Psalm 78

Words: The Psalter of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, 1887 ed.

Common Metre Tunes

   1  Attend, my people, to my law:
         Thereto give thou an ear,
      The words that from my mouth proceed
         Attentively to hear.
   2  My mouth shall speak a parable,
         And sayings dark of old;
      The same which we have heard and known,
         E'vn as our fathers told.
   3  We will not from their children hide
         The wonders done by thee;
      To generations yet to come
         These things declare will we.
   4  The praises of the Lord our God,
         And his almighty strength,
      The wondrous works that he hath done,
         We will show forth at length.
   5  His testimony and his law
         In Isr'el did he place,
      And charged our fathers it to show
         To their succeeding race;
   6  That so the race which was to come
         These things might learn and know;
      And sons unborn, who should arise,
         Might to their sons them show:
   7  That they might set their hope in God,
         And suffer not to fall
      His mighty works out of their mind,
         But keep his precepts all:
   8  And might not, like their fathers, be
         A stiff rebellions race;
      A race not right in heart; with God
         Whose spirit faithless was.
   9  The sons of Ephraim, who not bows
         Nor other arms did lack,
      When as the day of battle was,
         Yet faintly turn�d back.
  10  They broke God's cov'nant, and refused
         In his commands to go;
      His works and wonders they forgot,
         Which he to them did show.
  11  Things marvelous he brought to pass;
         Their fathers them beheld
      Within the land of Egypt done,
         Yea, even Zoan's field.
  12  By him divided was the sea,
         He led them through the flood;
      The waters on each side he raised,
         Till as a heap they stood.
  13  With cloud by day, with light of fire
         All night he did them guide.
      In desert, rocks he cleft, and drink,
         As from great depths, supplied.
  14  He also from the rock brought streams,
         Like floods made waters run.
      Yet, sinning more, in desert they
         Provoked the highest One.
  15  For in their heart they tempted God,
         And, speaking with mistrust,
      They greedily did meat require
         To satisfy their lust.
  16  Against the Lord himself they spoke,
         And, murmuring, said thus,
      "A table in the wilderness
         Can God prepare for us?
  17  Behold, he smote the rock, and thence
         Came streams and waters great;
      But can he give his people bread,
         And send them flesh to eat?"
  18  Jehovah heard, his wrath arose:
         Then kindled was a flame
      On Jacob, and on Israel
         His indignation came.
  19  For they believed not God, nor trust
         In his salvation had;
      Though clouds above he did command,
         And heaven's doors open made,
  20  And manna rained on them, and gave
         Them corn of heav'n to eat.
      Man angel's food did eat; to them
         He to the full sent meat.
  21  He in the heaven also caused
         An eastern wind to blow;
      And by his power he let out
         The southern wind to go.
  22  Then flesh he rained on them like dust
         Which cannot numbered be;
      And feathered fowls in numbers vast
         Like sands along the sea.
  23  At his command, amid their camp,
         The flesh in showers fell;
      On every side it fell about
         The tents where they did dwell
  24  So they did eat abundantly,
         And had of meat their fill;
      For he did give to them what was
         Their own desire and will.
  25  They from their lust had not estranged
         Their heart and their desire;
      But while the meat was in their mouths,
         Which they did so require,
  26  God's wrath upon them Camp and slew
         The fattest of them all;
      And so the choice of Israel,
         O'erthrown by death, did fall.
  27  Yet after all the Lord had done,
         They still went on in sin;
      Nor did believe, although his works
         So Wonderful had been.
  28  He therefore did in vanity
         Their days consume and waste;
      And by his wrath their wretched years
         Away in trouble passed.
  29  But when he slew them, then they did
         To seek him show desire;
      Yea, they returned, and after God
         Did earnestly inquire.
  30  And that the Lord had been their Rock
         They did remember then;
      And that the high almighty God
         Had their Redeemer been.
  31  Yet with their mouth they flattered him,
         And with their tongues they lied;
      Their heart was not sincere: they from
         His cov'nant turned aside.
  32  But, full of pity, he forgave
         Their sin, nor did them slay;
      Nor stirred up all his wrath, but now
         His anger turned away.
  33  For that they were but fading flesh
         To mind he did recall;
      A wind that passeth soon away
         And ne'er returns at all.
  34  How often in the wilderness
         Did they provoke his wrath!
      How often grieve him, as they marched
         Along their desert path!
  35  Yea, turning back, they tempt the Lord,
         And boldly limits place
      About the High and Holy One
         The God of Isr'el's race.
  36  And they remembered not his hand,
         Nor yet the noted day
      When he redeemed them from the foe
         Who sought them for his prey.
  37  Nor how great signs in Egypt land
         He openly had wrought;
      What miracles in Zoan's field
         His band to pass had brought.
  38  How he their rivers and their lakes
         Turned everywhere to blood;
      That neither man nor beast could drink
         Of standing lake or flood.
  39  Devouring flies, of divers sorts,
         The Lord among them brought;
      And swarms of frogs o'er all the land,
         Which great destruction wrought.
  40  He to the caterpillar gave
         The fruits of all their soil;
      He gave the labors of their hands
         To be the locust's spoil.
  41  Their vines with hail, their sycamores
         He with the frost did blast:
      Their beasts to hail he gave; their flocks
         Hot thunderbolts did waste.
  42  He cast upon them anger fierce;
         To burning wrath gave vent;
      In indignation troubled them
         By evil angels sent.
  43  He did not spare their soul from death,
         But for his wrath made way;
      And to the fearful pestilence
         He gave their life a prey.
  44  And over Egypt's land he smote
         Their first-born, and their pride,
      Till everywhere in tents of Ham
         Their chief of strength had died.
  45  But forth from thence like sheep he brought
         His own, his chosen band,
      And led his people like a flock
         Across the desert land.
  46  And on their journey he them led,
         Secure from every fear.
      But by the sea's o'erwhelming waves
         Their en'mies covered were.
  47  To borders of his holy place
         The Lord his people brought,
      Ev'n to the mountain which for them
         His own right hand had bought.
  48  The nations which in Canaan dwelt,
         He also by his hand,
      Before his people's face, expelled
         Beyond their native land;
  49  Which for inheritance to them
         By line he did divide,
      And made the tribes of Israel
         Within their tents abide.
  50  But God Most High they did provoke,
         They tempted him again;
      His testimonies to observe
         Their will did not incline:
  51  But, like their fathers, they turned back
         In faithlessness and pride,
      And like a false, deceitful bow,
         They all were turned aside.
  52  Because to anger they provoked
         The Lord with places high,
      And with their graven images
         Moved him to jealousy,
  53  When God heard this, 'he angry was,
         And much loathed Isr'el then:
      So Shiloh's tent he left, the tent
         Which he had placed with men.
  54  And he his strength delivered o'er
         To long captivity;
      He left his glory in the hand
         Of his proud enemy.
  55  His people also to the sword
         In anger o'er he turned:
      Against his own inheritance
         His wrath so fiercely burned�
  56  The fire consumed their choice young men;
         Their maids no marriage had;
      And when their priests fell by the sword,
         Their wives no mourning made.
  57  But then the Lord arose, as one
         That doth from sleep awake;
      And like a giant, that by wine
         Refreshed, a shout doth make.
  58  And on the backs of fleeing foes
         He caused his strokes to fall
      And to reproach perpetual
         He put his en'mies all.
  59  Moreover Joseph's tent he spurned,
         Nor Ephraim's tribe approved;
      But Judah's tent Jehovah chose,
         The Zion Mount he loved.
  60  And like the firm and lofty hills
         He built his holy place;
      Yea, strong as earth's foundations fast,
         He gave it changeless base.
  61  Of David as his servant then
         He sov'reign choice did make,
      And him, from out the folds of sheep,
         The Lord was pleased to take.
  62  From waiting on the suckling ewes,
         He brought him forth to feed
      His Israel, his heritage,
         His people, Jacob's seed.
  63  So with integrity of heart
         He did them wisely feed;
      And with his skillfulness of hands
         He did them safely lead.


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