A Maskil of Asaph.My people, hear my instruction;
listen to what I say.

I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past—

We must not hide them from their children,
but must tell a future generation
the praises of the Lord,
His might, and the wonderful works
He has performed.

He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
to teach to their children

How often they rebelled against Him
in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert.

He rained manna for them to eat;
He gave them grain from heaven.

He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;

He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.

He sent His burning anger against them:
fury, indignation, and calamity—
a band of deadly messengers.

Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior from the effects of wine.

Yet He was compassionate;
He atoned for their guilt
and did not destroy them.
He often turned His anger aside
and did not unleash all His wrath.

But they rebelliously tested the Most High God,
for they did not keep His decrees.

Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe His wonderful works.

They constantly tested God
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

so that a future generation—
children yet to be born—might know.
They were to rise and tell their children

He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, the region of Zoan.

He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.

They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their Redeemer.

He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.

When He killed some of them,
the rest began to seek Him;
they repented and searched for God.

The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.

so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
but keep His commands.

He remembered that they were only flesh,
a wind that passes and does not return.

things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us.

when He performed His miraculous signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the region of Zoan.

People ate the bread of angels.
He sent them an abundant supply of food.

They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?

God heard and became furious;
He completely rejected Israel.

They deliberately tested God,
demanding the food they craved.

He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.

He struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
the first progeny of the tents of Ham.

Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

He chose instead the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.

He built His sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that He established forever.

They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by His law.

He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.

He led His people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

But they continued to sin against Him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where He resided among men.

He rejected the tent of Joseph
and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

their hearts were insincere toward Him,
and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

But they deceived Him with their mouths,
they lied to Him with their tongues,

He cleared a path for His anger.
He did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.

They enraged Him with their high places
and provoked His jealousy with their carved images.

He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.

They forgot what He had done,
the wonderful works He had shown them.

He brought them to His holy land,
to the mountain His right hand acquired.

He drove out nations before them.
He apportioned their inheritance by lot
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel

He brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over His people Jacob—
over Israel, His inheritance.

He sent among them swarms of flies,
which fed on them,
and frogs, which devastated them.

He led them safely, and they were not afraid;
but the sea covered their enemies.

He gave up His strength to captivity
and His splendor to the hand of a foe.

because they did not believe God
or rely on His salvation.

He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by His might.

They did not remember His power shown
on the day He redeemed them from the foe,

They treacherously turned away like their fathers;
they became warped like a faulty bow.

Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.
But can He also provide bread
or furnish meat for His people?”

God’s anger flared up against them,
and He killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s choice young men.

He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.

He gave their crops to the caterpillar
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.

Fire consumed His chosen young men,
and His young women had no wedding songs.

He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.

He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.

He beat back His foes;
He gave them lasting shame.

He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.

They ate and were completely satisfied,
for He gave them what they craved.

Before they had satisfied their desire,
while the food was still in their mouths,

His priests fell by the sword,
but the widows could not lament.

He surrendered His people to the sword
because He was enraged with His heritage.

He made them fall in His camp,
all around His tent.