A contemplation by Asaph.
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1Hear my teaching, my people.
- Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
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2I will open my mouth in a parable.
- I will utter dark sayings of old,
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3Which we have heard and known,
- and our fathers have told us.
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4We will not hide them from their children,
- telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh,
- his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.
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5For he established a testimony in Jacob,
- and appointed a teaching in Israel,
- which he commanded our fathers,
- that they should make them known to their children;
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6that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;
- who should arise and tell their children,
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7that they might set their hope in God,
- and not forget the works of God,
- but keep his commandments,
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8and might not be as their fathers,
- a stubborn and rebellious generation,
- a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal,
- whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
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9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
- turned back in the day of battle.
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10They didn’t keep God’s covenant,
- and refused to walk in his law.
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11They forgot his doings,
- his wondrous works that he had shown them.
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12He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers,
- in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
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13He split the sea, and caused them to pass through.
- He made the waters stand as a heap.
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14In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,
- and all night with a light of fire.
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15He split rocks in the wilderness,
- and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
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16He brought streams also out of the rock,
- and caused waters to run down like rivers.
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17Yet they still went on to sin against him,
- to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
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18They tempted God in their heart
- by asking food according to their desire.
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19Yes, they spoke against God.
- They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
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20Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,
- and streams overflowed.
- Can he give bread also?
- Will he provide flesh for his people?”
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21Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry.
- A fire was kindled against Jacob,
- anger also went up against Israel,
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22because they didn’t believe in God,
- and didn’t trust in his salvation.
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23Yet he commanded the skies above,
- and opened the doors of heaven.
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24He rained down manna on them to eat,
- and gave them food from the sky.
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25Man ate the bread of angels.
- He sent them food to the full.
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26He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.
- By his power he guided the south wind.
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27He rained also flesh on them as the dust;
- winged birds as the sand of the seas.
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28He let them fall in the midst of their camp,
- around their habitations.
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29So they ate, and were well filled.
- He gave them their own desire.
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30They didn’t turn from their cravings.
- Their food was yet in their mouths,
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31when the anger of God went up against them,
- killed some of their fattest,
- and struck down the young men of Israel.
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32For all this they still sinned,
- and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
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33Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,
- and their years in terror.
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34When he killed them, then they inquired after him.
- They returned and sought God earnestly.
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35They remembered that God was their rock,
- the Most High God, their redeemer.
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36But they flattered him with their mouth,
- and lied to him with their tongue.
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37For their heart was not right with him,
- neither were they faithful in his covenant.
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38But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them.
- Yes, many times he turned his anger away,
- and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
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39He remembered that they were but flesh,
- a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
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40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,
- and grieved him in the desert!
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41They turned again and tempted God,
- and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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42They didn’t remember his hand,
- nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
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43how he set his signs in Egypt,
- his wonders in the field of Zoan,
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44he turned their rivers into blood,
- and their streams, so that they could not drink.
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45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
- and frogs, which destroyed them.
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46He gave also their increase to the caterpillar,
- and their labor to the locust.
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47He destroyed their vines with hail,
- their sycamore fig trees with frost.
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48He gave over their livestock also to the hail,
- and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
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49He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,
- wrath, indignation, and trouble,
- and a band of angels of evil.
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50He made a path for his anger.
- He didn’t spare their soul from death,
- but gave their life over to the pestilence,
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51and struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
- the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
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52But he led forth his own people like sheep,
- and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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53He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid,
- but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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54He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,
- to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
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55He also drove out the nations before them,
- allotted them for an inheritance by line,
- and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
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56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
- and didn’t keep his testimonies;
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57but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.
- They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
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58For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
- and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
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59When God heard this, he was angry,
- and greatly abhorred Israel;
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60So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh,
- the tent which he placed among men;
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61and delivered his strength into captivity,
- his glory into the adversary’s hand.
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62He also gave his people over to the sword,
- and was angry with his inheritance.
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63Fire devoured their young men.
- Their virgins had no wedding song.
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64Their priests fell by the sword,
- and their widows couldn’t weep.
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65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,
- like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
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66He struck his adversaries backward.
- He put them to a perpetual reproach.
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67Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph,
- and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
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68But chose the tribe of Judah,
- Mount Zion which he loved.
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69He built his sanctuary like the heights,
- like the earth which he has established forever.
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70He also chose David his servant,
- and took him from the sheepfolds;
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71from following the ewes that have their young,
- he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,
- and Israel, his inheritance.
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72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
- and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.