Psalm 78 Against war.

Updated : Sat 13 Nov 2021 AM (UTC +1)

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Psalm 78
1 Poem. From Asaph. Hear, O my people, my law; listen to the words of my mouth;
2 I open my mouth in parables, I evoke the mysteries of the past.
3 We have heard and known it; our fathers told us;
4 We will not keep it quiet to their children, but to the next generation we will tell the titles of Yahweh and his power, his wonders as he did them;
5 he established a testimony in Jacob; he set a law in Israel; he commanded our fathers to make it known to their children,
6 let the next generation know him, the unborn children. Let them get up, let them tell their children,
7 Let them put their hope in God, let them not forget the mighty deeds of God and his commandments, let them observe them;
8 Let them not be, after the example of their fathers, a generation of rebellion and bravado, a generation which is not sure of heart, and whose spirit is not faithful to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, the archers, turned on the day of the battle;
10 They did not keep the covenant of God, they refused to walk in his law;
11 they had forgotten his deeds, his wonders that he gave them to see
12 Before their fathers he did wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Tanis.
13 He divided the sea, and carried them away; he raised up the waters like a dike;
14 By day he led them with a cloud, and with a light of fire all night long;
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them water to the measure of the great deep;
16 He brought streams out of the rock, and the waters come down in torrential waters.
17 But even more they sinned against him and defied the Most High in the dry place;
18 They tempted God in their hearts, asking to eat their fill.
19 Now they spoke against God; they said, "Is he able, God, to set a table in the wilderness?
20 "Behold, he is striking at the rock, the waters are flowing, the torrents are coming out, but is he able to give bread, or to provide meat for his people?"
21 Then Yahweh heard, he was angry; a fire blazed against Jacob, and then Wrath rose up against Israel,
22 for they had no faith in God, they had no confidence in his salvation.
23 In the clouds above he commanded, he opened the doors of the heavens;
24 to feed them he rained manna, and gave them the wheat of heaven;
25 The bread of the Strong a man nourished himself; he sent them food to their fullness.

26 He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, he caused the south wind to come with his power,
27 He rained down on them meat as dust, and poultry as the sand of the sea,
28 He rained it down in the midst of his camp, all round his house.
29 They ate and were well satisfied; he served them whatever they desired;
30 But they did not come back from their desire, their food still in their mouths,
31 God's wrath came upon them; he slaughtered the strong, and cut down the young men of Israel.
32 But they still sinned, and had no faith in his wonders.
33 He consumed their days in a breath, their years in a panic.
34 When he slaughtered them, they sought him, they returned, they hurried to him.
35 They remembered: God their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer!
36 But they flattered him with their mouth, but with their tongue they lied to him,
37 Their heart was not sure of him, they had no faith in his covenant.
38 But he, in his tenderness, wiped out the wrongs instead of destroying them; he did not grow weary of his wrath, but returned it instead of stirring up all his wrath.
39 He remembered them, that flesh, the breath that goes away and does not return.
40 How often they defied him in the desert, offended him in the wilderness!
41 They returned to tempt God, to afflict the Holy One of Israel
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he saved them from their adversary.
43 He who in Egypt put his signs and wonders on the fields of Tanis
44 He turned their rivers into blood, their streams, that they might not drink.
45 He sent to them horseflies that devoured them, frogs that infested them;
46 He gave their crops to the locust, and their labour to the grasshopper;
47 He destroyed their vineyards with hail and their sycamores with frost;
48 He gave their cattle and their flocks to the lightning with hail.
49 He let loose on them the fire of his wrath, anger and fury and distress, a sending of angels of woe;
50 He made a path for his anger. He did not exempt their souls from death, but gave their lives to the pestilence;
51 He smote every first-born in Egypt, the flower of the race in the tents of Ham.
52 He drove his people like sheep, he led them like a flock through the wilderness;
53 He led them safely; they were not afraid; their enemies were covered by the sea.
54 He brought them to his holy land, the mountain which his right hand had conquered;
55 He drove out the heathen before them; he marked out an inheritance for them; he put the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 They tempted and defied God the Most High, and refused to keep his testimonies;
57 They went astray, they betrayed like their fathers, they turned back like an unfaithful bow;
58 They made him angry with their high places; with their idols they made him jealous.
59 But God heard and was angry, and rejected Israel altogether;
60 He left the house of Shiloh, the tent where he lived among men.
61 He gave up his strength to captivity, his glory into the hands of the enemy;
62 He gave his people over to the sword; he was angry with his heritage.
63 His younger children were burned with fire; his virgins had no wedding song;
64 His priests fell by the sword; his widows made no lamentation.
65 He awoke as one who sleeps, the Lord, as one who is overcome by wine,
66 He struck his enemies on the back, and gave them up to shame for ever.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not elect the tribe of Ephraim;
68 He chose the tribe of Judah, the mountain of Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the land which he founded for ever.
70 He chose David his servant, and brought him out of the sheepfolds,
71 from behind the mother sheep he called him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his heritage;
72 He fed them with a perfect heart, and with a wise hand he guided them.

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