Commentary on Psalms - Volume 5

A lesson of Instruction [of] Asaph

1Give ear, O my people! to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my month.

2I will open in a parable my mouth; I will utter enigmas from ancient Sae.

3What we have heard and known, And our’ fathers have related to us,

4We will not conceal from their children to the generation to come, Recounting the praises of Jehovah and his might, And the wonders which he hath done.

5And he established a testimony in, Jacob, And a law he appointed in Israel; For he commanded our fathers To make them known to their children;

6That the generations to come might know them, That the children to be born might arise, And declare them to their children.

7That they might set in God their hope, And not forget the works of God; But that his commandments they might observe,

8And not be as their fathers, A generation rebellious and provoking; A generation which set not their heart might, And whose spirit was not faithful towards God.

9The children of Ephraim, armed [and] shooting with the bow, Were turned back in the day of battle.

10They kept not the covenant of God, And in his law they refused to walk.

11And they forget his works, And the wonders which he had shown them.

12In the sight of their fathers he wrought marvelously; In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through, And made the waters to stand as an heap.

14And he led them by a cloud in the day; And all the night by the light of fire.

15He clave the rocks in the wilderness, And made them to drink in great deeps.

16And he brought forth streams from the rock, And made the waters to descend like rivers.

17Yet they continued still to sin against him, To provoke the Most High in the wilderness.

18And they tempted God in their heart, By asking food for their soul.

19And they spake against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?”

20Behold! he smote the reek, and gush out did the waters; And rivers overflowed. “Can he give bread also? “Will he prepare flesh for his people?”

21Therefore Jehovah heard and was wroth: And a fire was kindled in Jacob: And wrath also ascended against Israel;

22Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in his salvation.

23But he had commanded the clouds from above, And the doors of heaven he had opened,

24And had rained down upon them manna for food, And the corn of heaven he had given them:

25The bread of the mighty ones man had eaten: Meat he had sent them to the full.

26He caused to blow an east wind in the heavens; And he raised up by his power the south wind.

27And he rained upon them flesh as dust, And as the sand of the sea leathered fowl;

28And he caused it to fall in the midst of his camp, Round about his tabernacles.

29And they did eat and were filled exceedingly, And their desire he brought to them.

30They were not estranged from their desire: The meat was still in their mouth,

31When the wrath of God ascended against them, And slew their fat ones, And brought low the chosen of Israel.

32In all these things they sinned still, And believed not his wonders.

33And he consumed in vanity their days, And their years in haste.

34When he slew them, they sought him; They returned, and hastened early to God.

35And they remembered that God was their Rock, And that the Most High God was their Redeemer.

36And they flattered [him] with their mouth, And with their tongue they lied to him:

37But their heart was not right before him, And they were not faithful in his covenant.

38Yet he who is compassionate expiated their iniquity, And did not destroy them: And he multiplied to turn away his anger, And did not stir up all his indignation.

39And he remembered that they were flesh; A breath that passeth, and returneth not.

40How often did they provoke him in the desert, [And] grieve him in the wilderness!

41And they returned and tempted God, And the Holy One of Israel they limited.

42They remembered not his hand In the day that he redeemed them from the oppressor,

43When he set in Egypt his signs, And his miracles in the field of Zoan.

44When he turned into blood their rivers; And their streams, that they might not drink of them.

45He sent among them a mixture which devoured them; And the frog which destroyed them.

46And he gave to the caterpillar their fruit; And their labors to the locusts. ³⁴⁸

47And he destroyed with hail their vine, And their wild fig-trees with hailstones.

48And he gave lip to the hail their cattle, And their flocks to thunderbolts.

49He sent upon them the fierceness of his wrath, Fury, anger, and affliction, A mission of evil angels.

50He made a path for his anger: He kept not from death their soul, And their cattle to the pestilence he shut up.

51And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt: The beginning of [their] strength in the tents of Ham.

52And he made to go forth like sheep his people, And led them like a flock in the wilderness.

53And he conducted them in safety, and they were not afraid: And their enemies cover did the sea.

54And he brought them to the border of his holiness, This mountain, which his right hand acquired.

55And he expelled from before their face the heathen; And made them to fall into the lot of all inheritance; And caused to dwell in their tents the children of Israel.

56But they tempted and provoked God Most High, And his testimonies they kept not.

57And they turned back and dealt perfidiously like their fathers: They started aside like a bow that is deceitful.

58And they provoked him to anger with their high places; And with their graven images they moved him to anger.

59Hear it did God, and was wroth, And he abhorred exceedingly Israel.

60And he forsook the habitation of Shiloh, The tabernacle where he dwelt among men.

61And he gave into captivity his strength, And his beauty into the hand of the enemy.

62And he shut up to the sword his people, And with his own inheritance was wroth.

63Their chosen devour did the fire, And their virgins were not applauded.

64Their priests by the sword did fall; And their widows made no lamentation.

65But the Lord awoke as one asleep, As a mighty man who crieth out by reason of wine.

66And he smote his enemies behind; Everlasting disgrace he put upon them.

67And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, And the tribe of Ephraim he chose not:

68But he chose the tribe of Judah, The mountain of Zion, which he loved:

69And built like high places his sanctuary, Like the earth which he hath founded for ever.

70And he chose David his servant, And took him from the folds of sheep:

71From following the suckling ewes he took him, To feed Jacob his people, And Israel his inheritance:

72And he fed them in the integrity of his heart, And by the prudence of his hands he guided there.