lessons from the past
Psalm 78:12-55 (JDV)
Psalm 78:12 He worked miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan.
Psalm 78:13 He separated the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall.
Psalm 78:14 He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night.
Psalm 78:15 He split rocks in the open country and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
Psalm 78:16 He brought streams out of the stone and made water flow down like rivers.
Psalm 78:17 But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the open country against the Most High.
Psalm 78:18 They deliberately tested God, demanding food for their throats.
Psalm 78:19 They spoke against God, saying, “Is God able to provide food in the open country?
Psalm 78:20 Notice! He struck the rock and water gushed out; torrents overflowed. But can he also provide bread or furnish meat for his people?”
Psalm 78:21 Consequently, Yahveh heard and became furious; then fire broke out against Jacob, and anger flared up against Israel
Psalm 78:22 because they did not believe God or rely on his deliverance.
Psalm 78:23 He gave a command to the clouds above and opened the doors of the sky.
Psalm 78:24 He rained manna for them to eat; he gave them grain from the sky.
Psalm 78:25 People ate the bread of mighty ones. He sent them an abundant supply of food.
Psalm 78:26 He made the east wind blow in the sky and drove the south wind by his might.
Psalm 78:27 He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
Psalm 78:28 He made them fall in the camp, all around the dwelling-places.
Psalm 78:29 The people ate and were completely satisfied, because he gave them what they craved.
Psalm 78:30 Before they had turned from what they craved, while the food was still in their mouths,
Psalm 78:31 God’s anger flared up against them, and he killed some of their best men. He struck down Israel’s fit young men.
Psalm 78:32 Despite all this, they kept failing and did not believe his miraculous works.
Psalm 78:33 He made their days end, being temporary, their years in sudden disaster.
Psalm 78:34 When he killed some of them, the rest began to seek him; they repented and searched for God.
Psalm 78:35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer.
Psalm 78:36 But they deceived him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues,
Psalm 78:37 their hearts were insincere toward him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
Psalm 78:38 Yet he was compassionate; he atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often turned his anger aside and did not unleash all his wrath.
Psalm 78:39 He remembered that they were only flesh, a breath that walks away and does not return.
Psalm 78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the open country and grieved him in the wasteland.
Psalm 78:41 They constantly tested God and provoked the Sacred One1 of Israel.
Psalm 78:42 They did not remember his power shown on the day he redeemed them from the enemy,
Psalm 78:43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt and his miracles in the territory of Zoan.
Psalm 78:44 He turned their rivers into blood, and they could not drink from their streams.
Psalm 78:45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which fed on them, and frogs, which devastated them.
Psalm 78:46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
Psalm 78:47 He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
Psalm 78:48 He handed over their livestock to hail and their cattle to lightning bolts.
Psalm 78:49 He sent his burning anger against them: fury, indignation, and calamity – a band of deadly agents.2
Psalm 78:50 He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare their throats from death but delivered their lives to the plague.
Psalm 78:51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first3 progeny of the tents of Ham.
Psalm 78:52 He led his people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the open country.
Psalm 78:53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.
Psalm 78:54 He brought them to his sacred territory, to the mountain his right hand acquired.
Psalm 78:55 He drove out nations before them. He apportioned their inheritance by lot and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
lessons from the past
This psalm serves as a teaching song, which could be used by fathers to teach their children. The LORD commanded that each generation instruct the next, so that no one is ignorant of who God is, and what he has done. The past is not just history. There are lessons in the past that can give guidance for the believer. The past can lead us to our LORD, where he wants to meet us in the present.
LORD, teach us the lessons of the past. Make us aware of who we are by showing us what we were, and what you have done for us.
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