Parallel Bible results for "psalms 78"

Psalms 78

The Message Bible MSG

1 Listen, dear friends, to God's truth, bend your ears to what I tell you.

2 I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb; I'll let you in on the sweet old truths,

3 Stories we heard from our fathers, counsel we learned at our mother's knee.

4 We're not keeping this to ourselves, we're passing it along to the next generation - God's fame and fortune, the marvelous things he has done.

5 He planted a witness in Jacob, set his Word firmly in Israel, Then commanded our parents to teach it to their children

6 So the next generation would know, and all the generations to come - Know the truth and tell the stories

7 can trust in God, Never forget the works of God but keep his commands to the letter.

8 Heaven forbid they should be like their parents, bullheaded and bad, A fickle and faithless bunch who never stayed true to God.

9 The Ephraimites, armed to the teeth, ran off when the battle began.

10 They were cowards to God's Covenant, refused to walk by his Word.

11 They forgot what he had done - marvels he'd done right before their eyes.

12 He performed miracles in plain sight of their parents in Egypt, out on the fields of Zoan.

13 He split the Sea and they walked right through it; he piled the waters to the right and the left.

14 He led them by day with a cloud, led them all the night long with a fiery torch.

15 He split rocks in the wilderness, gave them all they could drink from underground springs;

16 He made creeks flow out from sheer rock, and water pour out like a river.

17 All they did was sin even more, rebel in the desert against the High God.

18 They tried to get their own way with God, clamored for favors, for special attention.

19 They whined like spoiled children, "Why can't God give us a decent meal in this desert?

20 Sure, he struck the rock and the water flowed, creeks cascaded from the rock. But how about some fresh-baked bread? How about a nice cut of meat?"

21 When God heard that, he was furious - his anger flared against Jacob, he lost his temper with Israel.

22 It was clear they didn't believe God, had no intention of trusting in his help.

23 But God helped them anyway, commanded the clouds and gave orders that opened the gates of heaven.

24 He rained down showers of manna to eat, he gave them the Bread of Heaven.

25 They ate the bread of the mighty angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.

26 He let East Wind break loose from the skies, gave a strong push to South Wind.

27 This time it was birds that rained down - succulent birds, an abundance of birds.

28 He aimed them right for the center of their camp; all round their tents there were birds.

29 They ate and had their fill; he handed them everything they craved on a platter.

30 But their greed knew no bounds; they stuffed their mouths with more and more.

31 Finally, God was fed up, his anger erupted - he cut down their brightest and best, he laid low Israel's finest young men.

32 And - can you believe it? - they kept right on sinning; all those wonders and they still wouldn't believe!

33 So their lives dribbled off to nothing - nothing to show for their lives but a ghost town.

34 When he cut them down, they came running for help; they turned and pled for mercy.

35 They gave witness that God was their rock, that High God was their redeemer,

36 But they didn't mean a word of it; they lied through their teeth the whole time.

37 They could not have cared less about him, wanted nothing to do with his Covenant.

38 And God? Compassionate! Forgave the sin! Didn't destroy! Over and over he reined in his anger, restrained his considerable wrath.

39 He knew what they were made of; he knew there wasn't much to them,

40 How often in the desert they had spurned him, tried his patience in those wilderness years.

41 Time and again they pushed him to the limit, provoked Israel's Holy God.

42 How quickly they forgot what he'd done, forgot their day of rescue from the enemy,

43 When he did miracles in Egypt, wonders on the plain of Zoan.

44 He turned the River and its streams to blood - not a drop of water fit to drink.

45 He sent flies, which ate them alive, and frogs, which bedeviled them.

46 He turned their harvest over to caterpillars, everything they had worked for to the locusts.

47 He flattened their grapevines with hail; a killing frost ruined their orchards.

48 He pounded their cattle with hail, let thunderbolts loose on their herds.

49 His anger flared, a wild firestorm of havoc, An advance guard of disease-carrying angels

50 to clear the ground, preparing the way before him. He didn't spare those people, he let the plague rage through their lives.

51 He killed all the Egyptian firstborns, lusty infants, offspring of Ham's virility.

52 Then he led his people out like sheep, took his flock safely through the wilderness.

53 He took good care of them; they had nothing to fear. The Sea took care of their enemies for good.

54 He brought them into his holy land, this mountain he claimed for his own.

55 He scattered everyone who got in their way; he staked out an inheritance for them - the tribes of Israel all had their own places.

56 But they kept on giving him a hard time, rebelled against God, the High God, refused to do anything he told them.

57 They were worse, if that's possible, than their parents: traitors - crooked as a corkscrew.

58 Their pagan orgies provoked God's anger, their obscene idolatries broke his heart.

59 When God heard their carryings-on, he was furious; he posted a huge No over Israel.

60 He walked off and left Shiloh empty, abandoned the shrine where he had met with Israel.

61 He let his pride and joy go to the dogs, turned his back on the pride of his life.

62 He turned them loose on fields of battle; angry, he let them fend for themselves.

63 Their young men went to war and never came back; their young women waited in vain.

64 Their priests were massacred, and their widows never shed a tear.

65 Suddenly the Lord was up on his feet like someone roused from deep sleep, shouting like a drunken warrior.

66 He hit his enemies hard, sent them running, yelping, not daring to look back.

67 He disqualified Joseph as leader, told Ephraim he didn't have what it takes,

68 And chose the Tribe of Judah instead, Mount Zion, which he loves so much.

69 He built his sanctuary there, resplendent, solid and lasting as the earth itself.

70 Then he chose David, his servant, handpicked him from his work in the sheep pens.

71 One day he was caring for the ewes and their lambs, the next day God had him shepherding Jacob, his people Israel, his prize possession.

72 His good heart made him a good shepherd; he guided the people wisely and well.

King James Version KJV

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

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

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 For he established a testimony 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 which should be born; who should 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 might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

9 The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, 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 an heap.

14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

21 Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

31 The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were 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 wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.