Psalm 78 - Good News Translation (GNT)

God and His People^[a]

78 Listen, my people, to my teaching,
and pay attention to what I say.
^{2 (A)}I am going to use wise sayings
and explain mysteries from the past,
³ things we have heard and known,
things that our ancestors told us.
⁴ We will not keep them from our children;
we will tell the next generation
about the Lord's power and his great deeds
and the wonderful things he has done.

⁵ He gave laws to the people of Israel
and commandments to the descendants of Jacob.
He instructed our ancestors
to teach his laws to their children,
⁶ so that the next generation might learn them
and in turn should tell their children.
⁷ In this way they also will put their trust in God
and not forget what he has done,
but always obey his commandments.
⁸ They will not be like their ancestors,
a rebellious and disobedient people,
whose trust in God was never firm
and who did not remain faithful to him.

⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with bows and arrows,
ran away on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep their covenant with God;
they refused to obey his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
the miracles they had seen him perform.
^{12 (B)}While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles
in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
^{13 (C)}He divided the sea and took them through it;
he made the waters stand like walls.
^{14 (D)}By day he led them with a cloud
and all night long with the light of a fire.
¹⁵ He split rocks open in the desert
and gave them water from the depths.
^{16 (E)}He caused a stream to come out of the rock
and made water flow like a river.

¹⁷ But they continued to sin against God,
and in the desert they rebelled against the Most High.
^{18 (F)}They deliberately put God to the test
by demanding the food they wanted.
¹⁹ They spoke against God and said,
“Can God supply food in the desert?
²⁰ It is true that he struck the rock,
and water flowed out in a torrent;
but can he also provide us with bread
and give his people meat?”

²¹ And so the Lord was angry when he heard them;
he attacked his people with fire,
and his anger against them grew,
²² because they had no faith in him
and did not believe that he would save them.
²³ But he spoke to the sky above
and commanded its doors to open;
^{24 (G)}he gave them grain from heaven,
by sending down manna for them to eat.
²⁵ So they ate the food of angels,
and God gave them all they wanted.
²⁶ He also caused the east wind to blow,
and by his power he stirred up the south wind;
²⁷ and to his people he sent down birds,
as many as the grains of sand on the shore;
²⁸ they fell in the middle of the camp
all around the tents.
²⁹ So the people ate and were satisfied;
God gave them what they wanted.
³⁰ But they had not yet satisfied their craving
and were still eating,
³¹ when God became angry with them
and killed their strongest men,
the best young men of Israel.

³² In spite of all this the people kept sinning;
in spite of his miracles they did not trust him.
³³ So he ended their days like a breath
and their lives with sudden disaster.
³⁴ Whenever he killed some of them,
the rest would turn to him;
they would repent and pray earnestly to him.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their protector,
that the Almighty came to their aid.
³⁶ But their words were all lies;
nothing they said was sincere.
^{37 (H)}They were not loyal to him;
they were not faithful to their covenant with him.

³⁸ But God was merciful to his people.
He forgave their sin
and did not destroy them.
Many times he held back his anger
and restrained his fury.
³⁹ He remembered that they were only mortal beings,
like a wind that blows by and is gone.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the desert;
how many times they made him sad!
⁴¹ Again and again they put God to the test
and brought pain to the Holy God of Israel.
⁴² They forgot his great power
and the day when he saved them from their enemies
⁴³ and performed his mighty acts and miracles
in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
^{44 (I)}He turned the rivers into blood,
and the Egyptians had no water to drink.
^{45 (J)}He sent flies among them, that tormented them,
and frogs that ruined their land.
^{46 (K)}He sent locusts to eat their crops
and to destroy their fields.
^{47 (L)}He killed their grapevines with hail
and their fig trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He killed their cattle with hail
and their flocks with lightning.^[b]
49 He caused them great distress
by pouring out his anger and fierce rage,
which came as messengers of death.
⁵⁰ He did not restrain his anger
or spare their lives,
but killed them with a plague.
^{51 (M)}He killed the first-born sons
of all the families of Egypt.

^{52 (N)}Then he led his people out like a shepherd
and guided them through the desert.
^{53 (O)}He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea came rolling over their enemies.
^{54 (P)}He brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains which he himself conquered.
^{55 (Q)}He drove out the inhabitants as his people advanced;
he divided their land among the tribes of Israel
and gave their homes to his people.

^{56 (R)}But they rebelled against Almighty God
and put him to the test.
They did not obey his commandments,
⁵⁷ but were rebellious and disloyal like their ancestors,
unreliable as a crooked arrow.
⁵⁸ They angered him with their heathen places of worship,
and with their idols they made him furious.
⁵⁹ God was angry when he saw it,
so he rejected his people completely.
^{60 (S)}He abandoned his tent in Shiloh,^[c]
the home where he had lived among us.
^{61 (T)}He allowed our enemies to capture the Covenant Box,
the symbol of his power and glory.
⁶² He was angry with his own people
and let them be killed by their enemies.
⁶³ Young men were killed in war,
and young women had no one to marry.
⁶⁴ Priests died by violence,
and their widows were not allowed to mourn.

⁶⁵ At last the Lord woke up as though from sleep;
he was like a strong man excited by wine.
⁶⁶ He drove his enemies back
in lasting and shameful defeat.
⁶⁷ But he rejected the descendants of Joseph;
he did not select the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ Instead he chose the tribe of Judah
and Mount Zion, which he dearly loves.
⁶⁹ There he built his Temple
like his home in heaven;
he made it firm like the earth itself,
secure for all time.

^{70 (U)}He chose his servant David;
he took him from the pastures,
⁷¹ where he looked after his flocks,
and he made him king of Israel,
the shepherd of the people of God.
⁷² David took care of them with unselfish devotion
and led them with skill.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 78:1 HEBREW TITLE: A poem by Asaph.
2. Psalm 78:48 hail … lightning; or terrible disease … deadly plague.
3. Psalm 78:60 The central place of worship for the people of Israel before the time of King David.

Cross references

1. Psalm 78:2 : Matt 13:35
2. Psalm 78:12 : Exod 7:8-Exod 12:32
3. Psalm 78:13 : Exod 14:21; Exod 14:22
4. Psalm 78:14 : Exod 13:21; Exod 13:22
5. Psalm 78:16 : Wis 16:1-Wis 19:22; . Ps 78:16; Exo 17.1_ -7; Num 20:2-Num 20:13
6. Psalm 78:18 : Exod 16:2-Exod 16:15; Num 11:4-Num 11:23; Num 11:31-Num 11:35
7. Psalm 78:24 : Wis 16:20-Wis 16:29; John 6:31
8. Psalm 78:37 : Acts 8:21
9. Psalm 78:44 : Exod 7:17-Exod 7:21
10. Psalm 78:45 : Exod 8:20-Exod 8:24; Ps 78:45; Exod 8:1-Exod 8:6
11. Psalm 78:46 : Exod 10:12-Exod 10:15
12. Psalm 78:47 : Exod 9:22-Exod 9:25
13. Psalm 78:51 : Exod 12:29
14. Psalm 78:52 : Exod 13:17-Exod 13:22
15. Psalm 78:53 : Exod 14:26-Exod 14:28
16. Psalm 78:54 : Exod 15:17; Jas 3:14-Jas 3:17
17. Psalm 78:55 : Josh 11:16-Josh 11:23
18. Psalm 78:56 : Judg 2:11-Judg 2:15
19. Psalm 78:60 : Josh 18:1; Jer 7:12-Jer 7:14; Ps 26:6
20. Psalm 78:61 : 1Sam 4:4-1Sam 4:22
21. Psalm 78:70 : 1Sam 16:11; 1Sam 16:12; 2Sam 7:8; 1Chr 17:7