Psalms 78:46-72 ▼

46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47 He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.

48 He handed over their livestock to hail and their cattle to lightning bolts.

49 He sent his burning anger against them: fury, indignation, and calamity — a band of deadly messengers.

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

51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first progeny of the tents of Ham.

52 He led his people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

53 He led them safely, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.

54 He brought them to his holy territory, to the mountain his right hand acquired.

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

56 But they rebelliously tested the Most High God, for they did not keep his decrees.

57 They treacherously turned away like their ancestors; they became warped like a faulty bow.

58 They enraged him with their high places and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.

59 God heard and became furious; he completely rejected Israel.

60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he resided among mankind.

61 He gave up his strength to captivity and his splendor to the hand of a foe.

62 He surrendered his people to the sword because he was enraged with his heritage.

63 Fire consumed his chosen young men, and his young women had no wedding songs.

64 His priests fell by the sword, and the widows could not lament.

65 The Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a warrior from the effects of wine.

66 He beat back his foes; he gave them lasting disgrace.

67 He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

70 He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

71 he brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over his people Jacob — over Israel, his inheritance.

72 He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.