Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 78
A contemplative song[a] of Asaph.
1 O my people, listen to me!
Hear my instruction; soak up every word of what I am about to tell you.
2 I will open my mouth in parables;
I will speak of ancient mysteries—
3 Things that we have heard about, things that we have known,
things which our ancestors declared to us again and again.
4 We will not keep these things secret from their children;
rather, we will tell the coming generation
All about the praise that is due to the Eternal One.
We will tell them all about His strength, power, and wonders.
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.
13 That evening, quail flew in and covered the camp; and when morning arrived, what seemed to be ordinary dew was all around the camp.
14 But when the dew evaporated, it left behind a thin, mysterious, flaky substance that looked like frost on top of the dry desert ground. 15 The people of Israel went out to examine it. They had never seen anything quite like it.
Israelites (to one another): What is it?
The people didn’t have a clue what this strange substance was.
Moses: It is the bread which the Eternal has given you to eat. 16 Here are His instructions: “Gather only as much of it as you should eat by yourself. Pick up two quarts[a] of bread for each person who lives in your tent.”
17 The Israelites did as they were told. Some people gathered a lot, others gathered less. 18 When they used a two-quart jar to measure it, the one who had gathered a lot didn’t have more than he needed; and the one who gathered less had just what he needed.[b] Miraculously, each person and each family—regardless of how much they gathered—had exactly what they needed.
Moses (continuing God’s instructions): 19 Don’t try to keep any of it until the morning. Either eat it all, or throw it away.
20 But some people ignored Moses and tried to keep some of it until the next morning. Overnight it became wormy and started to have a dreadful smell. Moses became furious with them because they had disobeyed God’s instructions.
21 Every morning the people went out and gathered it—each family took only what it needed. By the time the sun became hot, it had melted away. 22 On the sixth day the people went out and gathered, but they came back with twice as much as usual—four quarts per person. All the leaders of the community thought they needed to tell Moses what had happened.
Moses (to the leaders): 23 Listen to what the Eternal commanded: Tomorrow, the seventh day, is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath dedicated to Him. Bake or boil whatever you need for today’s meals. Whatever is left over, keep it to eat tomorrow. It won’t spoil.
God wants His people to keep the Sabbath as a special day and to depend on Him—not their own efforts—to supply all they need.
24 So the people stored some of it until the next morning, just as Moses had instructed. None of it spoiled, nor did it have any worms.
Moses: 25 Eat what is left over today, because today is a Sabbath to the Eternal, a day of rest. You will not find any of it in the field today. 26 You are to gather it for six days, but on the seventh day (the Sabbath), none of it will be on the ground.
19 I can hear one of you asking, “Then how can He blame us if He is the one in complete control? How can we do anything He has not chosen for us?” 20 Here’s my answer: Who are you, a mere human, to argue with God? If God takes the time to shape us from the dust, is it right to point a finger at Him and ask, “Why have You made me this way?” 21 Doesn’t the potter have the right to shape the clay in any way he chooses? Can’t he make one lump into an elegant vase, and another into a common jug? Absolutely. 22 Even though God desires to demonstrate His anger and to reveal His power, He has shown tremendous restraint toward those vessels of wrath that are doomed to be cracked and shattered. 23 And why is that? To make the wealth of His glory known to vessels of mercy that are prepared for great beauty. 24 These vessels of mercy include all of us. God has invited Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders; it makes no difference. 25 The prophet Hosea says:
I will give a new name to those who are not My people; I’ll call them “My people,”
and to the one who has not been loved, I’ll rename her “beloved.”[a]
26 And it shall turn out that in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,”
they will be called “children of the living God.”[b]
27 And this is what Isaiah cries out when he speaks of Israel, “Even though the number of the children of Israel had once been like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of My people will be rescued and remain. 28 For the Lord will waste no time in carrying out every detail of His sentence upon the earth.”[c] 29 It is as Isaiah predicts:
Except for the fraction of us who hang on by the grace of the Lord, Commander of heavenly armies,
we’d be destroyed and deserted like Sodom
and Gomorrah, utterly done in.[d]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.