Psalms 78:14-72
Then He led them with the cloud by day And all the night with a light of fire.He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them plenty to drink like the ocean depths.He brought forth streams from the rock And made waters run down like rivers.Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.And in their heart they put God to the test By asking for food that suited their taste.Then they spoke against God; They said,“ Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He also provide bread? Will He prepare meat for His people?”Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also mounted against Israel,Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation.Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven;He rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven.Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.He made the east wind blow in the sky And by His power He directed the south wind.When He rained meat upon them like the dust, Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,He let them fall in the midst of their camp, All around their dwellings.So they ate and were well filled, And He satisfied their longing.Yet before they had abandoned their longing, While their food was in their mouths,The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their strongest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works.So He brought their days to an end in futility, And their years to an end in sudden terror.When He killed them, then they sought Him, And they returned and searched diligently for God;And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.But they flattered Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue.For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful with His covenant.But He, being compassionate, forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not stir up all His wrath.So He remembered that they were only flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert!Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.They did not remember His power, The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,When He performed His signs in Egypt And His marvels in the field of Zoan,And turned their rivers to blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them, And frogs that destroyed them.He also gave their crops to the grasshopper And the product of their labor to the locust.He destroyed their vines with hailstones And their sycamore trees with frost.He also turned their cattle over to the hailstones, And their herds to bolts of lightning.He sent His burning anger upon them, Fury and indignation and trouble, A band of destroying angels.He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their souls from death, But turned their lives over to the plague,And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The first and best of their vigor in the tents of Ham.But He led His own people out like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies.So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country which His right hand had gained.He also drove out the nations from them And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement, And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies,But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow.For they provoked Him with their high places And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.When God heard them, He was filled with wrath And He utterly rejected Israel;So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He had pitched among people,And He gave up His strength to captivity And His glory into the hand of the enemy.He also turned His people over to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.Fire devoured His young men, And His virgins had no wedding songs.His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, Like a warrior overcome by wine.He drove His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting disgrace.He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has established forever.He also chose His servant David And took him from the sheepfolds;From the care of the ewes with nursing lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance.So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.
Psalms 106:12-48
Then they believed His words; They sang His praise.They quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His plan,But became lustfully greedy in the wilderness, And put God to the test in the desert.So He gave them their request, But sent a wasting disease among them.When they became envious of Moses in the camp, And of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And engulfed the company of Abiram.And a fire blazed up in their company; The flame consumed the wicked.They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped a cast metal image.So they exchanged their glory For the image of an ox that eats grass.They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,Wonders in the land of Ham, And awesome things by the Red Sea.Therefore He said that He would destroy them, If Moses, His chosen one, had not stood in the gap before Him, To turn away His wrath from destroying them.Then they rejected the pleasant land; They did not believe His word,But grumbled in their tents; They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.Therefore He swore to them That He would have them fall in the wilderness,And that He would bring down their descendants among the nations, And scatter them in the lands.They also followed Baal peor, And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.So they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, And a plague broke out among them.Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, And so the plague was brought to a halt.And it was credited to him as righteousness, To all generations forever.They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, So that it went badly for Moses on their account.Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips.They did not destroy the peoples, As the Lord had commanded them,But they got involved with the nations And learned their practices,And served their idols, Which became a snare to them.They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was defiled with the blood.So they became unclean in their practices, And were unfaithful in their deeds.Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people, And He loathed His inheritance.So He handed them over to the nations, And those who hated them ruled over them.Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were subdued under their power.Many times He would rescue them; They, however, were rebellious in their plan, And they sank down into their guilt.Nevertheless He looked at their distress When He heard their cry;And He remembered His covenant for their sake, And relented according to the greatness of His mercy.He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors.Save us, Lord our God, And gather us from the nations, To give thanks to Your holy name And glory in Your praise.Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. And all the people shall say,“ Amen.” Praise the Lord!
