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[Psalm Of Asaph] My people, listen to my teaching, pay attention to what I say.
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I will speak to you in poetry, unfold the mysteries of the past.
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What we have heard and know, what our ancestors have told us
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we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yahweh, his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.
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He instituted a witness in Jacob, he established a law in Israel, he commanded our ancestors to hand it down to their descendants,
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that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,
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and should put their trust in God, never forgetting God's great deeds, always keeping his commands,
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and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.
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The archer sons of Ephraim turned tail when the time came for fighting;
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they failed to keep God's covenant, they refused to follow his Law;
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they had forgotten his great deeds, the marvels he had shown them;
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he did marvels in the sight of their ancestors in Egypt, in the plains of Tanis.
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He split the sea and brought them through, made the waters stand up like a dam;
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he led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with the light of a fire;
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he split rocks in the desert, let them drink as though from the limitless depths;
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he brought forth streams from a rock, made waters flow down in torrents.
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But they only sinned against him more than ever, defying the Most High in barren country;
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they deliberately challenged God by demanding food to their hearts' content.
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They insulted God by saying, 'Can God make a banquet in the desert?
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True, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out and flowed in torrents; but what of bread? Can he give that, can he provide meat for his people?'
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When he heard them Yahweh vented his anger, fire blazed against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
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because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.
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Even so he gave orders to the skies above, he opened the sluice-gates of heaven;
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he rained down manna to feed them, he gave them the wheat of heaven;
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mere mortals ate the bread of the Mighty, he sent them as much food as they could want.
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He roused an east wind in the heavens, despatched a south wind by his strength;
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he rained down meat on them like dust, birds thick as sand on the seashore,
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tumbling into the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling-place.
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They ate as much food as they wanted, he satisfied all their cravings;
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but their cravings were still upon them, the food was still in their mouths,
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when the wrath of God attacked them, slaughtering their strongest men, laying low the flower of Israel.
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Despite all this, they went on sinning, they put no faith in his marvels.
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He made their days vanish in mist, their years in sudden ruin.
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Whenever he slaughtered them, they began to seek him, they turned back and looked eagerly for him,
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recalling that God was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer.
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They tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him;
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their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
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But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath,
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remembering they were creatures of flesh, a breath of wind that passes, never to return.
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How often they defied him in the desert! How often they grieved him in the wastelands!
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Repeatedly they challenged God, provoking the Holy One of Israel,
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not remembering his hand, the time when he saved them from the oppressor,
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he who did his signs in Egypt, his miracles in the plains of Tanis,
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turning their rivers to blood, their streams so that they had nothing to drink.
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He sent horseflies to eat them up, and frogs to devastate them,
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consigning their crops to the caterpillar, the fruit of their hard work to the locust;
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he killed their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost,
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delivering up their cattle to hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
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He loosed against them the full heat of his anger, fury, rage and destruction, a detachment of destroying angels;
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he gave free course to his anger. He did not exempt their own selves from death, delivering up their lives to the plague.
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He struck all the first-born in Egypt, the flower of the youth in the tents of Ham.
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He brought out his people like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert,
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leading them safe and unafraid, while the sea engulfed their enemies.
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He brought them to his holy land, the hill-country won by his right hand;
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he dispossessed nations before them, measured out a heritage for each of them, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
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But still they challenged the Most High God and defied him, refusing to keep his decrees;
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as perverse and treacherous as their ancestors, they gave way like a faulty bow,
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provoking him with their high places, rousing his jealousy with their idols.
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God listened and vented his wrath, he totally rejected Israel;
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he forsook his dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he used to dwell on the earth.
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He abandoned his power to captivity, his splendour to the enemy's clutches;
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he gave up his people to the sword, he vented his wrath on his own heritage.
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Fire devoured their young men, their young girls had no wedding-song;
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their priests fell by the sword and their widows sang no dirge.
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The Lord arose as though he had been asleep, like a strong man fighting-mad with wine,
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he struck his enemies on the rump, and put them to everlasting shame.
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Rejecting the tents of Joseph, passing over the tribe of Ephraim,
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he chose the tribe of Judah, his well-loved mountain of Zion;
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he built his sanctuary like high hills, like the earth set it firm for ever.
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He chose David to be his servant, took him from the sheepfold,
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took him from tending ewes to pasture his servant Jacob, and Israel his heritage.
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He pastured them with unblemished heart, with a sensitive hand he led them.
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