Psalms 78 - Meaning, Themes & Application

Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments,

and might not be as their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

They didn’t keep God’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.

He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

Yes, 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 overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”

Therefore the LORD heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.

Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas.

He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.

So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel.

For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

They remembered that God was their rock, 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 right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,