Psalm 78:1-43

The Voice

⁵ He gave His holy law to Jacob,
    His teaching to the people of Israel,
Which He instructed our fathers
    to pass down to their children
⁶ So that the coming generation would know them by heart,
    even the children who are not yet born,
So that they might one day stand up and teach them to their children,
⁷     tell them to put their confidence and hope in God,
And never forget the wondrous things He has done.
    They should obey His commandments always
⁸ And avoid following in the footsteps of their parents,
    a hard-headed and rebellious generation—
A generation of uncultivated hearts,
    whose spirits were unfaithful to God.

⁹ The sons of Ephraim were master archers, armed with all the necessary equipment,
    yet when the battle hour arrived, they ran away.
¹⁰ They were not loyal to their covenant with God;
    they turned away and refused to walk in it;
¹¹ They did not remember all the wondrous things He had done,
    even the great miracles He had revealed to them.
¹² He did miraculous things in the presence of their ancestors
    as they made their way out of Egypt, through the fields of Zoan.
¹³ He split the sea and made them pass through it;
    He made the waters to rise, forming a wall of water.
¹⁴ Every day He led them with a cloud;
    every night, with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He cracked open rocks in the wilderness
    and provided them with all the water they needed, as plentiful as the depths of the ocean.
¹⁶ He caused streams to burst forth from the rock,
    waters to rush in like a river.

¹⁷ Even after witnessing all of these miracles, they still chose to sin against God,
    to act against the will of the Most High in the desert!
¹⁸ They tested God in their stubborn hearts
    by demanding whatever food they happened to be craving.
¹⁹ Then they challenged God:
    “Can God fill a table with food in the middle of the desert?
²⁰ He split open the rock, and water gushed out;
    streams and rivers were overflowing!
But can He also provide us with bread?
    Can He supply meat to His sons and daughters?”

²¹ When the Eternal heard these words, He was furious;
    His fiery anger erupted against Jacob;
    His wrath grew against Israel.
²² This all happened because they did not trust God;
    they did not have faith in His power to save them.
²³ Nevertheless, He gave instructions to the clouds in the sky
    and swung open heaven’s doors;
²⁴ He showered them with manna to soothe their hungry bellies
    and provided them with the bread of heaven.
²⁵ (In that day mortals ate the bread of heavenly messengers.)
    God provided them with plenty of food.
²⁶ He stirred up the east wind and blew it through the sky.
    With His might, He whipped the south wind into a storm;
²⁷ Like dust from the sky, He caused meat to fall on them.
    Birds, like sand on the seashore, fell to the earth.
²⁸ They landed all about the camp,
    all around their tents.
²⁹ God’s people feasted on the food-blessings, and their stomachs were filled;
    He gave them exactly what they desired.
³⁰ But before their bellies were soothed,
    while their mouths were still full of food,
³¹ God’s wrath came at them like a tidal wave
    and swallowed some of the bravest, strongest among them
    and quieted the youth of Israel.

³² Even after all this, they continued to sin
    and still did not trust in Him
    or in the incredible things He did.
³³ So He abruptly ended their time; they vanished like a breath;
    He ended their years suddenly, with terror.
³⁴ After He took some of their lives,
    those left turned back and sought God wholeheartedly.
³⁵ After all they had endured, they remembered that God, the Most High,
    was their Rock, their Redeemer,
³⁶ But even then they tried to deceive Him with their words
    and fool Him with a web of lies.
³⁷ They were not consistently faithful to Him,
    and they were untrue to their covenant with Him.
³⁸ Yet by His great compassion,
    He forgave them
    and decided not to put an end to them.
Most of the time, He held back His anger
    and did not unleash His wrath against them.
³⁹ He was mindful that they were human, frail and fleeting,
    like a wind that touches one’s skin for a moment, then vanishes.
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^[b]