1 A maskil of Asaf: Listen, my people,
to my teaching; turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2 I will speak to you in parables and
explain mysteries from days of old.
3 The things which we have heard and
known, and which our fathers told us
4 we will not hide from their
descendants; we will tell the generation to come the praises of ADONAI and his
strength, the wonders that he has performed.
5 He raised up a testimony in Ya'akov
and established a Torah in Isra'el. He commanded our ancestors to make this
known to their children,
6 so that the next generation would
know it, the children not yet born, who would themselves arise and tell their
own children,
7 who could then put their confidence
in God, not forgetting God's deeds, but obeying his mitzvot.
8 Then they would not be like their
ancestors, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation with unprepared
hearts, with spirits unfaithful to God.
9 The people of Efrayim, though armed
with bows and arrows, turned their backs on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of
God and refused to live by his Torah.
11 They forgot what he had done, his
wonders which he had shown them.
12 He had done wonderful things in the
presence of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Tzo'an.
13 He split the sea and made them pass
through, he made the waters stand up like a wall.
14 He also led them by day with a cloud
and all night long with light from a fire.
15 He broke apart the rocks in the
desert and let them drink as if from boundless depths;
16 yes, he brought streams out of the
rock, making the water flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against
him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High;
18 in their hearts they tested God by
demanding food that would satisfy their cravings.
19 Yes, they spoke against God by
asking, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
20 True, he struck the rock, and water
gushed out, until the vadis overflowed; but what about bread? Can he give
that? Can he provide meat for his people?"
21 Therefore, when ADONAI heard, he was
angry; fire blazed up against Ya'akov; his anger mounted against Isra'el;
22 because they had no faith in God, no
trust in his power to save.
23 So he commanded the skies above and
opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down man on them as food;
he gave them grain from heaven -
25 mortals ate the bread of angels; he
provided for them to the full.
26 He stirred up the east wind in
heaven, brought on the south wind by his power,
27 and rained down meat on them like
dust, birds flying thick as the sand on the seashore.
28 He let them fall in the middle of
their camp, all around their tents.
29 So they ate till they were
satisfied; he gave them what they craved.
30 They were still fulfilling their
craving, the food was still in their mouths,
31 when the anger of God rose up
against them and slaughtered their strongest men, laying low the young men of
Isra'el.
32 Still, they kept on sinning and put
no faith in his wonders.
33 Therefore, he ended their days in
futility and their years in terror.
34 When he brought death among them,
they would seek him; they would repent and seek God eagerly,
35 remembering that God was their Rock,
El 'Elyon their Redeemer.
36 But they tried to deceive him with
their words, they lied to him with their tongues;
37 for their hearts were not right with
him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, because he is full of
compassion, forgave their sin and did not destroy; many times he turned away
his anger and didn't rouse all his wrath.
39 So he remembered that they were but
flesh, a wind that blows past and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him
in the desert and grieved him in the wastelands!
41 Repeatedly they challenged God and
pained the Holy One of Isra'el.
42 They didn't remember how he used his
hand on the day he redeemed them from their enemy,
43 how he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Tzo'an.
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
so they couldn't drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies, which
devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their harvest to shearer-worms,
the fruit of their labor to locusts.
47 He destroyed their vineyards with
hail and their sycamore-figs with frost.
48 Their cattle too he gave over to the
hail and their flocks to lightning bolts.
49 He sent over them his fierce anger,
fury, indignation and trouble, with a company of destroying angels
50 to clear a path for his wrath. He
did not spare them from death, but gave them over to the plague,
51 striking all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But his own people he led out like
sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them safely, and they weren't
afraid, even when the sea overwhelmed their foes.
54 He brought them to his holy land, to
the hill-country won by his right hand.
55 He expelled nations before them,
apportioned them property to inherit and made Isra'el's tribes live in their
tents.
56 Yet they tested El 'Elyon and
rebelled against him, refusing to obey his instructions.
57 They turned away and were faithless,
like their fathers; they were unreliable, like a bow without tension.
58 They provoked him with their high
places and made him jealous with their idols.
59 God heard, and he was angry; he came
to detest Isra'el completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at
Shiloh, the tent he had made where he could live among people.
61 He gave his strength into exile, his
pride to the power of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
and grew angry with his own heritage.
63 Fire consumed their young men, their
virgins had no wedding-song,
64 their cohanim fell by the sword, and
their widows could not weep.
65 Then Adonai awoke, as if from sleep,
like a warrior shouting for joy from wine.
66 He struck his foes, driving them
back and putting them to perpetual shame.
67 Rejecting the tents of Yosef and
passing over the tribe of Efrayim,
68 he chose the tribe of Y'hudah, Mount
Tziyon, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the
heights; like the earth, he made it to last forever.
70 He chose David to be his servant,
taking him from the sheep-yards;
71 from tending nursing ewes he brought
him to shepherd Ya'akov his people, Isra'el his heritage.
72 With upright heart he shepherded
them and guided them with skillful hands.
