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Psalm 77

For the director of music. For Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm.

 ² When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
       at night I stretched out untiring hands
       and my soul refused to be comforted.

 ³ I remembered you, O God, and I groaned;
       I mused, and my spirit grew faint.
       Selah

 ⁴ You kept my eyes from closing;
       I was too troubled to speak.

 ⁵ I thought about the former days,
       the years of long ago;

 ⁶ I remembered my songs in the night.
       My heart mused and my spirit inquired:

 ⁷ "Will the Lord reject forever?
       Will he never show his favor again?

 ⁸ Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
       Has his promise failed for all time?

 ⁹ Has God forgotten to be merciful?
       Has he in anger withheld his compassion?"
       Selah

 ¹⁰ Then I thought, "To this I will appeal:
       the years of the right hand of the Most High."

 ¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
       yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

 ¹² I will meditate on all your works
       and consider all your mighty deeds.

 ¹³ Your ways, O God, are holy.
       What god is so great as our God?

 ¹⁴ You are the God who performs miracles;
       you display your power among the peoples.

 ¹⁵ With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
       the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
       Selah

 ¹⁶ The waters saw you, O God,
       the waters saw you and writhed;
       the very depths were convulsed.

 ¹⁷ The clouds poured down water,
       the skies resounded with thunder;
       your arrows flashed back and forth.

 ¹⁸ Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
       your lightning lit up the world;
       the earth trembled and quaked.

 ¹⁹ Your path led through the sea,
       your way through the mighty waters,
       though your footprints were not seen.

 ²⁰ You led your people like a flock
       by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph. ^[a]

 ² I will open my mouth in parables,
       I will utter hidden things, things from of old-

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

 ⁴ We will not hide them from their children;
       we will tell the next generation
       the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
       his power, and the wonders he has done.

 ⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob
       and established the law in Israel,
       which he commanded our forefathers
       to teach their children,

 ⁶ so the next generation would know them,
       even the children yet to be born,
       and they in turn would tell their children.

 ⁷ Then they would put their trust in God
       and would not forget his deeds
       but would keep his commands.

 ⁸ They would not be like their forefathers—
       a stubborn and rebellious generation,
       whose hearts were not loyal to God,
       whose spirits were not faithful to him.

 ⁹ The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
       turned back on the day of battle;

 ¹⁰ they did not keep God's covenant
       and refused to live by his law.

 ¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
       the wonders he had shown them.

 ¹² He did miracles in the sight of their fathers
       in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

 ¹³ He divided the sea and led them through;
       he made the water stand firm like a wall.

 ¹⁴ He guided them with the cloud by day
       and with light from the fire all night.

 ¹⁵ He split the rocks in the desert
       and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

 ¹⁶ he brought streams out of a rocky crag
       and made water flow down like rivers.

 ¹⁷ But they continued to sin against him,
       rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

 ¹⁸ They willfully put God to the test
       by demanding the food they craved.

 ¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying,
       "Can God spread a table in the desert?

 ²⁰ When he struck the rock, water gushed out,
       and streams flowed abundantly.
       But can he also give us food?
       Can he supply meat for his people?"

 ²¹ When the LORD heard them, he was very angry;
       his fire broke out against Jacob,
       and his wrath rose against Israel,

 ²² for they did not believe in God
       or trust in his deliverance.

 ²³ Yet he gave a command to the skies above
       and opened the doors of the heavens;

 ²⁴ he rained down manna for the people to eat,
       he gave them the grain of heaven.

 ²⁵ Men ate the bread of angels;
       he sent them all the food they could eat.

 ²⁶ He let loose the east wind from the heavens
       and led forth the south wind by his power.

 ²⁷ He rained meat down on them like dust,
       flying birds like sand on the seashore.

 ²⁸ He made them come down inside their camp,
       all around their tents.

 ²⁹ They ate till they had more than enough,
       for he had given them what they craved.

 ³⁰ But before they turned from the food they craved,
       even while it was still in their mouths,

 ³¹ God's anger rose against them;
       he put to death the sturdiest among them,
       cutting down the young men of Israel.

 ³² In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
       in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

 ³³ So he ended their days in futility
       and their years in terror.

 ³⁴ Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
       they eagerly turned to him again.

 ³⁵ They remembered that God was their Rock,
       that God Most High was their Redeemer.

 ³⁶ But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
       lying to him with their tongues;

 ³⁷ their hearts were not loyal to him,
       they were not faithful to his covenant.

 ³⁸ Yet he was merciful;
       he forgave their iniquities
       and did not destroy them.
       Time after time he restrained his anger
       and did not stir up his full wrath.

 ³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
       a passing breeze that does not return.

 ⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the desert
       and grieved him in the wasteland!

 ⁴¹ Again and again they put God to the test;
       they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

 ⁴² They did not remember his power—
       the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

 ⁴³ the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
       his wonders in the region of Zoan.

 ⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood;
       they could not drink from their streams.

 ⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
       and frogs that devastated them.

 ⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
       their produce to the locust.

 ⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail
       and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

 ⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail,
       their livestock to bolts of lightning.

 ⁴⁹ He unleashed against them his hot anger,
       his wrath, indignation and hostility—
       a band of destroying angels.

 ⁵⁰ He prepared a path for his anger;
       he did not spare them from death
       but gave them over to the plague.

 ⁵¹ He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
       the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

 ⁵² But he brought his people out like a flock;
       he led them like sheep through the desert.

 ⁵³ He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
       but the sea engulfed their enemies.

 ⁵⁴ Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land,
       to the hill country his right hand had taken.

 ⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them
       and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
       he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

 ⁵⁶ But they put God to the test
       and rebelled against the Most High;
       they did not keep his statutes.

 ⁵⁷ Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,
       as unreliable as a faulty bow.

 ⁵⁸ They angered him with their high places;
       they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

 ⁵⁹ When God heard them, he was very angry;
       he rejected Israel completely.

 ⁶⁰ He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
       the tent he had set up among men.

 ⁶¹ He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
       his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

 ⁶² He gave his people over to the sword;
       he was very angry with his inheritance.

 ⁶³ Fire consumed their young men,
       and their maidens had no wedding songs;

 ⁶⁴ their priests were put to the sword,
       and their widows could not weep.

 ⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
       as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.

 ⁶⁶ He beat back his enemies;
       he put them to everlasting shame.

 ⁶⁷ Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
       he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

 ⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,
       Mount Zion, which he loved.

 ⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights,
       like the earth that he established forever.

 ⁷⁰ He chose David his servant
       and took him from the sheep pens;

 ⁷¹ from tending the sheep he brought him
       to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
       of Israel his inheritance.

 ⁷² And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
       with skillful hands he led them.

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Romans 10

 ¹Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ²For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. ⁴Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

 ⁵Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them."^{[a] 6}But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'^[b]" (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'^[c]" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,"^[d] that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ¹¹As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."^{[e] 12}For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."^[f]

 ¹⁴How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"^[g]

 ¹⁶But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"^{[h] 17}Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. ¹⁸But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
   "Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
      their words to the ends of the world."^{[i] 19}Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,
   "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
      I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."^{[j] 20}And Isaiah boldly says,
   "I was found by those who did not seek me;
      I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."^{[k] 21}But concerning Israel he says,
   "All day long I have held out my hands
      to a disobedient and obstinate people."^[l]