he brought them their craving.

They were not estranged from their craving; their food was still in their mouth,

when the anger of God went up against them and killed among their stout ones, and brought down the young men of Israel.

In all this they still sinned, and did not believe in his wonders.

So he finished their days in a breath, and their years in terror.

When he killed them, then they sought him; and they returned and sought the Mighty One earnestly.

And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Mighty One Most High their redeemer.

But they deceived him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him.

And their heart was not firm with him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.

But he, compassionate, would atone for iniquity and not destroy; and many times he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath.

And he remembered that they were flesh, a wind that goes and does not return.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, grieved him in the wasteland!

And they turned back and tested the Mighty One, and pained the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember his hand, the day he ransomed them from the foe,

when he set his signs in Egypt and his portents in the field of Zoan;

and he turned their rivers to blood, and their streams they could not drink.

He sent among them swarms, and they devoured them; and frogs, and they destroyed them.

And he gave their produce to the locust larva, and their labor to the locust.

He killed their vine with hail, and their sycamores with frost.

And he shut up their cattle to the hail, and their livestock to flames of fire.

He sent among them the burning of his anger — fury and indignation and distress — a sending of angels of evils.

He leveled a path for his anger; he did not spare their soul from death, and he shut up their life to the plague.

And he struck every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of strength in the tents of Ham.

And he made his people set out like sheep, and led them like a flock in the wilderness.

And he led them in safety, and they did not dread; but the sea covered their enemies.

And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain his right hand acquired.

And he drove out nations before them, and apportioned them an inheritance by a measuring line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

But they tested and rebelled against God Most High, and did not keep his testimonies.

And they turned back and were treacherous like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow.

And they provoked him with their high places, and with their carved images they made him jealous.

God heard and was furious, and he utterly rejected Israel.

And he abandoned the dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind.

And he gave his strength into captivity, and his splendor into the hand of the foe.

And he shut up his people to the sword, and was furious with his inheritance.

Fire devoured his young men, and his virgins were not praised in song.

His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.

And the Lord awoke like one who sleeps, like a mighty man shouting from wine.

And he struck his foes backward; he gave them everlasting reproach.

And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth he founded forever.

And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

from following the nursing ewes he brought him, to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.

And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and with the insight of his hands he guided them.