Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 78
Lessons from Israel’s Past
A Maskil of Asaph.(A)
1 My people, hear my instruction;
listen to what I say.(B)
2 I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past(C)—
3 things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us.(D)
4 We must not hide them from their children,
but must tell a future generation
the praises of the Lord,
His might, and the wonderful works
He has performed.(E)
52 He led His people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.(A)
53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.(B)
54 He brought them to His holy land,
to the mountain His right hand acquired.(C)
55 He drove out nations before them.(D)
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.(E)
56 But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep His decrees.(F)
57 They treacherously turned away like their fathers;
they became warped like a faulty bow.(G)
58 They enraged Him with their high places
and provoked His jealousy with their carved images.(H)
59 God heard and became furious;
He completely rejected Israel.(I)
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where He resided among men.[a](J)
61 He gave up His strength[b] to captivity
and His splendor to the hand of a foe.(K)
62 He surrendered His people to the sword
because He was enraged with His heritage.(L)
63 Fire consumed His chosen young men,
and His young women had no wedding songs.[c](M)
64 His priests fell by the sword,
but the[d] widows could not lament.[e](N)
65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.(O)
66 He beat back His foes;
He gave them lasting shame.(P)
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.(Q)
69 He built His sanctuary like the heights,[f]
like the earth that He established forever.(R)
70 He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;(S)
71 He brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over His people Jacob—
over Israel, His inheritance.(T)
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.(U)
13 So at evening quail(A) came and covered the camp. In the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew evaporated, there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was.
Moses told them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.(B) 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat. You may take two quarts[a] per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’”
17 So the Israelites did this. Some gathered a lot, some a little. 18 When they measured it by quarts,[b] the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat.(C) 19 Moses said to them, “No one is to let any of it remain until morning.” 20 But they didn’t listen to Moses; some people left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and smelled. Therefore Moses was angry with them.
21 They gathered it every morning. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat, but when the sun grew hot, it melted. 22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, four quarts[c] apiece, and all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He told them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath(D) to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, and set aside everything left over to be kept until morning.’”
24 So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or have any maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find any in the field. 26 For six days you may gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
19 You will say to me,(A) therefore, “Why then does He still find fault?(B) For who can resist His will?”(C) 20 But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?(D) Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”(E) 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay,(F) to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? 22 And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience(G) objects of wrath ready for destruction?(H) 23 And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory(I) on objects of mercy(J) that He prepared beforehand for glory(K)— 24 on us, the ones He also called,(L) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?(M) 25 As He also says in Hosea:
I will call Not My People, My People,
and she who is Unloved, Beloved.(N)[a]
26 And it will be in the place where they were told,
you are not My people,
there they will be called sons of the living God.(O)[b]
27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
Though the number of Israel’s sons
is like the sand of the sea,(P)
only the remnant will be saved;(Q)
28 for the Lord will execute His sentence
completely and decisively on the earth.[c](R)[d]
29 And just as Isaiah predicted:
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