Listen, My People

A wisdom psalm of Asaph.

A long teaching poem, told so children will learn our Father's works: Egypt, the split sea, manna, quail, rebellion and forgetting, over and over — met each time by mercy that restrained anger. It ends where the retelling was headed, with Zion and David.

Chapter 78.

Listen, my people, to my teaching; turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour out riddles from ancient days, ^a things we have heard and known, which our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but will tell the next generation the praises of our Father, his might, and the wonders he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet to be born, and rise up and tell them to their children, so that they would set their hope in our Father and not forget his works, but keep his commandments, and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to our Father.

The Ephraimites, armed and carrying the bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of our Father and refused to live by his law. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. Before their fathers' eyes he did marvels, in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. ^b He divided the sea and led them through; he made the waters stand up like a wall. He led them with a cloud by day and all night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the deep. He brought streams out of the crag and made water flow down like rivers.

But they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High, our Father, in the dry land. They tested our Father in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against our Father, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? True, he struck the rock and water gushed out, and streams overflowed. But can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?" Therefore, when our Father heard, he was furious; fire blazed against Jacob, and his anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in our Father or trust in his salvation. Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; he rained down manna for them to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Mortals ate the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance. He let loose the east wind in the heavens and drove the south wind by his power. He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; he made them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their tents. They ate their fill, for he gave them what they craved. But before they had turned from their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of our Father rose against them; he killed the strongest among them and struck down the young men of Israel.

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he ended their days in futility and their years in sudden terror. When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and earnestly sought our Father. They remembered that our Father was their rock, the Most High their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to him, nor were they faithful to his covenant. Yet he, full of compassion, atoned for their sin and did not destroy them. Time and again he restrained his anger and did not unleash all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breath that does not return.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland! Again and again they tested our Father and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power, the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, when he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. He turned their rivers to blood, and they could not drink from their streams. He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. He gave their crops to the caterpillar, their harvest to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with frost. He gave their cattle over to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. He unleashed against them his burning anger—wrath, indignation, and trouble—a band of destroying angels. He cleared a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death but gave their lives over to the plague. He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham. ^c But he led out his own people like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness. He led them safely, so they were unafraid, but the sea engulfed their enemies. He brought them to his holy border, to the mountain his right hand had won. He drove out nations before them, apportioned their inheritance by line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

Yet they tested and rebelled against our Father, the Most High, and did not keep his statutes. They turned back and were faithless like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. They angered him with their high places and roused his jealousy with their idols. ^d When our Father heard, he was furious and utterly rejected Israel. He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among mankind. He gave his strength into captivity, his splendor into enemy hands. He gave his people over to the sword and was furious with his inheritance. Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no wedding song. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.

Then the Sovereign Father awoke as from sleep, like a warrior roused from wine. He beat back his enemies and put them to everlasting shame. He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth he established forever. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the nursing sheep he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. And he shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands. ^e

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Psalms 78

Listen, My People

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