Psalm 78

New Century Version

⁵ The Lord made an agreement with Jacob
    and gave the teachings to Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach to their children.
⁶ Then their children would know them,
    even their children not yet born.
    And they would tell their children.
⁷ So they would all trust God
    and would not forget what he had done
    but would obey his commands.
⁸ They would not be like their ancestors
    who were stubborn and disobedient.
Their hearts were not loyal to God,
    and they were not true to him.

⁹ The men of Ephraim had bows for weapons,
    but they ran away on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They didn’t keep their agreement with God
    and refused to live by his teachings.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done
    and the miracles he had shown them.
¹² He did miracles while their ancestors watched,
    in the fields of Zoan in Egypt.
¹³ He divided the Red Sea and led them through.
    He made the water stand up like a wall.
¹⁴ He led them with a cloud by day
    and by the light of a fire by night.
¹⁵ He split the rocks in the desert
    and gave them more than enough water, as if from the deep ocean.
¹⁶ He brought streams out of the rock
    and caused water to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ But the people continued to sin against him;
    in the desert they turned against God Most High.
¹⁸ They decided to test God
    by asking for the food they wanted.
¹⁹ Then they spoke against God,
    saying, “Can God prepare food in the desert?
²⁰ When he hit the rock, water poured out
    and rivers flowed down.
But can he give us bread also?
    Will he provide his people with meat?”
²¹ When the Lord heard them, he was very angry.
    His anger was like fire to the people of Jacob;
    his anger grew against the people of Israel.
²² They had not believed God
    and had not trusted him to save them.
²³ But he gave a command to the clouds above
    and opened the doors of heaven.
²⁴ He rained manna down on them to eat;
    he gave them grain from heaven.
²⁵ So they ate the bread of angels.
    He sent them all the food they could eat.
²⁶ He sent the east wind from heaven
    and led the south wind by his power.
²⁷ He rained meat on them like dust.
    The birds were as many as the sand of the sea.
²⁸ He made the birds fall inside the camp,
    all around the tents.
²⁹ So the people ate and became very full.
    God had given them what they wanted.
³⁰ While they were still eating,
    and while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ God became angry with them.
    He killed some of the healthiest of them;
    he struck down the best young men of Israel.

³² But they kept on sinning;
    they did not believe even with the miracles.
³³ So he ended their days without meaning
    and their years in terror.
³⁴ Anytime he killed them, they would look to him for help;
    they would come back to God and follow him.
³⁵ They would remember that God was their Rock,
    that God Most High had saved them.
³⁶ But their words were false,
    and their tongues lied to him.
³⁷ Their hearts were not really loyal to God;
    they did not keep his agreement.
³⁸ Still God was merciful.
    He forgave their sins
    and did not destroy them.
Many times he held back his anger
    and did not stir up all his anger.
³⁹ He remembered that they were only human,
    like a wind that blows and does not come back.

⁴⁰ They turned against God so often in the desert
    and grieved him there.
⁴¹ Again and again they tested God
    and brought pain to the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember his power
    or the time he saved them from the enemy.
⁴³ They forgot the signs he did in Egypt
    and his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood
    so no one could drink the water.
⁴⁵ He sent flies that bit the people.
    He sent frogs that destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to grasshoppers
    and what they worked for to locusts.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamore trees with sleet.
⁴⁸ He killed their animals with hail
    and their cattle with lightning.
⁴⁹ He showed them his hot anger.
    He sent his strong anger against them,
    his destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He found a way to show his anger.
    He did not keep them from dying
    but let them die by a terrible disease.
⁵¹ God killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt,
    the oldest son of each family of Ham.^[a]
52 But God led his people out like sheep
    and he guided them like a flock through the desert.
⁵³ He led them to safety so they had nothing to fear,
    but their enemies drowned in the sea.
⁵⁴ So God brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain country he took with his own power.
⁵⁵ He forced out the other nations,
    and he had his people inherit the land.
    He let the tribes of Israel settle there in tents.

⁵⁶ But they tested God
    and turned against God Most High;
    they did not keep his rules.
⁵⁷ They turned away and were disloyal just like their ancestors.
    They were like a crooked bow that does not shoot straight.
⁵⁸ They made God angry by building places to worship gods;
    they made him jealous with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard them, he became very angry
    and rejected the people of Israel completely.
⁶⁰ He left his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the Tent where he lived among the people.
⁶¹ He let the Ark, his power, be captured;
    he let the Ark, his glory, be taken by enemies.
⁶² He let his people be killed;
    he was very angry with his children.
⁶³ The young men died by fire,
    and the young women had no one to marry.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
    but their widows were not allowed to cry.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord got up as if he had been asleep;
    he awoke like a man who had been drunk with wine.
⁶⁶ He struck down his enemies
    and disgraced them forever.
⁶⁷ But God rejected the family of Joseph;
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah
    and Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ And he built his Temple high like the mountains.
    Like the earth, he built it to last forever.
⁷⁰ He chose David to be his servant
    and took him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹ He brought him from tending the sheep
    so he could lead the flock, the people of Jacob,
    his own people, the people of Israel.
⁷² And David led them with an innocent heart
    and guided them with skillful hands.