Old/New Testament
Remember the Wonders
Psalm 77
1 For the music director, on Jeduthun: a psalm of Asaph.
2 My voice to God—and I cried out,
my voice to God—and He heard me!
3 In the day of my trouble I seek my Lord.
At night my hand stretches out untiringly.
My soul refuses to be comforted.
4 I remember God and I moan.
I muse, and my spirit grows faint. Selah
5 You hold my eyelids open—
I am so troubled—I cannot speak.
6 I ponder the days of old,
the years long ago.
7 In the night I remember my song.
I meditate with my heart
and my spirit is searching.
8 “Will the Lord reject forever
and never again show favor?
9 Has His mercy vanished forever?
Has His promise come to an end forever?
10 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Or has He in anger withdrawn his mercies?” Selah
11 Then I said: “It wounds me—
that the right hand of Elyon has changed.”
12 I will remember the deeds of Adonai.
Yes, I will muse about Your wonders of old.
13 I will meditate also on all Your work
and consider Your deeds.”
14 O God, Your way is holy.
What god is great like God?
15 You are the God who works wonders.
You have made Your power known among the peoples.
16 With your arm You redeemed Your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
17 The waters saw You, O God,
the waters saw You and writhed,
even the depths shook.
18 The clouds poured out water,
the skies resounded,
Your arrows flashed back and forth.
19 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth trembled and shook.
20 Your way was in the sea,
and Your path in the mighty waters,
but Your footprints were not seen.
21 You led Your people like a flock,
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Israel from Moses to David
Psalm 78
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Listen, my people, to my teaching.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable.
I will utter perplexing sayings from of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the next generation the praises of Adonai
and His strength and the wonders He has done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob
and ordained Torah in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers to teach their children,
6 so that the next generation might know,
even the children yet to be born:
they will arise and tell their children.
7 Then they will put their trust in God,
not forgetting the works of God,
but keeping His mitzvot.
8 So they will not be like their fathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not prepare its heart,
whose spirit was not loyal to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim were archers armed with bows,
yet they turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to walk in His Torah.
11 They forgot His deeds
and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 He did miracles in front of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and led them through,
and He made the water stand like a wall.
14 By day He led them with a cloud
and all night with a light of fire.
15 He split apart rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
16 So He brought streams out of a rock,
and made waters flow down like rivers.[a]
17 Yet they added more sinning against Him,
rebelling against Elyon in the desert.
18 They put God to the test in their heart
by demanding food for their craving.
19 Then they spoke against God, saying,
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20 See, He struck the rock,
waters gushed out, streams overflowed.
But can He give bread?
Will He provide meat for His people?”
21 When Adonai heard, He was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
and fury also rose against Israel.
22 For they did not believe in God
or trust in His salvation.
23 Yet He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and rained down manna upon them to eat,
and gave them grain of heaven.[b]
25 Man did eat the bread of angels.
He sent them abundant provision.
26 He loosed the east wind in the skies,
and by His power He drove the south wind.
27 He rained meat upon them like dust,
and winged fowl like sand of the seas.
28 And He let it fall amidst their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were very full—
for He gave them their desire.
30 No longer a stranger from their desire,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them
and slew the stoutest of them,
and struck down young men of Israel.
32 Despite all this they sinned still more,
and did not trust in His wonders.
33 So He ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 But when He slew them,
then they sought Him, and turned back,
and desired God eagerly.
35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock
and El Elyon their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth
and kept lying to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
nor were they faithful to His covenant.
38 But He is compassionate,
forgives iniquity and does not destroy.
Yes, many times He restrains His anger,
and does not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they are but flesh,
a passing breath that never returns.
40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness,
and grieved Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested God,
and pained the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His hand—
the day He redeemed them from the foe,
43 when He displayed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the plain of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent on them flies to devour them,
and frogs to devastate them,
46 and gave their crops to the grasshopper,
and their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore trees with frost,
48 and gave over their cattle to the hail,
and their flocks to fiery bolts.
49 He sent on them the fury of His anger
—wrath and indignation and trouble—
a band of evil angels.
50 He cleared a path for His anger.
He spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But He brought His people out like sheep,
and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them to safety, so they did not fear,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 Then He brought them to His holy territory,
to the mountain His right hand had gotten.
55 He drove out nations before them,
and allotted them an inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against El Elyon,
and did not keep His decrees.
57 Like their fathers they turned and were treacherous.
They turned aside like a faulty bow.
58 For they provoked Him
with their high places,
so they aroused His jealousy
with their graven images.
59 God heard and was furious,
and He greatly detested Israel.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent He pitched among men.
61 He gave up His strength into captivity,
and His glory into the adversary’s hand.
62 He gave His people over to the sword,
when He was angry at His inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
and their virgins had no wedding songs.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior shaking off wine.
66 He beat back His foes,
putting them to lasting scorn.
67 Then He detested Joseph’s tent
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead 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 also chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds,
71 from following nursing ewes.
He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people,
and Israel His inheritance.
72 So He shepherded them with the integrity of His heart,
and led them with His skillful hands.
Misdirected Zeal
10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have zeal for God—but not based on knowledge. 3 For being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Messiah is the goal[a] of the Torah as a means to righteousness for everyone who keeps trusting.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on Torah, “The man who does these things shall live by them.” [b] 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks in this way:
“Do not say in your heart,[c]
‘Who will go up into heaven?’[d]
(that is, to bring Messiah down),
7 or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’[e]
(that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead).”
8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart”[f]
—that is, the word of faith
that we are proclaiming:
9 For if you confess with your mouth
that Yeshua is Lord,
and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.
10 For with the heart it is believed for righteousness,
and with the mouth it is confessed for salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever trusts in Him will not be put to shame.” [g] 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all—richly generous to all who call on Him. 13 For “Everyone who calls upon the name of Adonai shall be saved.”[h]
14 How then shall they call on the One in whom they have not trusted? And how shall they trust in the One they have not heard of? And how shall they hear without someone proclaiming? 15 And how shall they proclaim unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!” [i] 16 But not all heeded the Good News. For Isaiah says, “Adonai, who has believed our report?” [j] 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Messiah.
18 But I say, have they never heard? Indeed they have, for
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”[k]
19 But I say, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
“I will provoke you to jealousy
by those who are not a nation,
with a nation empty of understanding
I will vex you.”[l]
20 And Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I became visible to those who did not ask for Me.”[m]
21 But about Israel He says,
“All day long I stretched forth My hands
to a disobedient and contrary people.”[n]
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.