Psalms and Proverbs in a Month – read today’s “Psalms and Proverbs in a Month” excerpt

reading plan entry for day #16

Psalm 78 (WEBP)

A contemplation by Asaph.

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

Psalm 79 (WEBP)

A Psalm by Asaph.

^[1] God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
They have defiled your holy temple.
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
^[2] They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
^[3] They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem.
There was no one to bury them.
^[4] We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
^[5] How long, Yahweh?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
^[6] Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,
on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,
^[7] for they have devoured Jacob,
and destroyed his homeland.
^[8] Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
for we are in desperate need.
^[9] Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
^[10] Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
^[11] Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
^[12] Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
^[13] So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
We will praise you forever, to all generations.

• Discipleship Tools

• ---

• Psalms in 30 Days