Psalms Chapter 78 (NIV)
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Psalm 78A maskil of Asaph.O my people, hear my teaching;listen to the words of my mouth.
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I will open my mouth in parables,I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
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what we have heard and known,what our fathers have told us.
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We will not hide them from their children;we will tell the next generationthe praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,his power, and the wonders he has done.
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He decreed statutes for Jacoband established the law in Israel,which he commanded our forefathersto teach their children,
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so the next generation would know them,even the children yet to be born,and they in turn would tell their children.
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Then they would put their trust in Godand would not forget his deedsbut would keep his commands.
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They would not be like their forefathers—a stubborn and rebellious generation,whose hearts were not loyal to God,whose spirits were not faithful to him.
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The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,turned back on the day of battle;
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they did not keep God’s covenantand refused to live by his law.
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They forgot what he had done,the wonders he had shown them.
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He did miracles in the sight of their fathersin the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
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He divided the sea and led them through;he made the water stand firm like a wall.
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He guided them with the cloud by dayand with light from the fire all night.
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He split the rocks in the desertand gave them water as abundant as the seas;
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he brought streams out of a rocky cragand made water flow down like rivers.
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But they continued to sin against him,rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
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They willfully put God to the testby demanding the food they craved.
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They spoke against God, saying,“Can God spread a table in the desert?
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When he struck the rock, water gushed out,and streams flowed abundantly.But can he also give us food?Can he supply meat for his people?”
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When the Lord heard them, he was very angry;his fire broke out against Jacob,and his wrath rose against Israel,
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for they did not believe in Godor trust in his deliverance.
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Yet he gave a command to the skies aboveand opened the doors of the heavens;
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he rained down manna for the people to eat,he gave them the grain of heaven.
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Men ate the bread of angels;he sent them all the food they could eat.
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He let loose the east wind from the heavensand led forth the south wind by his power.
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He rained meat down on them like dust,flying birds like sand on the seashore.
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He made them come down inside their camp,all around their tents.
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They ate till they had more than enough,for he had given them what they craved.
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But before they turned from the food they craved,even while it was still in their mouths,
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God’s anger rose against them;he put to death the sturdiest among them,cutting down the young men of Israel.
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In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
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So he ended their days in futilityand their years in terror.
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Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;they eagerly turned to him again.
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They remembered that God was their Rock,that God Most High was their Redeemer.
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But then they would flatter him with their mouths,lying to him with their tongues;
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their hearts were not loyal to him,they were not faithful to his covenant.
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Yet he was merciful;he forgave their iniquitiesand did not destroy them.Time after time he restrained his angerand did not stir up his full wrath.
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He remembered that they were but flesh,a passing breeze that does not return.
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How often they rebelled against him in the desertand grieved him in the wasteland!
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Again and again they put God to the test;they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
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They did not remember his power—the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
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the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,his wonders in the region of Zoan.
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He turned their rivers to blood;they could not drink from their streams.
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He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,and frogs that devastated them.
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He gave their crops to the grasshopper,their produce to the locust.
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He destroyed their vines with hailand their sycamore-figs with sleet.
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He gave over their cattle to the hail,their livestock to bolts of lightning.
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He unleashed against them his hot anger,his wrath, indignation and hostility—a band of destroying angels.
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He prepared a path for his anger;he did not spare them from deathbut gave them over to the plague.
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He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
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But he brought his people out like a flock;he led them like sheep through the desert.
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He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;but the sea engulfed their enemies.
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Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land,to the hill country his right hand had taken.
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He drove out nations before themand allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
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But they put God to the testand rebelled against the Most High;they did not keep his statutes.
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Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,as unreliable as a faulty bow.
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They angered him with their high places;they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
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When God heard them, he was very angry;he rejected Israel completely.
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He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,the tent he had set up among men.
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He sent the ark of his might into captivity,his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
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He gave his people over to the sword;he was very angry with his inheritance.
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Fire consumed their young men,and their maidens had no wedding songs;
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their priests were put to the sword,and their widows could not weep.
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Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
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He beat back his enemies;he put them to everlasting shame.
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Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
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but he chose the tribe of Judah,Mount Zion, which he loved.
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He built his sanctuary like the heights,like the earth that he established forever.
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He chose David his servantand took him from the sheep pens;
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from tending the sheep he brought himto be the shepherd of his people Jacob,of Israel his inheritance.
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And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;with skillful hands he led them.
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