Psalms 78
78
Psalm 78
Asaph wrote this special song.
God has been good to his people #78:1 This psalm tells about God's people until the time of King David. It tells us that God was good to his people, but they often did not obey him.
1My people, listen to what I am teaching you.
Listen to the words that I speak.
2I will tell you something to make you wise.
Then you will understand
things that happened long ago.
3We have heard about these things
and we know them.
Our ancestors have told them to us,
4and we will not hide them from our children.
We will tell our children and our grandchildren
why they should praise the Lord.
We will tell them about his strength,
and about the great things that he has done.
5He gave his laws to Jacob's descendants,
the Israelite people.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children.
6Then the children would know about them,
even the children still to be born.
When the time came,
they too would tell their children.
7Then their family would trust in God.
They would not forget what God had done.
They would obey his commands.
8So they would not be like their ancestors,
who turned against God.
Those people refused to obey God,
and they did not trust him to be their guide.
9The soldiers of Ephraim had bows and arrows,
but they ran away when the battle started! #78:9 God gave his people everything that they needed, but they still did not trust him. Ephraim was one of Israel's 12 tribes.
10They did not obey the covenant
that God had made with them.
They refused to obey his laws.
11They forgot about what he had done for them.
They forgot the miracles that he had shown them.
12He did miracles for their ancestors to see,
in the region of Egypt that is called Zoan.
13He cut the sea into two separate parts,
and he led them through it.
He made a path between two walls of water. #78:13 God led his people on a dry path through the Red Sea. See Exodus 14:21-22.
14He showed them the way with a cloud in the day
and with light from a fire all night. #78:14 See Exodus 13:21-22.
15He broke rocks into pieces in the wilderness
so that his people had plenty of water.
Springs of water came from deep in the earth.
16He caused streams to pour from the rocks
so that the waters ran like rivers. #78:16 See Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:2-13.
17But his people continued to do bad things against him.
In the wilderness,
they turned against the Most High God.
18They decided to test God,
to see what he would do.
They demanded to have the food that they liked best.
19They spoke against God, and they said,
‘Can God give us food to eat here in the wilderness?
20Yes, water did come out when he hit the rock.
There were streams of water that poured out like a river.
But can he also give us food to eat?
Can he supply meat for his people?’
21When the Lord heard this,
he was very angry.
So he sent fire to punish his people.
He became very angry against the Israelites.
22They did not trust God,
that he had the power to save them.
23So God commanded the clouds high above
to give food to his people.
He caused the skies to open like a door.
24He poured down manna like rain,
so that they could eat grain that came from heaven. #78:24 See Exodus 16:2-15; Numbers 11:4-23.
25In that way, people ate the special bread of angels!
God gave them all the food that they could eat.
26Then God caused a wind to blow from the east.
He used his power to send a south wind too.
27He caused meat to pour down on them,
like dust from the sky.
The birds covered all the ground
like sand on the shore of the sea. #78:27 See Numbers 11:31-35.
28God made the birds fall near the tents
where his people were living.
29They ate as much as they could eat.
Yes, God gave them what they had demanded!
30-31But God became very angry with them,
even before they had finished eating.
While the food was still in their mouths,
he killed the strongest men among them.
Many of the best young Israelite men died.
32Even when this happened,
the people continued to do bad things.
When God had done these miracles,
they still did not trust him to help them.
33So he made their lives end quickly, like a breath.
They became very afraid.
34When God killed some of them,
the other people turned to God.
They were sorry and they prayed to him.
35They remembered that God
was their strong Rock.
They remembered that the Most High God
was their Redeemer.
36But they deceived him with their words.
What they said to him was lies.
37They did not really trust him.
They did not obey the covenant
that he had made with them.
38But God was kind to them,
and he forgave them for their sins.
He did not destroy them.
Many times he was patient,
and he did not become angry with them.
39He remembered that they were weak and human,
like a wind that blows away and does not return.
40When the Israelite people were in the wilderness,
they often turned against God.
That caused God to be very sad.
41Many times they tested God, the Holy One of Israel,
so that he was very upset.
42They forgot about his great power,
and how he rescued them from their enemies.
43He did powerful miracles in Egypt,
in the region of Zoan.
44He caused the Egyptians' rivers to become blood,
so that they could not drink water from them. #78:44 See Exodus 7:17-21.
45He sent large numbers of flies to bite them. #78:45 See Exodus 8:20-24.
He sent frogs that destroyed their land. #78:45 See Exodus 8:1-6.
46He caused locusts to eat their crops,
and everything that grew in their fields. #78:46 See Exodus 10:12-15.
47He destroyed their vines with hail.
He destroyed their fig trees with frost.
48He sent hail to kill their cows.
He sent lightning to kill their other animals. #78:48 See Exodus 9:22-25.
49He was so angry with them,
that he sent terrible things to punish them.
Great trouble came to them,
like an army of his angels that bring death.
50Nothing could stop his anger.
He did not save them from death.
He let bad disease kill them.
51He killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt.
The strongest men of Ham's descendants died. #78:51 See Exodus 12:29.
52But God led his own people safely out of Egypt.
But took them through the wilderness,
like a shepherd leads his sheep. #78:52 See Exodus 13:17-22.
53They were safe with him as their guide,
and they were not afraid.
But their enemies drowned in the sea. #78:53 See Exodus 14:26-28.
54He brought his people to the edge of his holy land.
It was land with the mountain
that he had taken with his power. #78:54 See Exodus 15:17; Joshua 3:14-17.
55He chased away the nations that were living there.
He gave to each tribe their own piece of land,
so that Israel's tribes could live there. #78:55 See Joshua 11:16-23.
56But the Israelites continued to test the Most High God,
and they turned against him.
They did not obey his commands. #78:56 See Judges 2:11-15.
57They turned away from him and they deceived him,
as their ancestors had done.
They were useless,
like a bow that would not shoot straight!
58The places where they worshipped their idols
made God very angry.
59God heard what they were doing,
and he became very angry.
He turned against the Israelite people.
60He went away from his home at Shiloh.
That was the tent where he lived among people. #78:60 See Joshua 18:1.
61He let Israel's enemies take away the Covenant Box,
that showed his power and his glory. #78:61 See 1 Samuel 4:4-22.
62He was so angry with his own people,
he let their enemies kill them in battle.
63Fire killed their young men in war.
There was nobody for the young women to marry.
64Their priests died in battle.
Their widows had no chance to weep.
65Then the Lord woke up,
like someone had woken him from sleep.
He shouted loudly,
like a soldier who has drunk a lot of wine.
66He chased his enemies away.
He caused them to be ashamed for ever.
67He chose not to live among Joseph's descendants.
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah.
He chose Mount Zion,
the place which he loves.
69There he built a temple for himself,
to be like his home in heaven.
He made it to be strong, like the earth itself,
so that it would always be there.
70Also, he chose his servant, David.
He took David away from the fields,
71so that he no longer took care of his father's sheep.
He became like a shepherd,
to lead his people, Jacob's descendants.
He ruled the people that belonged to God,
the Israelite people. #78:71 See 1 Samuel 16:11-12; 2 Samuel 7:8.
72David took care of them with an honest heart.
He was wise in the way that he led them.
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Psalms 78: EASY
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