(A special psalm by Asaph.)
What God Has Done for His People
1 My friends, I beg you
to listen as I teach.
2 I will give instruction
and explain the mystery
of what happened long ago.
3 These are things we learned
from our ancestors,
4 and we will tell them
to the next generation.
We won't keep secret
the glorious deeds
and the mighty miracles
of the Lord.
5 God gave his Law
to Jacob's descendants,
the people of Israel.
And he told our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so that each new generation
would know his Law
and tell it to the next.
7 Then they would trust God
and obey his teachings,
without forgetting anything
God had done.
8 They would be different
from their ancestors,
who were stubborn, rebellious,
and unfaithful to God.
9 The warriors from Ephraim
were armed with arrows,
but they ran away
when the battle began.
10 They broke their agreement
with God,
and they turned their backs
on his teaching.
11 They forgot all he had done,
even the mighty miracles
12 he did for their ancestors
near Zoan in Egypt.
13 God made a path in the sea
and piled up the water
as he led them across.
14 He guided them during the day
with a cloud,
and each night he led them
with a flaming fire.
15 God made water flow
from rocks he split open
in the desert,
and his people drank freely,
as though from a lake.
16 He made streams gush out
like rivers from rocks.
17 But in the desert,
the people of God Most High
kept sinning and rebelling.
18 They stubbornly tested God
and demanded from him
what they wanted to eat.
19 They challenged God by saying,
“Can God provide food
out here in the desert?
20 It's true God struck the rock
and water gushed out
like a river,
but can he give his people
bread and meat?”
21 When the Lord heard this,
he was angry and furious
with Jacob's descendants,
the people of Israel.
22 They had refused to trust him,
and they had doubted
his saving power.
23 But God gave a command
to the clouds,
and he opened the doors
in the skies.
24 From heaven he sent grain
that they called manna.
25 He gave them more than enough,
and each one of them ate
this special food.
26 God's mighty power
sent a strong wind
from the southeast,
27 and it brought birds
that covered the ground,
like sand on the beach.
28 Then God made the birds fall
in the camp of his people
near their tents.
29 God gave his people
all they wanted,
and each of them ate
until they were full.
30 But before they had swallowed
the last bite,
31 God became angry and killed
the strongest and best
from the families of Israel.
32 But the rest kept on sinning
and would not trust
God's miracles.
33 So he cut their lives short
and made them terrified.
34 After he killed some of them,
the others turned to him
with all their hearts.
35 They remembered God Most High,
the mighty rock
that kept them safe.
36 But they tried to flatter God,
and they told him lies;
37 they were unfaithful
and broke their promises.
38 Yet God was kind.
He kept forgiving their sins
and didn't destroy them.
He often became angry,
but never lost his temper.
39 God remembered that they
were made of flesh
and were like a wind
that blows once
and then dies down.
40 While they were in the desert,
they often rebelled
and made God sad.
41 They kept testing him
and caused terrible pain
for the Holy One of Israel.
42 They forgot about his power
and how he had rescued them
from their enemies.
43 God showed them all kinds
of wonderful miracles
near Zoan in Egypt.
44 He turned the rivers of Egypt
into blood,
and no one could drink
from the streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies
to pester the Egyptians,
and he sent frogs
to cause them trouble.
46 God let worms and grasshoppers
eat their crops.
47 He destroyed their grapevines
and their fig trees
with hail and floods.
48 Then he killed their cattle
with hail
and their other animals
with lightning.
49 God was so angry and furious
that he went into a rage
and caused them great trouble
by sending swarms
of destroying angels.
50 God released his anger
and slaughtered them
in a terrible way.
51 He killed the first-born son
of each Egyptian family.
52 Then God led his people
out of Egypt
and guided them in the desert
like a flock of sheep.
53 He led them safely along,
and they were not afraid,
but their enemies drowned
in the sea.
54 God brought his people
to the sacred mountain
that he had taken
by his own power.
55 He made nations run
from the tribes of Israel,
and he let the tribes
take over their land.
56 But the people tested
God Most High,
and they refused
to obey his laws.
57 They were as unfaithful
as their ancestors,
and they were as crooked
as a twisted arrow.
58 God demanded all their love,
but they made him angry
by worshiping idols.
59 So God became furious
and completely rejected
the people of Israel.
60 Then he deserted his home
at Shiloh, where he lived
here on earth.
61 He let enemies capture
the sacred chest
and let them dishonor him.
62 God took out his anger
on his chosen ones
and let them be killed
by enemy swords.
63 Fire destroyed the young men,
and the young women were left
with no one to marry.
64 Priests died violent deaths,
but their widows
were not allowed to mourn.
65 Finally the Lord woke up,
like a soldier
startled from a drunken sleep.
66 God scattered his enemies
and made them ashamed
forever.
67 Then the Lord decided
not to make his home
with Joseph's descendants
in Ephraim.
68 Instead he chose the tribe
of Judah,
and he chose Mount Zion,
the place he loves.
69 There he built his temple
as lofty as the mountains
and as solid as the earth
he made to last forever.
70 The Lord God chose David
to be his servant and took him
from tending sheep
71 and from caring for lambs.
Then God made him the leader
of Israel, his own nation.
72 David treated the people fairly
and guided them with wisdom.
1 A Psalme to give instruction committed to Asaph. Heare my doctrine, O my people: incline your eares vnto the wordes of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of olde. 3 Which we haue heard and knowen, and our fathers haue tolde vs. 4 Wee will not hide them from their children but to the generation to come we wil shewe the praises of the Lord his power also, and his wonderful woorkes that he hath done: 5 How he established a testimonie in Iaakob, and ordeined a Law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they shoulde teache their children: 6 That the posteritie might knowe it, and the children, which should be borne, should stand vp, and declare it to their children: 7 That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the workes of God but keepe his commandements: 8 And not to bee as their fathers, a disobedient and rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirite was not faithfull vnto God. 9 The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bowe, turned backe in the day of battell. 10 They kept not the couenant of God, but refused to walke in his Lawe, 11 And forgate his Actes, and his wonderfull woorkes that he had shewed them. 12 Hee did marueilous thinges in the sight of their fathers in the lande of Egypt: euen in the fielde of Zoan. 13 He deuided the Sea, and led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heape. 14 In the day time also hee led them with a cloude, and all the night with a light of fire. 15 He claue the rockes in the wildernes, and gaue them drinke as of the great depths. 16 He brought floods also out of the stonie rocke; so that hee made the waters to descend like the riuers. 17 Yet they sinned stil against him, and prouoked the Highest in the wildernesse, 18 And tempted God in their heartes in requiring meate for their lust. 19 They spake against God also, saying, Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse? 20 Behold, he smote the rocke, that the water gushed out, and the streames ouerflowed: can hee giue bread also? or prepare flesh for his people? 21 Therefore the Lord heard and was angrie, and the fire was kindled in Iaakob, and also wrath came vpon Israel, 22 Because they beleeued not in God, and trusted not in his helpe. 23 Yet he had comanded the clouds aboue, and had opened the doores of heauen, 24 And had rained downe MAN vpon them for to eate, and had giuen them of the wheate of heauen. 25 Man did eate the bread of Angels: hee sent them meate ynough. 26 He caused the Eastwinde to passe in the heauen, and through his power he brought in the Southwinde. 27 Hee rained flesh also vpon them as dust, and feathered foule as the sand of the sea. 28 And hee made it fall in the middes of their campe euen round about their habitations. 29 So they did eate and were well filled: for he gaue them their desire. 30 They were not turned from their lust, but the meate was yet in their mouthes, 31 When the wrath of God came euen vpon them, and slew the strongest of them, and smote downe the chosen men in Israel. 32 For all this, they sinned stil, and beleeued not his wonderous woorkes. 33 Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily. 34 And when hee slewe them, they sought him and they returned, and sought God earely. 35 And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer. 36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue. 37 For their heart was not vpright with him: neither were they faithfull in his couenant. 38 Yet he being merciful forgaue their iniquitie, and destroied them not, but oft times called backe his anger, and did not stirre vp all his wrath. 39 For he remembered that they were flesh: yea, a winde that passeth and commeth not againe. 40 How oft did they prouoke him in the wildernes? and grieue him in the desert? 41 Yea, they returned, and tempted God, and limited the Holie one of Israel. 42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he deliuered them from the enemie, 43 Nor him that set his signes in Egypt, and his wonders in the fielde of Zoan, 44 And turned their riuers into blood, and their floods, that they could not drinke. 45 Hee sent a swarme of flies among them, which deuoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He gaue also their fruites vnto the caterpiller, and their labour vnto the grassehopper. 47 He destroied their vines with haile, and their wilde figge trees with the hailestone. 48 He gaue their cattell also to the haile, and their flockes to the thunderboltes. 49 Hee cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger, indignation and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of euill Angels. 50 He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soule from death, but gaue their life to the pestilence, 51 And smote al the firstborne in Egypt, euen the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham. 52 But hee made his people to goe out like sheepe, and led them in the wildernes like a flocke. 53 Yea, he caried them out safely, and they feared not, and the Sea couered their enemies. 54 And he brought them vnto the borders of his Sanctuarie: euen to this Mountaine, which his right hand purchased. 55 He cast out the heathe also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles. 56 Yet they tempted, and prouoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies, 57 But turned backe and delt falsely like their fathers: they turned like a deceitfull bowe. 58 And they prouoked him to anger with their high places, and mooued him to wrath with their grauen images. 59 God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel, 60 So that hee forsooke the habitation of Shilo, euen the Tabernacle where hee dwelt among men, 61 And deliuered his power into captiuitie, and his beautie into the enemies hand. 62 And hee gaue vp his people to the sworde, and was angrie with his inheritance. 63 The fire deuoured their chosen men, and their maides were not praised. 64 Their Priestes fell by the sworde, and their widowes lamented not. 65 But the Lord awaked as one out of sleepe, and as a strong man that after his wine crieth out, 66 And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetuall shame. 67 Yet he refused the tabernacle of Ioseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: 68 But chose the tribe of Iudah, and mount Zion which he loued. 69 And he built his Sanctuarie as an high palace, like the earth, which he stablished for euer. 70 He chose Dauid also his seruant, and tooke him from the shepefolds. 71 Euen from behinde the ewes with yong brought he him to feede his people in Iaakob, and his inheritance in Israel. 72 So he fed them according to the simplicitie of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.