Psalms 78:1 My people of Israel, listen to my teachings. Listen carefully to what I tell you.
Psalms 78:2 I, God, will teach you by telling stories. I will tell you about things from the past that are hard to understand.
Psalms 78:3 Things that we know because our grandfathers told us about them.
Psalms 78:4 We don’t want to hide them from our children. We want to tell them to the young people who will be the next generation. We want to talk about the wonderful things that the Lord has done with his strength. We will talk about the miracles that He has done for us.
Psalms 78:5 God made an agreement with Jacob. God gave the law to Israel. God gave the commands to our grandfathers. God told our grandfathers to teach the law to their children.
Psalms 78:6 That next generation, and the children not yet born, would learn the law. And the grandfathers would be able to teach it to their own children.
Psalms 78:7 So the next generation would all trust in God, and they shall never forget what God had done and always obey God’s commands.
Psalms 78:8 Then they will not be like their grandfathers who were stubborn and refused to obey. Their hearts were not devoted to God, and they were not faithful to God.
Psalms 78:9 The men from Ephraim having their swords and bows, but they ran from the battle
Psalms 78:10 The men of Ephraim, did not keep their promise with God. The men of Ephraim refused to obey Gods teachings.
Psalms 78:11 The men of Ephraim forgot the great things God had done and the amazing things God had shown them.
Psalms 78:12 Their forefathers saw the miracles that God did in the land of Egypt, the land where the town of Zoan is.
Psalms 78:13 God divided the water and made a way through the sea and let them walk through, while the water was standing like a wall.
Psalms 78:14 God led his people with a cloud in the day and with the light of a fire in the night.
Psalms 78:15 God broke open rocks in the desert and God gave his people a lot of water to drink, water that came from deep under the earth.
Psalms 78:16 God made streams of water come from the rock, and the waters to flow like a river.
Psalms 78:17 But the people of Ephraim continued to sin against God. The people of Ephraim were rebellious against the Most High God when they were in the desert.
Psalms 78:18 The people of Ephraim decided to test God and asked God to give them meat to fulfill their lust.
Psalms 78:19 The people of Ephraim spoke against God and said: God can not give us food to eat in the desert.
Psalms 78:20 Yes, God broke open a rock and made water flow out of it, so that there was a river of water, but God can not give us bread. God is not able to bring us meat to eat.
Psalms 78:21 The Lord heard what the children of Israel said and became angry. The LORDS anger was like a fire that burnt in Him against the people of Jacob. The LORD became angry with the descendants of Israel.
Psalms 78:22 God became angry because his people did not believe that God could save them, and they did not trust in Him to help them.
Psalms 78:23 But still God told the clouds above to come and He opened the doors of heaven,
Psalms 78: 24 God sent manna to fall on them like rain so that they could eat. He gave them bread from heaven.
Psalms 78: 25 These people ate the food of angels, God sent plenty of food to satisfy them.
Psalms 78: 26 God sent a strong wind from the east, and by his power he made the south wind blow.
Psalms 78: 27 God made quail fall like rain until they covered the ground. There were so many birds that they were like sand on the seashore.
Psalms 78: 28 God made the quail fall into the camp of the children of Israel and they fell around their tents.
Psalms 78:29 The children of Israel ate and ate, more than enough. That is how God gave them the food that they wanted to eat.
Psalms 78:30 Before they had satisfied their desire, and while their food was in their mouths,
Psalms 78:31 God became angry with the children of Israel. God killed their strongest men and the young men of Israel.
Psalms 78:32 But after God had done all of this, the people of Israel continued to sin, and they did not believe that it was God who had done those miracles.
Psalms 78:33 So God ended their worthless lives. Their lives were full of worries and trouble.
Psalms 78:34 Every time God punished some of the people and they died, the other people turned to God and said they were sorry for their sins and that the people would do what God wanted.
Psalms 78:35 Then the people said that God was their Rock and that God was the Most High God, who was their Saviour.
Psalms 78:36 The people of Israel words were false, and they told lies when they said those things to God.
Psalms 78:37 The people of Israel hearts were not really with God. The people of Israel were not faithful to the agreement God gave them.
Psalms 78:38 But God was merciful. God forgave the people of Israel sin, and God did not make them all to die. God was good to the people of Israel again and God did not stay angry with them.
Psalms 78:39 God remembered that the people of Israel were only people, and they were like the wind that blows away and then is gone.
Psalms 78:40 The people of Israel often rebelled against God, and they made God sad in the desert.
Psalms 78:41 The people of Israel tested God again and again,
and the people of Israel made the holy God of Israel very sad.
Psalms 78::42 The people of Israel did not remember what God did when He saved them from their enemies.
Psalms 78:43 The people of Israel forgot the signs
that God gave in Egypt and the miracles in the fields of Zoan.
Psalms 78:44 God made the river and streams full of blood and the Egyptians could not drink the water.
Psalms 78:45 God sent swarms of flies that bit them and made them suffer. God also sent frogs that destroyed their land.
Psalm 78:46 God gave their crops to grasshoppers and their other plants to locusts.
Psalms 78:47 God sent hail-stones to destroy their vineyards and frost to destroy their sycamore trees
Psalms 78:48 God sent hail-stones to kill their cattle and lightning to destroy their sheep and goats.
Psalms 78:49 God showed them how angry He was. God wanted them to suffer a lot. God sent angels of death to their homes.
Psalms 78:50 God was angry, very angry, and God showed them how angry He was. God did not save their lives. He caused them to die from disease.
Psalms 78:51 God killed the firstborn son of each Egyptian family. God killed the first and best of their strength in the land where the people of Ham had lived before.
Psalms 78:52 But God led his own people away like a shepherd leads his sheep and God led them through the desert.
Psalms 78:53 God brought them to a place where they would be safe and didn’t have to be afraid. And their enemies drowned in the sea.
Psalms 78:54 God brought his people into his Holy Land, to mountain Zion which He took with his power.
Psalms 78:55 God chased other nations away from their land so that his people could live there. He gave their land to the families of Israel and let them live in those other people’s homes.
Psalms 78:56 But the people of Israel tested the Most High God again and rebelled against Him. The people of Israel did not do what God told them to do.
Psalms 78:57 The people of Israel turned away from God and they were disobedient like their grandfathers had been. The people of Israel were unfaithful, like a bow that is broken and can not shoot straight.
Psalms 78:58 The people of Israel made God angry because they built places of sacrifice, and the people of Israel made God jealous because they worshipped idols.
Psalms 78:59 When God saw what the people of Israel were doing, God became very angry, and God left the people of Israel. So, God rejected the people of Israel completely!
Psalms 78:60 God also left the temple in Shiloh where God had stayed among the people of Israel.
Psalms 78:61 God let the enemy capture the Box of the Agreement, the symbol of his power and glory.
Psalms 78:62 God showed his anger against his people and let them be killed in war.
Psalms 78:63 Their young men died in fires and there was no one to marry the young girls.
Psalms 78:64 Their priests died in war and there was no time for their widows to mourn.
Psalms 78:65 But then the Lord woke up like someone who has been sleeping, like someone who wakes up after he has had too much wine.
Psalms 78:66 God forced his enemies to turn back defeated. God brought them shame that will last forever.
Psalms 78:67 God rejected Joseph’s family. God did not accept Ephraim’s family.
Psalms 78:68 But God chose the tribe of Judah, and God chose Mount Zion, the place he loves.
Psalms 78:69 God built his holy Temple high on that mountain. Like the earth, God built his Temple to last forever.
Psalms 78:70 God chose his servant David and took David away from the sheep.
Psalms 78:71 God took David from tending the mother sheeps with the nursing young. God gave David the job of caring for the descendants of Jacob—Israel, his chosen people.
Psalms 78:72 David led them with a pure heart and guided them very wisely.