Psalms 77–78
For the Music Director. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
1 I cried out to God with my voice,
even to God with my voice; and He listened to me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out and does not weary,
my soul refuses to be comforted.
3 I remember God, and I groan;
I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah
4 You hold my eyelids open;
I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I have considered the days of old,
the years long ago.
6 May I remember my song in the night;
may I meditate in my heart;
my spirit made a diligent search:
7 “Will the Lord cast off forever,
and will He be favorable no more?
8 Has His mercy ceased forever,
and have His promises failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious,
and has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” Selah
10 Then I said, “This is my grief;
yet I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11 I will remember the works of the Lord;
surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
12 I will meditate also on all Your work
and ponder on Your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holiness;
what god is as great as our God?
14 You are the God who can do wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the nations.
15 You have with Your arm redeemed Your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 The waters saw You, O God.
The waters saw You; they were afraid;
the depths also trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered.
Your arrows flashed about.
18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind,
and Your lightning lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way is through the sea,
and Your path in the great waters,
and your footsteps are not seen.
20 You led Your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 78
A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter insightful sayings of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell the coming generation
the praises of the Lord,
and His strength, and the wonderful works that He has done.
5 For He established a rule in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
that they should make them known to their children,
6 that the generation to come might know them,
even the children who are not yet born,
who will arise and declare them to their children:
7 that they might set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep His commandments,
8 and they might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not set their heart steadfast,
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The people of Ephraim, being armed with bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to walk in His law;
11 and they forgot His works
and the wonders that He had shown them.
12 In the sight of their ancestors He did marvelous wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them abundance to drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams out of the rock
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 They sinned yet more against Him
by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food that they craved.
19 They spoke against God by saying,
“Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out
and the streams overflowed.
Can He give bread
or provide meat for His people?”
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and anger also came up against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
nor trust in His deliverance.
23 Yet He had commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and He rained down manna upon them to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate the food of mighty angels;
He sent them bread in abundance.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by His power He brought out a south wind.
27 He rained meat on them as dust,
and winged birds as the sand of the sea;
28 and He let them fall in the midst of their camp
all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were satisfied,
for He gave them their own desire;
30 while they were not yet filled up,
and while the meat was still in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them,
and He killed the strongest of them
and struck down the young men of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still,
and did not believe despite His wondrous works.
33 Therefore He made their days vanish like a breath,
and their years in trouble.
34 When He killed them, then they sought Him;
they turned back and longed for God.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
and the Most High God their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth,
and they lied to Him with their tongues;
37 for their heart was not devoted to Him,
neither were they committed to His covenant.
38 But He being full of compassion
forgave their iniquity
and did not destroy them.
He constantly restrained His anger,
and did not stir up all His wrath;
39 for He remembered that they were but flesh,
like a wind that passes away and does not return.
40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness
and grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, they tested God over and over,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power,
nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
43 how He had performed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the fields of Zoan:
44 and He turned their rivers into blood,
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger,
wrath, indignation, and trouble,
by sending angels bringing disaster.
50 He made a path for His anger;
He did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague,
51 and struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then He led out His own people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 He brought them to the border of His holy land,
to the mountain that His right hand had acquired.
55 He cast out the nations also before them,
and divided for them their tribal allotments,
and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God,
and did not keep His commands,
57 but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;
they turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places
and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, He was full of wrath
and greatly rejected Israel
60 so that He left the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent where He lived among people,
61 and delivered His strength to captivity
and His glory into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave His people over also to the sword;
He was enraged with His inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men,
and their maidens were not given to marriage in song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep,
and like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.
66 He routed His enemies back,
and He made them a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
and He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loves.
69 He built His sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth that He has established perpetually.
70 He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes He brought him
to shepherd Jacob His people,
and Israel His inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart
and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Romans 10
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. 4 Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for every one who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is based on the law: “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But the righteousness which is based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 “or, ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” This is the word of faith that we preach: 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, 10 for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be ashamed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is generous toward all who call upon Him. 13 For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring good news of good things!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes, indeed:
“Their voice went into all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First, Moses says:
“I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation,
and by a foolish nation I will anger you.”
20 And Isaiah is very bold and says:
“I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for Me.”
21 But to Israel He says:
“All day long I have stretched out My hands
to a disobedient and contrary people.”