---
title: Psalm 78
slug: kjv/psalm-78
createdAt: 2024-08-28T02:45:44.671Z
---

**1 **\{Maschil of Asaph.} 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 inquired 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.