God and His People
1 Listen, my people, to my teaching,
and pay attention to what I say.
2 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 While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles
in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.
13 He divided the sea and took them through it;
he made the waters stand like walls.
14 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 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 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 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 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 He turned the rivers into blood,
and the Egyptians had no water to drink.
45 He sent flies among them, that tormented them,
and frogs that ruined their land.
46 He sent locusts to eat their crops
and to destroy their fields.
47 He killed their grapevines with hail
and their fig trees with frost.
48 He killed their cattle with hail
and their flocks with lightning.
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 He killed the first-born sons
of all the families of Egypt.
52 Then he led his people out like a shepherd
and guided them through the desert.
53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea came rolling over their enemies.
54 He brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains which he himself conquered.
55 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 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 He abandoned his tent in Shiloh,
the home where he had lived among us.
61 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 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.
1 A Psalme to give instruction committed to Asaph. Heare my doctrine, O my people: incline your eares vnto the wordes of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of olde. 3 Which we haue heard and knowen, and our fathers haue tolde vs. 4 Wee will not hide them from their children but to the generation to come we wil shewe the praises of the Lord his power also, and his wonderful woorkes that he hath done: 5 How he established a testimonie in Iaakob, and ordeined a Law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they shoulde teache their children: 6 That the posteritie might knowe it, and the children, which should be borne, should stand vp, and declare it to their children: 7 That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the workes of God but keepe his commandements: 8 And not to bee as their fathers, a disobedient and rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirite was not faithfull vnto God. 9 The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bowe, turned backe in the day of battell. 10 They kept not the couenant of God, but refused to walke in his Lawe, 11 And forgate his Actes, and his wonderfull woorkes that he had shewed them. 12 Hee did marueilous thinges in the sight of their fathers in the lande of Egypt: euen in the fielde of Zoan. 13 He deuided the Sea, and led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heape. 14 In the day time also hee led them with a cloude, and all the night with a light of fire. 15 He claue the rockes in the wildernes, and gaue them drinke as of the great depths. 16 He brought floods also out of the stonie rocke; so that hee made the waters to descend like the riuers. 17 Yet they sinned stil against him, and prouoked the Highest in the wildernesse, 18 And tempted God in their heartes in requiring meate for their lust. 19 They spake against God also, saying, Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse? 20 Behold, he smote the rocke, that the water gushed out, and the streames ouerflowed: can hee giue bread also? or prepare flesh for his people? 21 Therefore the Lord heard and was angrie, and the fire was kindled in Iaakob, and also wrath came vpon Israel, 22 Because they beleeued not in God, and trusted not in his helpe. 23 Yet he had comanded the clouds aboue, and had opened the doores of heauen, 24 And had rained downe MAN vpon them for to eate, and had giuen them of the wheate of heauen. 25 Man did eate the bread of Angels: hee sent them meate ynough. 26 He caused the Eastwinde to passe in the heauen, and through his power he brought in the Southwinde. 27 Hee rained flesh also vpon them as dust, and feathered foule as the sand of the sea. 28 And hee made it fall in the middes of their campe euen round about their habitations. 29 So they did eate and were well filled: for he gaue them their desire. 30 They were not turned from their lust, but the meate was yet in their mouthes, 31 When the wrath of God came euen vpon them, and slew the strongest of them, and smote downe the chosen men in Israel. 32 For all this, they sinned stil, and beleeued not his wonderous woorkes. 33 Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily. 34 And when hee slewe them, they sought him and they returned, and sought God earely. 35 And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer. 36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue. 37 For their heart was not vpright with him: neither were they faithfull in his couenant. 38 Yet he being merciful forgaue their iniquitie, and destroied them not, but oft times called backe his anger, and did not stirre vp all his wrath. 39 For he remembered that they were flesh: yea, a winde that passeth and commeth not againe. 40 How oft did they prouoke him in the wildernes? and grieue him in the desert? 41 Yea, they returned, and tempted God, and limited the Holie one of Israel. 42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he deliuered them from the enemie, 43 Nor him that set his signes in Egypt, and his wonders in the fielde of Zoan, 44 And turned their riuers into blood, and their floods, that they could not drinke. 45 Hee sent a swarme of flies among them, which deuoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He gaue also their fruites vnto the caterpiller, and their labour vnto the grassehopper. 47 He destroied their vines with haile, and their wilde figge trees with the hailestone. 48 He gaue their cattell also to the haile, and their flockes to the thunderboltes. 49 Hee cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger, indignation and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of euill Angels. 50 He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soule from death, but gaue their life to the pestilence, 51 And smote al the firstborne in Egypt, euen the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham. 52 But hee made his people to goe out like sheepe, and led them in the wildernes like a flocke. 53 Yea, he caried them out safely, and they feared not, and the Sea couered their enemies. 54 And he brought them vnto the borders of his Sanctuarie: euen to this Mountaine, which his right hand purchased. 55 He cast out the heathe also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles. 56 Yet they tempted, and prouoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies, 57 But turned backe and delt falsely like their fathers: they turned like a deceitfull bowe. 58 And they prouoked him to anger with their high places, and mooued him to wrath with their grauen images. 59 God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel, 60 So that hee forsooke the habitation of Shilo, euen the Tabernacle where hee dwelt among men, 61 And deliuered his power into captiuitie, and his beautie into the enemies hand. 62 And hee gaue vp his people to the sworde, and was angrie with his inheritance. 63 The fire deuoured their chosen men, and their maides were not praised. 64 Their Priestes fell by the sworde, and their widowes lamented not. 65 But the Lord awaked as one out of sleepe, and as a strong man that after his wine crieth out, 66 And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetuall shame. 67 Yet he refused the tabernacle of Ioseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: 68 But chose the tribe of Iudah, and mount Zion which he loued. 69 And he built his Sanctuarie as an high palace, like the earth, which he stablished for euer. 70 He chose Dauid also his seruant, and tooke him from the shepefolds. 71 Euen from behinde the ewes with yong brought he him to feede his people in Iaakob, and his inheritance in Israel. 72 So he fed them according to the simplicitie of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.