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God's Guidance of his People in spite of their Unfaithfulness.
Maskil of Asaph. |
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1 Give ear, O my people, to my law:
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
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2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
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3 Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
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4 We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,
And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.
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5 For he established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which he commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
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6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born:
Who should arise and tell them to their children,
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7 That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep his commandments,
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8 And might not be as their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that set not their heart aright,
And whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
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9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
Turned back in the day of battle.
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10 They kept not the covenant of God,
And refused to walk in his law;
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11 And they forgat his doings,
And his wondrous works that he had showed them.
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12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
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13 He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through;
And he made the waters to stand as a heap.
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14 In the day-time also he led them with the cloud,
And all the night with a light of fire.
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15 He clave rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
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16 He brought streams also out of the rock,
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
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17 Yet went they on still to sin against him,
To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
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18 And they tempted God in their heart
By asking food according to their desire.
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19 Yes, they spake against God;
They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
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20 Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out,
And streams overflowed;
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide flesh for his people?
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21 Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob,
And anger also went up against Israel;
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22 Because they believed not in God,
And trusted not in his salvation.
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23 Yet he commanded the skies above,
And opened the doors of heaven;
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24 And he rained down manna upon them to eat,
And gave them food from heaven.
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25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty:
He sent them food to the full
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26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens;
And by his power he guided the south wind.
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27 He rained flesh also upon them as the dust,
And winged birds as the sand of the seas;
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28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their habitations.
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29 So they did eat, and were well filled;
And he gave them their own desire.
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30 They were not estranged from that which they desired,
Their food was yet in their mouths,
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31 When the anger of God went up against them,
And slew of the fattest of them,
And smote down the young men of Israel.
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32 For all this they sinned still,
And believed not in his wondrous works.
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33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,
And their years in terror.
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34 When he slew them, then they inquired after him;
And they returned and sought God earnestly.
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35 And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their redeemer.
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36 But they flattered him with their mouth,
And lied unto him with their tongue.
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37 For their heart was not right with him,
Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
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38 But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:
Yes, many a time turned he his anger away,
And did not stir up all his wrath.
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39 And he remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
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40 How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness,
And grieve him in the desert!
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41 And they turned again and tempted God,
And provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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42 They remembered not his hand,
Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
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43 How he set his signs in Egypt,
And his wonders in the field of Zoan,
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44 And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
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45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
And frogs, which destroyed them.
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46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar,
And their labor unto the locust.
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47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
And their sycomore-trees with frost.
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48 He gave over their cattle also to the hail,
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
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49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,
A band of angels of evil.
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50 He made a path for his anger;
He spared not their soul from death,
But gave their life over to the pestilence,
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51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt,
The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
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52 But he led forth his own people like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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53 And he led them safely, so that they feared not;
But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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54 And he brought them to the border of his Holy,
To this mountain, which his right hand had gotten.
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55 He drove out the nations also before them,
And allotted them for an inheritance by line,
And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
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56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
And kept not his testimonies;
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57 But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers:
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
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58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
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59 When God heard this, he was wroth,
And greatly abhorred Israel;
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60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
The tent which he placed among men;
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61 And delivered his strength into captivity,
And his glory into the adversary's hand.
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62 He gave his people over also unto the sword,
And was wroth with his inheritance.
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63 Fire devoured their young men;
And their virgins had no marriage-song.
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64 Their priests fell by the sword;
And their widows made no lamentation.
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65 Then Jehovah awaked as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
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66 And he smote his adversaries backward:
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
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67 Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
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68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
The mount Zion which he loved.
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69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which he hath established for ever.
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70 He chose David also his servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds:
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71 From following the ewes that have their young he brought him,
To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
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72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. |
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