Psalm 78:40-72 Quoties exacerbaverunt
40 How often the people disobeyed her in the wil-derness *
and offended her in the de-sert!
41 Again and again they temp–ted God *
and provoked the Holy One of Is-rael.
42 They did not remember her pow-er *
in the day when she ransomed them from the en-emy;
43 How she wrought her signs in E-gypt *
and her omens in the field of Zo-an.
44 She turned their rivers into blood, *
so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 She sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up, *
and frogs, which des-troyed them.
46 She gave their crops to the cater-pil-lar, *
the fruit of their toil to the lo-cust.
47 She killed their vines with hail *
and their syca-mores with frost.
48 She delivered their cattle to hail-stones *
and their livestock to hot thun-derbolts.
49 She poured out upon them her blazing an-ger: *
fury, indignation, and distress, a troop of des-troy-ing an-gels.
50 She gave full rein to her anger; she did not spare their souls from death; *
but delivered their lives to the plague.
51 She struck down all the firstborn of E-gypt, *
the flower of humanity in the dwel-lings of Ham.
52 She led out her people like sheep *
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 She led them to safety, and they were not a-fraid; *
but the sea over-whelmed their en-emies.
54 She brought them to her holy land, *
the mountain her right hand had won.
55 She drove out the Canaanites before them and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot; *
she made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 But they tested the Most High God, and de-fied her, *
and did not keep her com-mand-ments.
57 They turned away and were disloyal like their mo-thers; *
they were undependable like a warped bow.
58 They grieved her with their hill-al-tars *
they provoked her displeasure with their i-dols.
59 When God heard this, she was an-gry *
and utterly re-jec-ted Is-rael.
60 She forsook the shrine at Shi-loh, *
the tabernacle where she had lived a-mong her peo-ple.
61 She delivered the ark into cap-tiv-ity, *
her glory into the adver-sa-ry’s hand.
62 She gave her people to the sword *
and was angered against her in-her-itance.
63 The fire consumed their young men; *
there were no wedding songs for their maid-ens.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, *
and their widows made no la-men-ta-tion.
65 Then the LORD woke as though from sleep, *
like a warrior re-freshed with wine.
66 She struck her enemies on the back-side *
and put them to per-pe-tual shame.
67 She rejected the tent of Jo-seph *
and did not choose the tribe of E-phraim;
68 She chose instead the tribe of Ju-dah *
and Mount Zion, which she loved.
69 She built her sanctuary like the heights of hea-ven, *
like the earth which she founded for ev-er.
70 She chose David her ser-vant, *
and took him away from the sheep-folds.
71 She brought him from following the ewes, *
to be a shepherd over Jacob his people and over Israel his in-her-itance.
72 So she shepherded them with a faithful and true heart *
and guided them with the skillfulness of her hands.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spir-it: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ev-er. A-men.