(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
1
[A [maskil] by Asaph.] Open your ears to my teachings, my people. Turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
2
I will open my mouth to illustrate points. I will explain what has been hidden long ago,
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
3
things that we have heard and known about, things that our parents have told us.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
4
We will not hide them from our children. We will tell the next generation about the LORD's power and great deeds and the miraculous things he has done.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
5
He established written instructions for Jacob's people. He gave his teachings to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
6
so that the next generation would know them. Children yet to be born [would learn them]. They will grow up and tell their children
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
7
to trust God, to remember what he has done, and to obey his commands.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
8
Then they will not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation. Their hearts were not loyal. Their spirits were not faithful to God.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
9
The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows [and arrows], turned [and ran] on the day of battle.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
10
They had not been faithful to God's promise. They refused to follow his teachings.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
11
They forgot what he had done- the miracles that he had shown them.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
12
In front of their ancestors he performed miracles in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
13
He divided the sea and led them through it. He made the waters stand up like a wall.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
14
He guided them by a cloud during the day and by a fiery light throughout the night.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
15
He split rocks in the desert. He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
16
He made streams come out of a rock. He made the water flow like rivers.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
17
They continued to sin against him, to rebel in the desert against the Most High.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
18
They deliberately tested God by demanding the food they craved.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
19
They spoke against God by saying, "Can God prepare a banquet in the desert?
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
20
True, he did strike a rock, and water did gush out, and the streams did overflow. But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?"
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
21
When the LORD heard this, he became furious. His fire burned against Jacob and his anger flared up at Israel
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
22
because they did not believe God or trust him to save them.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
23
In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
24
He rained manna down on them to eat and gave them grain from heaven.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
25
Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones, and God sent them plenty of food.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
26
He made the east wind blow in the heavens and guided the south wind with his might.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
27
He rained meat down on them like dust, birds like the sand on the seashore.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
28
He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling place.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
29
They ate more than enough. He gave them what they wanted,
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
30
but they still wanted more. While the food was still in their mouths,
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
31
the anger of God flared up against them. He killed their strongest men and slaughtered the best young men in Israel.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
32
In spite of all this, they continued to sin, and they no longer believed in his miracles.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
33
He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind. He brought their years to an end in terror.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
34
When he killed [some of] them, [the rest] searched for him. They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for God.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
35
They remembered that God was their rock, that the Most High was their defender.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
36
They flattered him with their mouths and lied to him with their tongues.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
37
Their hearts were not loyal to him. They were not faithful to his promise.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
38
But he is compassionate. He forgave their sin. He did not destroy them. He restrained his anger many times. He did not display all of his fury.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
39
He remembered that they were only flesh and blood, a breeze that blows and does not return.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness! How often they caused him grief in the desert!
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
41
Again and again they tested God, and they pushed the Holy One of Israel to the limit.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
42
They did not remember his power- the day he freed them from their oppressor,
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
43
when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
44
He turned their rivers into blood so that they could not drink from their streams.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
45
He sent a swarm of flies that bit them and frogs that ruined them.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
46
He gave their crops to grasshoppers and their produce to locusts.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
47
He killed their vines with hail and their fig trees with frost.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
48
He let the hail strike their cattle and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
49
He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them. He sent an army of destroying angels.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
50
He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them. He let the plague take their lives.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
51
He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt, the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
52
But he led his own people out like sheep and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
53
He led them safely. They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
54
He brought them into his holy land, to this mountain that his power had won.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
55
He forced nations out of their way and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance. He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
56
They tested God Most High and rebelled against him. They did not obey his written instructions.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
57
They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors. They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
58
They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites. They made him furious because they worshiped idols.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
59
When God heard, he became furious. He completely rejected Israel.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
60
He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh, the tent where he had lived among humans.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
61
He allowed his power to be taken captive and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
62
He let swords kill his people. He was furious with those who belonged to him.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
63
Fire consumed his best young men, so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
64
His priests were cut down with swords. The widows [of his priests] could not even weep [for them].
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
65
Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping, like a warrior sobering up from [too much] wine.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
66
He struck his enemies from behind and disgraced them forever.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
67
He rejected the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
68
but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
69
He built his holy place to be like the high heavens, like the earth which he made to last for a long time.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
70
He chose his servant David. He took him from the sheep pens.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
71
He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob, of Israel, the people who belonged to the LORD.
(GWT)
Psalms
78
:
72
With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd. With skill he guided them.