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Psalm 78

1  Hear my teaching, O my people; ♦︎
   incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2  I will open my mouth in a parable; ♦︎
   I will pour forth mysteries from of old,
3  Such as we have heard and known, ♦︎
   which our forebears have told us.
4  We will not hide from their children,
      but will recount to generations to come, ♦︎
   the praises of the Lord and his power
      and the wonderful works he has done.
52  But he led out his people like sheep ♦︎
   and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53  He led them to safety and they were not afraid, ♦︎
   but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54  He brought them to his holy place, ♦︎
   the mountain which his right hand took in possession.
55  He drove out the nations before them
      and shared out to them their inheritance; ♦︎
   he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56  Yet still they tested God Most High
      and rebelled against him, ♦︎
   and would not keep his commandments.
57  They turned back and fell away like their forebears, ♦︎
   starting aside like an unstrung bow.
58  They grieved him with their hill altars ♦︎
   and provoked him to displeasure with their idols.
59  God heard and was greatly angered, ♦︎
   and utterly rejected Israel.
60  He forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, ♦︎
   the tent of his presence on earth.
61  He gave the ark of his strength into captivity, ♦︎
   his splendour into the adversary’s hand.
62  He delivered his people to the sword ♦︎
   and raged against his inheritance.
63  The fire consumed their young men; ♦︎
   there was no one to lament their maidens.
64  Their priests fell by the sword, ♦︎
   and their widows made no lamentation.
65  Then the Lord woke as out of sleep, ♦︎
   like a warrior who had been overcome with wine.
66  He struck his enemies from behind ♦︎
   and put them to perpetual shame.
67  He rejected the tent of Joseph ♦︎
   and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
68  But he chose the tribe of Judah ♦︎
   and the hill of Zion, which he loved.
69  And there he built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven, ♦︎
   like the earth which he founded for ever.
70  He chose David also, his servant, ♦︎
   and took him away from the sheepfolds.
71  From following the ewes with their lambs he took him, ♦︎
   that he might shepherd Jacob his people
      and Israel his inheritance.
72  So he shepherded them with a devoted heart ♦︎
   and with skilful hands he guided them.

13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’^* For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.” ’ ¹⁷The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. ¹⁸But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. ¹⁹And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until morning.’ ²⁰But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them. ²¹Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers apiece. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, ²³he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” ’ ²⁴So they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. ²⁵Moses said, ‘Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. ²⁶For six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none.’

God’s Wrath and Mercy

19 You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ ²⁰But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ ²¹Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? ²²What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; ²³and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea,
‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people”,
   and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”. ’
²⁶ ‘And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”,
   there they shall be called children of the living God.’

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; ²⁸for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.’^{* 29}And as Isaiah predicted,
‘If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors^* to us,
   we would have fared like Sodom
   and been made like Gomorrah.’