Psalms 73, 77 & 78

Psalm 73:1-28 (NASB)
¹ Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart!
² But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, My steps had almost slipped.
³ For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
⁴ For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat.
⁵ They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them.
⁷ Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot.
⁸ They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high.
⁹ They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people return to this place, And waters of abundance are drunk by them.
¹¹ They say, "How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?"
¹² Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.
¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence;
¹⁴ For I have been stricken all day long And chastened every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, "I will speak thus," Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
¹⁶ When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight
¹⁷ Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end.
¹⁸ Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction.
¹⁹ How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
²⁰ Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form.
²¹ When my heart was embittered And I was pierced within,
²² Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.
²³ Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand.
²⁴ With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
²⁷ For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
²⁸ But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.

Psalm 77:1-20 (NASB)
¹ My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.
² In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; My soul refused to be comforted.
³ When I remember God, then I am disturbed; When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint. Selah.
⁴ You have held my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
⁵ I have considered the days of old, The years of long ago.
⁶ I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart, And my spirit ponders:
⁷ Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again?
⁸ Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah.
¹⁰ Then I said, "It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed."
¹¹ I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
¹² I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.
¹³ Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?
¹⁴ You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples.
¹⁵ You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
¹⁶ The waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled.
¹⁷ The clouds poured out water; The skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there.
¹⁸ The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹ Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known.
²⁰ You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 78:1-72 (NASB)
¹ Listen, O my people, to my instruction; 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 conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
⁵ For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children,
⁶ That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children,
⁷ That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments,
⁸ And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
⁹ The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law;
¹¹ They forgot His deeds And His miracles that He had shown them.
¹² He wrought wonders before 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 stand up like a heap.
¹⁴ Then He led them with the cloud by day And all the night with a light of fire.
¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
¹⁶ He brought forth streams also from the rock And caused waters to run down like rivers.
¹⁷ Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire.
¹⁹ Then 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 were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?"
²¹ Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel,
²² Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation.
²³ Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven;
²⁴ He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them food from heaven.
²⁵ Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind.
²⁷ When He rained meat upon them like the dust, Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,
²⁸ Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their dwellings.
²⁹ So they ate and were well filled, And their desire He gave to them.
³⁰ Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths,
³¹ The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.
³² In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works.
³³ So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror.
³⁴ When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God;
³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
³⁶ But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue.
³⁷ For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
³⁸ But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath.
³⁹ Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert!
⁴¹ Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember His power, The day when He redeemed them from the adversary,
⁴³ When He performed His signs in Egypt And His marvels in the field of Zoan,
⁴⁴ And turned their rivers to blood, And their streams, they could not drink.
⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them, And frogs which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave also their crops to the grasshopper And the product of their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hailstones And their sycamore trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones And their herds to bolts of lightning.
⁴⁹ He sent upon them His burning anger, Fury and indignation and trouble, A band of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave over their life to the plague,
⁵¹ And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, The first issue of their virility in the tents of Ham.
⁵² But He led forth His own people like sheep And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
⁵³ He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies.
⁵⁴ So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country which His right hand had gained.
⁵⁵ He also drove out the nations before them And apportioned them for an inheritance by measurement, And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies,
⁵⁷ But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.
⁵⁹ When God heard, He was filled with wrath And greatly abhorred Israel;
⁶⁰ So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He had pitched among men,
⁶¹ And gave up His strength to captivity And His glory into the hand of the adversary.
⁶² He also delivered His people to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.
⁶³ Fire devoured His young men, And His virgins had no wedding songs.
⁶⁴ His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, Like a warrior overcome by wine.
⁶⁶ He drove His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting reproach.
⁶⁷ He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved.
⁶⁹ And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever.
⁷⁰ He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹ From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance.
⁷² So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.