Psalms 78 in the early church

A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; listen to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.

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

that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children

that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

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

The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.

They failed to keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.

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

He led them with a cloud by day and with a light of fire all night.

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

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

They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.

They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”

Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,

Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

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

Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

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

Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths,

God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

When He slew them, they would seek Him; they repented and searched for God.

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

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

Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!

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

He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.

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

He killed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

He unleashed His fury against them, wrath, indignation, and calamity—a band of destroying angels.

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

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

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

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

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

But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

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

Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

He beat back His foes; He put them to everlasting shame.

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

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

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

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

So David shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.