Psalms 78:40-72

¶How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert! Again and again they tempted God, And distressed the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember [the miracles worked by] His [powerful] hand, Nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy, How He worked His miracles in Egypt And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided], And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink. He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them, And frogs which destroyed them. He also gave their crops to the grasshopper, And the fruit of their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones And their sycamore trees with frost. He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones, And their flocks and herds to thunderbolts. [Ex 9:18-21] He sent upon them His burning anger, [Ex 12:23] His fury and indignation and distress, A band of angels of destruction [among them]. 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. 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. But God led His own people forward like sheep And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock. He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies. [Ex 14:27, 28] ¶So He brought them to His holy land, To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired. 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]. Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies (laws). 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]. 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]. When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath; And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways], So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, The tent in which He had dwelled among men, 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). [1 Sam 4:21] He also handed His people over to the sword, And was infuriated with His inheritance (Israel). [1 Sam 4:10] The fire [of war] devoured His young men, And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs. His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep. [1 Sam 4:11, 19, 20] ¶Then the Lord awakened as from sleep, Like a [mighty] warrior who awakens from the sleep of wine [fully conscious of his power]. He drove His enemies backward; He subjected them to lasting shame and dishonor. Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood]. But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader], Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital]. And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens], Like the earth which He has established forever. He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds; [1 Sam 16:11, 12] From tending the ewes with nursing young He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. [2 Sam 7:7, 8] So David shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart; And guided them with his skillful hands.