- The Psalmist in Psalm 78 spells out awesome majesty and power of God in the old days when He shepherd the Israelis on from Egypt to the promised land.
- An amazing testimony and understanding of God; despite all these miracles, they are still stubborn and rebellious;
- Who can made water stand firm like a wall? vs 13;
- They made God very angry
Psalms 78:1-35
[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 would put their trust in God and not forget what he has done, but always obey his commandments.
[8]They would 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 round 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.