Psalms 78-80

Psalm 78

¹Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old:

³Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

⁶That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children:

⁷That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

⁸And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

¹¹And they forgat his doings, and his wondrous works that he had shewed them.

¹²Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

¹⁴In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet went they on still to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

¹⁹Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can he give bread also? will he provide flesh for his people?

²¹Therefore the LORD heard, and was wroth: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;

²²Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;

²⁴And he rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven.

²⁵Man did eat the bread of the mighty: he sent them meat to the full.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas:

²⁸And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

²⁹So they did eat, and were well filled; and he gave them that they lusted after.

³⁰They were not estranged from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,

³¹When the anger of God went up against them, and slew of the fattest of them, and smote down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they sinned still, and believed not in his wondrous works.

³³Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴When he slew them, then they inquired after him: and they returned and sought God early.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹And he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

⁴⁰How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹And they turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary.

⁴³How he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan;

⁴⁴And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

⁵¹And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham:

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³And he led them safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵He drove out the nations also before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and kept not his testimonies;

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the adversary’s hand.

⁶²He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men; and their maidens had no marriage-song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶And he smote his adversaries backward: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹From following the ewes that give suck he brought him, to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷²So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

Psalm 79

¹A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

²The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

³Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

⁴We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

⁵How long, O LORD, wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

⁶Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name.

⁷For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation.

⁸Remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

⁹Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.

¹⁰Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed be known among the heathen in our sight.

¹¹Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to death;

¹²And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

¹³So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.

Psalm 80

¹For the Chief Musician; set to Shoshannim Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that sittest upon the cherubim, shine forth.

²Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy might, and come to save us.

³Turn us again, O God; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

⁴O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

⁵Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.

⁶Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.

⁷Turn us again, O God of hosts; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

⁸Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt: thou didst drive out the nations, and plantedst it.

⁹Thou preparedst room before it, and it took deep root, and filled the land.

¹⁰The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like cedars of God.

¹¹She sent out her branches unto the sea, and her shoots unto the River.

¹²Why hast thou broken down her fences, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?

¹³The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, and the wild beasts of the field feed on it.

¹⁴Turn again, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine,

¹⁵And the stock which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.

¹⁶It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

¹⁷Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

¹⁸So shall we not go back from thee: quicken thou us, and we will call upon thy name,

¹⁹Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts; cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.