One of Asaph's maskils.[436]
<1> My people, listen to my teachings.
Listen to what I say.
<2> I will tell you a story.
I will tell you about things from the past that are hard to understand.
<3> We heard the story, and we know it well.
Our fathers told this story.
<4> And we will not forget it.
Our people will be telling this story to the last generation.
We will all praise the Lord
and tell about the amazing things he did.
<5> The Lord made an agreement with Jacob.[437]
He gave the Law to Israel.[438]
He gave the commands to our ancestors.[439]
He told our ancestors to teach the Law to their children.
<6> Then as new children are born
and grow to become adults,
they would tell the stories to their children.
Then people would know the Law,
even to the last generation.
<7> Then they would all trust God.
They would not forget what he did
and would carefully obey his commands.
<8> Then they would not be like their ancestors,
who were stubborn and refused to obey God.
They were people who were not devoted to him.
Their hearts were not faithful to God.
<9> The men from Ephraim had their weapons,
but they ran away from the battle.
<10> They didn't keep their agreement with God.
They refused to obey his teachings.
<11> They forgot the great things God did
and the amazing things he showed them.
<12> God showed their fathers
his great power at Zoan in Egypt.
<13> He split the Red Sea
and led the people across.
The water stood like a solid wall
on both sides of them.
<14> Each day God led them with the tall cloud,
and each night he led them with the light from the column of fire.
<15> He split the rocks in the desert
and gave them an ocean of fresh water.
<16> He brought the water
streaming from the rock like a river!
<17> But they continued sinning against him.
They rebelled against God Most High in the desert.
<18> Then they decided to test God.
They asked him for food, just to satisfy their appetites.
<19> They complained about him,
"Can God give us food in the desert?
<20> He hit the rock and a flood of water came out.
But can he give us bread and meat?"
<21> The Lord heard what they said
and became angry with Jacob's people.
He was angry with Israel,
<22> because the people did not trust in him.
They did not believe God could save them.
<23-24> But then God opened the clouds above,
and manna[440] rained down on them for food.
It was as if doors in the sky opened,
and grain poured down from a storehouse in the sky.
<25> People ate the food of angels.
God sent plenty of food to satisfy them.
<26-27> He sent a strong wind from the east,
and quail fell on them like rain.
God made the wind blow from Teman.
There were so many birds that they were like sand on the seashore.
<28> The birds fell in the middle of the camp,
all around their tents.
<29> They ate until they were full.
God had given them what they wanted.
<30> But before they were completely satisfied,
while the food was still in their mouths,
<31> God became angry with them and killed even the strongest of them.
He brought down Israel's best young men.
<32> But the people continued to sin!
They didn't trust in the amazing things God could do.
<33> So God ended their worthless lives;
he brought their years to a close with disaster.
<34> Whenever he killed some of them,
the others would turn back to him.
They would come running back to God.
<35> They would remember that God was their Rock.[441]
They would remember that God Most High saved them.
<36> But they tried to fool him with their words;
they told him lies.
<37> Their hearts were not really with God.
They were not faithful to the agreement he gave them.
<38> But God was merciful.
He forgave them for their sins, and he did not destroy them!
Many times God controlled his anger.
He didn't let himself get too angry.
<39> He remembered they were only people,
and that they were like a wind that blows and then is gone.
<40> Oh, those people caused him
so much trouble in the desert!
They made him so sad!
<41> Again and again they tested his patience.
They really hurt the Holy One of Israel.
<42> They forgot about his power.
They forgot the many times that
he saved them from the enemy.
<43> They forgot the miracles in Egypt,
the miracles in the fields of Zoan.
<44> God turned the rivers to blood!
The Egyptians could not drink the water.
<45> He sent swarms of flies
that bit the people of Egypt.
He sent the frogs
that ruined the Egyptians' lives.
<46> He gave their crops to the grasshoppers
and their other plants to the locusts.
<47> He used hail to destroy their vines,
and he used sleet to destroy their trees.
<48> He killed their animals with hail
and their cattle with lightning.
<49> He showed the Egyptians his anger.
He sent his destroying angels against them.
<50> He found a way to show his anger.
He did not spare their lives.
He let them die with a deadly disease.
<51> He killed all the firstborn[442] sons in Egypt.
He killed every firstborn in Ham's[443] family.
<52> Then he led Israel like a shepherd.
He led his people like sheep into the desert.
<53> He guided his people safely.
His people had nothing to be afraid of.
He drowned their enemies in the Red Sea.
<54> He led his people to his holy land,
to the mountain he took with his power.
<55> He forced the other nations
to leave that land.
God gave each family its share of the land.
He gave each tribe of Israel its home to live in.
<56> But they tested God Most High
and made him very sad.
They didn't obey his commands.
<57> They turned away from God.
They turned against him, as their fathers did.
They changed directions like a boomerang.[444]
<58> They built high places[445] and made God angry.
They built statues of false gods and made God very jealous.
<59> When God heard this, he became very angry,
and he rejected Israel completely!
<60> He abandoned the Holy Tent at Shiloh[446]
where he lived among the people.
<61> He let foreigners capture his "Power."
Enemies took God's "beautiful jewel."[447]
<62> He showed his anger
and let them be killed in war.
<63> The young men were burned to death,
and the girls they were to marry sang no wedding songs.
<64> The priests were killed,
but the widows did not cry for them.
<65> Finally, our Master got up
like a man waking from his sleep,
like a soldier after drinking too much wine.
<66> God forced his enemy back and defeated them.
He defeated his enemies and disgraced them forever.
<67> But God rejected Joseph's family.
He did not accept Ephraim's family.
<68> No, he chose the tribe of Judah
and Zion,[448] the mountain he loves.
<69> He built his holy Temple[449] high on that mountain.
Like the earth, God built his Temple to last forever.
<70> He chose David to be his special servant.
He took him away from the sheep pens,
<71> away from the job of caring for sheep,
and gave him the job of caring for the descendants of Jacob[450]-Israel, his chosen people.
<72> And David led them with a pure heart
and guided them very wisely.
© Copyright 2004 World Bible Translation Center.