Psalm 78:40-72
The Voice
40 Oh, how often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness
and frustrated Him during their time in the desert!
41 Over and over again, they tested God’s patience
and caused great pain for Israel’s Holy One.
42 They failed to be mindful of His great strength.
They forgot all about the day He saved them from the enemy,
43 When He displayed all sorts of signs and wonders in Egypt,
and all the amazing things He did in the region of Zoan[a]
44 When He transformed their rivers into blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent armies of flies to bite and torment them
and hordes of frogs to ruin and devastate them;
46 He handed over all of their crops to grasshoppers
and the fruit of all their labor to locusts;
47 He sent violent hailstorms, which smashed all their vines,
and ruined their sycamore-fig trees with biting frost.
48 He handed over all of their cattle to the hailstorms as well
and struck all their herds with lightning.
49 He poured His burning wrath upon them—
anger, resentment, and trouble—
sending a company of heavenly warriors to destroy them.
50 He carved out a road for His wrath;
He did not spare any from the sting of death
but handed them over to the fangs of the plague.
51 He killed all the firstborn of Egypt,
the first products of their manhood in the tents of Ham, the Egyptians’ ancestor.
52 But then He guided His people like sheep to safety
and led them like a flock into the desert to freedom;
53 He took them on a safe route so that they would not be afraid,
and He allowed the hungry sea to swallow all of their enemies.
54 He led them to His sacred land—
to this holy hill, which He had won by the power of His right hand.
55 He forced out the other nations which were living there before them,
and He redistributed the lands as an inheritance to His people;
He settled the tribes and families of Israel peaceably in their tents.
56 Even after all this, they disobeyed the Most High God
and tested His patience
and did not live by His commands.
57 Rather, they regressed to their fathers’ ways and lived faithlessly—disloyal traitors!
They were as undependable and untrustworthy as a defective bow,
58 For they triggered His wrath by setting up high places,
altars to strange gods in His land;
they aroused His jealousy by bowing down to idols in the shadow of His presence.
59 God boiled with wrath when He witnessed what they were doing;
He totally rejected Israel.
60 He deserted His own sanctuary at Shiloh,
the tent where He had lived in the midst of His people.
61 He handed His strength over to captivity;
He put His splendor under the enemy’s control.
62 He handed His people over to the sword,
and He was filled with anger toward His chosen ones;
He was burning with wrath!
63 A great fire consumed all the young men,
and the virgin girls were without the joy of their wedding songs.
64 Priests met their doom by the blade of a sword,
and widows had no tears to cry;
they could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke like a man who has been asleep,
like a warrior who has been overcome with wine.
66 He forced all His enemies back;
He defeated them, weighing them down with everlasting disgrace.
67 He even rejected the tent of Joseph as His home
and showed no favor toward the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead, He favored the tribe of Judah—
Mount Zion, the place He adored.
69 He built His sanctuary like the mountain heights;
like the earth, He created it to last forever.
70 He chose His servant David,
and called Him out of the sheep pastures.
71 From caring for the ewes, who gently nurse their young,
He called him to shepherd His people Jacob
and to look after Israel, His inheritance.
72 David shepherded them with the honor and integrity of his heart;
he led them in wisdom with strong and skillful hands.
Footnotes
- 78:43 Hebrew, Avaris
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
