Bo El Par'oh 5762-Psalms

78 A maskil of Asaph.
Give ear, my people, to my teaching,
turn your ear to what I say.
²I will expound a theme,
hold forth on the lessons of the past,
³things we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
⁴We will not withhold them from their children,
telling the coming generation
the praises of the Lord and His might,
and the wonders He performed.
⁵He established a decree in Jacob,
ordained a teaching in Israel,
charging our fathers
to make them known to their children,
⁶that a future generation might know
—children yet to be born—
and in turn tell their children
⁷that they might put their confidence in God,
and not forget God’s great deeds,
but observe His commandments,
⁸and not be like their fathers,
a wayward and defiant generation,
a generation whose heart was inconstant,
whose spirit was not true to God.
⁹Like the Ephraimite bowmen
who played false in the day of battle,
¹⁰they did not keep God’s covenant,
they refused to follow His instruction;
¹¹they forgot His deeds
and the wonders that He showed them.
¹²He performed marvels in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan.
¹³He split the sea and took them through it;
He made the waters stand like a wall.
¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day,
and throughout the night by the light of fire.
¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as if from the great deep.
¹⁶He brought forth streams from a rock
and made them flow down like a river.
¹⁷But they went on sinning against Him,
defying the Most High in the parched land.
¹⁸To test God was in their mind
when they demanded food for themselves.
¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,
"Can God spread a feast in the wilderness?
²⁰True, He struck the rock and waters flowed,
streams gushed forth;
but can He provide bread?
Can He supply His people with meat?"
²¹The Lord heard and He raged;
fire broke out against Jacob,
anger flared up at Israel,
²²because they did not put their trust in God,
did not rely on His deliverance.
²³So He commanded the skies above,
He opened the doors of heaven
²⁴and rained manna upon them for food,
giving them heavenly grain.
²⁵Each man ate a hero’s meal;
He sent them provision in plenty.
²⁶He set the east wind moving in heaven,
and drove the south wind by His might.
²⁷He rained meat on them like dust,
winged birds like the sands of the sea,
²⁸making them come down inside His camp,
around His dwelling-place.
²⁹They ate till they were sated;
He gave them what they craved.
³⁰They had not yet wearied of what they craved,
the food was still in their mouths
³¹when God’s anger flared up at them.
He slew their sturdiest,
struck down the youth of Israel.
³²Nonetheless, they went on sinning
and had no faith in His wonders.
³³He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden death.
³⁴When He struck them, they turned to Him
and sought God once again.
³⁵They remembered that God was their rock,
God Most High, their Redeemer.
³⁶Yet they deceived Him with their speech,
lied to Him with their words;
³⁷their hearts were inconstant toward Him;
they were untrue to His covenant.
³⁸But He, being merciful, forgave iniquity
and would not destroy;
He restrained His wrath time and again
and did not give full vent to His fury;
³⁹for He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breath that does not return.
⁴⁰How often did they defy Him in the wilderness,
did they grieve Him in the wasteland!
⁴¹Again and again they tested God,
vexed the Holy One of Israel.
⁴²They did not remember His strength,
or the day He redeemed them from the foe;
⁴³how He displayed His signs in Egypt,
His wonders in the plain of Zoan.
⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood;
He made their waters undrinkable.
⁴⁵He inflicted upon them swarms of insects to devour them,
frogs to destroy them.
⁴⁶He gave their crops over to grubs,
their produce to locusts.
⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail,
their sycamores with frost.
⁴⁸He gave their beasts over to hail,
their cattle to lightning bolts.
⁴⁹He inflicted His burning anger upon them,
wrath, indignation, trouble,
a band of deadly messengers.
⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger;
He did not stop short of slaying them,
but gave them over to pestilence.
⁵¹He struck every first-born in Egypt,
the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
⁵²He set His people moving like sheep,
drove them like a flock in the wilderness.
⁵³He led them in safety; they were unafraid;
as for their enemies, the sea covered them.
⁵⁴He brought them to His holy realm,
the mountain His right hand had acquired.
⁵⁵He expelled nations before them,
settled the tribes of Israel in their tents,
allotting them their portion by the line.
⁵⁶Yet they defiantly tested God Most High,
and did not observe His decrees.
⁵⁷They fell away, disloyal like their fathers;
they played false like a treacherous bow.
⁵⁸They vexed Him with their high places;
they incensed Him with their idols.
⁵⁹God heard it and was enraged;
He utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent He had set among men.
⁶¹He let His might go into captivity,
His glory into the hands of the foe.
⁶²He gave His people over to the sword;
He was enraged at His very own.
⁶³Fire consumed their young men,
and their maidens remained unwed.
⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
⁶⁵The Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a warrior shaking off wine.
⁶⁶He beat back His foes,
dealing them lasting disgrace.
⁶⁷He rejected the clan of Joseph;
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸He did choose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.
⁶⁹He built His Sanctuary like the heavens,
like the earth that He established forever.
⁷⁰He chose David, His servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds.
⁷¹He brought him from minding the nursing ewes
to tend His people Jacob, Israel, His very own.
⁷²He tended them with blameless heart;
with skillful hands he led them.

105 Praise the Lord;
call on His name;
proclaim His deeds among the peoples.
²Sing praises to Him;
speak of all His wondrous acts.
³Exult in His holy name;
let all who seek the Lord rejoice.
⁴Turn to the Lord, to His might;
seek His presence constantly.
⁵Remember the wonders He has done,
His portents and the judgments He has pronounced,
⁶O offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O descendants of Jacob, His chosen ones.
⁷He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are throughout the earth.
⁸He is ever mindful of His covenant,
the promise He gave for a thousand generations,
⁹that He made with Abraham,
swore to Isaac,
¹⁰and confirmed in a decree for Jacob,
for Israel, as an eternal covenant,
¹¹saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan
as your allotted heritage."
¹²They were then few in number,
a mere handful, sojourning there,
¹³wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
¹⁴He allowed no one to oppress them;
He reproved kings on their account,
¹⁵"Do not touch My anointed ones;
do not harm My prophets."
¹⁶He called down a famine on the land,
destroyed every staff of bread.
¹⁷He sent ahead of them a man,
Joseph, sold into slavery.
¹⁸His feet were subjected to fetters;
an iron collar was put on his neck.
¹⁹Until his prediction came true
the decree of the Lord purged him.
²⁰The king sent to have him freed;
the ruler of nations released him.
²¹He made him the lord of his household,
empowered him over all his possessions,
²²to discipline his princes at will,
to teach his elders wisdom.
²³Then Israel came to Egypt;
Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
²⁴He made His people very fruitful,
more numerous than their foes.
²⁵He changed their heart to hate His people,
to plot against His servants.
²⁶He sent His servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom He had chosen.
²⁷They performed His signs among them,
His wonders, against the land of Ham.
²⁸He sent darkness; it was very dark;
did they not defy His word?
²⁹He turned their waters into blood
and killed their fish.
³⁰Their land teemed with frogs,
even the rooms of their king.
³¹Swarms of insects came at His command,
lice, throughout their country.
³²He gave them hail for rain,
and flaming fire in their land.
³³He struck their vines and fig trees,
broke down the trees of their country.
³⁴Locusts came at His command,
grasshoppers without number.
³⁵They devoured every green thing in the land;
they consumed the produce of the soil.
³⁶He struck down every first-born in the land,
the first fruit of their vigor.
³⁷He led Israel out with silver and gold;
none among their tribes faltered.
³⁸Egypt rejoiced when they left,
for dread of Israel had fallen upon them.
³⁹He spread a cloud for a cover,
and fire to light up the night.
⁴⁰They asked and He brought them quail,
and satisfied them with food from heaven.
⁴¹He opened a rock so that water gushed forth;
it flowed as a stream in the parched land.
⁴²Mindful of His sacred promise
to His servant Abraham,
⁴³He led His people out in gladness,
His chosen ones with joyous song.
⁴⁴He gave them the lands of nations;
they inherited the wealth of peoples,
⁴⁵that they might keep His laws
and observe His teachings.
Hallelujah.

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