Thematic Bible




Psalm 78:1 (show verse)

Listen, O my people, to my teaching;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth [and be willing to learn].

Psalm 78:2 (show verse)


I will open my mouth in a parable [to instruct using examples];
I will utter dark and puzzling sayings of old [that contain important truth]—

Psalm 78:3 (show verse)


Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.

Psalm 78:4 (show verse)


We will not hide them from their children,
But [we will] tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
And [tell of] His great might and power and the wonderful works that He has done.

Psalm 78:5 (show verse)


For He established a testimony (a specific precept) in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach to their children [the great facts of God’s transactions with Israel],

Psalm 78:6 (show verse)


That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born
May arise and recount them to their children,

Psalm 78:7 (show verse)


That they should place their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,

Psalm 78:8 (show verse)


And not be like their fathers—
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart to know and follow God,
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Psalm 78:9 (show verse)


The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

Psalm 78:10 (show verse)


They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk according to His law;

Psalm 78:11 (show verse)


And they forgot His [incredible] works
And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.

Psalm 78:12 (show verse)


He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].

Psalm 78:13 (show verse)


He divided the [Red] Sea and allowed them to pass through it,
And He made the waters stand up like [water behind] a dam.
No Themes for this verse.

Psalm 78:14 (show verse)


In the daytime He led them with a cloud
And all the night with a light of fire.

Psalm 78:15 (show verse)


He split rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant [water to] drink like the ocean depths.

Psalm 78:16 (show verse)


He brought streams also from the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh]
And caused waters to run down like rivers.

Psalm 78:17 (show verse)


Yet they still continued to sin against Him
By rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

Psalm 78:18 (show verse)


And in their hearts they put God to the test
By asking for food according to their [selfish] appetite.

Psalm 78:19 (show verse)


Then they spoke against God;
They said, “Can God prepare [food for] a table in the wilderness?

Psalm 78:20 (show verse)


“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out
And the streams overflowed;
Can He give bread also?
Or will He provide meat for His people?”

Psalm 78:21 (show verse)


Therefore, when the Lord heard, He was full of wrath;
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
And His anger mounted up against Israel,

Psalm 78:22 (show verse)


Because they did not believe in God [they did not rely on Him, they did not adhere to Him],
And they did not trust in His salvation (His power to save).

Psalm 78:23 (show verse)


Yet He commanded the clouds from above
And opened the doors of heaven;

Psalm 78:24 (show verse)


And He rained down manna upon them to eat
And gave them the grain of heaven.

Psalm 78:25 (show verse)


Man ate the bread of angels;
God sent them provision in abundance.

Psalm 78:26 (show verse)


He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
And by His [unlimited] power He guided the south wind.

Psalm 78:27 (show verse)


He rained meat upon them like the dust,
And winged birds (quail) like the sand of the seas.

Psalm 78:28 (show verse)


And He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
Around their tents.

Psalm 78:29 (show verse)


So they ate and were well filled,
He gave them what they craved.

Psalm 78:30 (show verse)


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

Psalm 78:31 (show verse)


The wrath of God rose against them
And killed some of the strongest of them,
And subdued the choice young men of Israel.

Psalm 78:32 (show verse)


In spite of all this they still sinned,
For they did not believe in His wonderful and extraordinary works.

Psalm 78:33 (show verse)


Therefore He consumed their days like a breath [in emptiness and futility]
And their years in sudden terror.

Psalm 78:34 (show verse)


When He killed [some of] them, then those remaining sought Him,
And they returned [to Him] and searched diligently for God [for a time].

Psalm 78:35 (show verse)


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

Psalm 78:36 (show verse)


Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths
And lied to Him with their tongues.

Psalm 78:37 (show verse)


For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful to His covenant.

Psalm 78:38 (show verse)


But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;
Many times He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.

Psalm 78:39 (show verse)


For He [graciously] remembered that they were mere [human] flesh,
A wind that goes and does not return.

Psalm 78:40 (show verse)


How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!

Psalm 78:41 (show verse)


Again and again they tempted God,
And distressed the Holy One of Israel.
No Themes for this verse.

Psalm 78:42 (show verse)


They did not remember [the miracles worked by] His [powerful] hand,
Nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

Psalm 78:43 (show verse)


How He worked His miracles in Egypt
And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided],

Psalm 78:44 (show verse)


And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.

Psalm 78:45 (show verse)


He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them,
And frogs which destroyed them.

Psalm 78:46 (show verse)


He also gave their crops to the grasshopper,
And the fruit of their labor to the locust.

Psalm 78:47 (show verse)


He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.

Psalm 78:48 (show verse)


He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones,
And their flocks and herds to thunderbolts.

Psalm 78:49 (show verse)


He sent upon them His burning anger,
His fury and indignation and distress,
A band of angels of destruction [among them].

Psalm 78:50 (show verse)


He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned over their lives to the plague.

Psalm 78:51 (show verse)


He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first and best of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.

Psalm 78:52 (show verse)


But God led His own people forward like sheep
And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock.

Psalm 78:53 (show verse)


He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies.

Psalm 78:54 (show verse)


So He brought them to His holy land,
To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.
No Themes for this verse.

Psalm 78:55 (show verse)


He also drove out the nations before the sons of Israel
And allotted their land as an inheritance, measured out and partitioned;
And He had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents [the tents of those who had been dispossessed].

Psalm 78:56 (show verse)


Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies (laws).
No Themes for this verse.

Psalm 78:57 (show verse)


They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].

Psalm 78:58 (show verse)


For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [devoted to idol worship]
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images [by denying Him the love, worship, and obedience that is rightfully and uniquely His].

Psalm 78:59 (show verse)


When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath;
And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways],

Psalm 78:60 (show verse)


So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
The tent in which He had dwelled among men,

Psalm 78:61 (show verse)


And gave up His strength and power (the ark of the covenant) into captivity,
And His glory into the hand of the enemy (the Philistines).

Psalm 78:62 (show verse)


He also handed His people over to the sword,
And was infuriated with His inheritance (Israel).

Psalm 78:63 (show verse)


The fire [of war] devoured His young men,
And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs.

Psalm 78:64 (show verse)


His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword,
And His widows could not weep.

Psalm 78:65 (show verse)


Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,
Like a [mighty] warrior who awakens from the sleep of wine [fully conscious of his power].
No Themes for this verse.

Psalm 78:66 (show verse)


He drove His enemies backward;
He subjected them to lasting shame and dishonor.

Psalm 78:67 (show verse)


Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].

Psalm 78:68 (show verse)


But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader],
Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].
No Themes for this verse.

Psalm 78:69 (show verse)


And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens],
Like the earth which He has established forever.

Psalm 78:70 (show verse)


He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;

Psalm 78:71 (show verse)


From tending the ewes with nursing young He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.

Psalm 78:72 (show verse)


So David shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart;
And guided them with his skillful hands.