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[A Maskil of Asaph.] My people, hear my instruction; listen to what I say.
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I will declare wise sayings; I will speak mysteries from the past--
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things we have heard and known and that our fathers have passed down to us.
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We must not hide them from their children, but must tell a future generation the praises of the LORD, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed.
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He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children
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so that a future generation-- children yet to be born-- might know. They were to rise and tell their children
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so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God's works, but keep His commandments.
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Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
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The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle.
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They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by His law.
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They forgot what He had done, the wonderful works He had shown them.
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He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, the region of Zoan.
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He split the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall.
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He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night.
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He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
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He brought streams out of the stone and made water flow down like rivers.
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But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
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They deliberately tested God, demanding the food they craved.
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They spoke against God, saying, "Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
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Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out; torrents overflowed. But can He also provide bread or furnish meat for His people?"
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Therefore, the LORD heard and became furious; then fire broke out against Jacob, and anger flared up against Israel
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because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation.
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He gave a command to the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.
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He rained manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.
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People ate the bread of angels. He sent them an abundant supply of food.
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He made the east wind blow in the skies and drove the south wind by His might.
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He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
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He made [them] fall in His camp, all around His tent.
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They ate and were completely satisfied, for He gave them what they craved.
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Before they had satisfied their desire, while the food was still in their mouths,
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God's anger flared up against them, and He killed some of their best men. He struck down Israel's choice young men.
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Despite all this, they kept sinning and did not believe His wonderful works.
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He made their days end in futility, their years in sudden disaster.
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When He killed [some of] them, [the rest] began to seek Him; they repented and searched for God.
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They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer.
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But they deceived Him with their mouths, they lied to Him with their tongues,
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their hearts were insincere toward Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.
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Yet He was compassionate; He atoned for [their] guilt and did not destroy [them]. He often turned His anger aside and did not unleash all His wrath.
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He remembered that they were [only] flesh, a wind that passes and does not return.
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How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert.
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They constantly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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They did not remember His power [shown] on the day He redeemed them from the foe,
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when He performed His miraculous signs in Egypt and His marvels in the region of Zoan.
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He turned their rivers into blood, and they could not drink from their streams.
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He sent among them swarms of flies, which fed on them, and frogs, which devastated them.
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He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
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He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore-fig trees with a flood.
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He handed over their livestock to hail and their cattle to lightning bolts.
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He sent His burning anger against them: fury, indignation, and calamity-- a band of deadly messengers.
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He cleared a path for His anger. He did not spare them from death, but delivered their lives to the plague.
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He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first progeny of the tents of Ham.
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He led His people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.
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He led them safely, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.
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He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand acquired.
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He drove out nations before them. He apportioned their inheritance by lot and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
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But they rebelliously tested the Most High God, for they did not keep His decrees.
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They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow.
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They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their carved images.
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God heard and became furious; He completely rejected Israel.
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He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where He resided among men.
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He gave up His strength to captivity and His splendor to the hand of a foe.
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He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged with His heritage.
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Fire consumed His chosen young men, and His young women had no wedding songs.
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His priests fell by the sword, but the widows could not lament.
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Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a warrior from the effects of wine.
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He beat back His foes; He gave them lasting shame.
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He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
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He chose instead the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.
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He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that He established forever.
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He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;
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He brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over His people Jacob-- over Israel, His inheritance.
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He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.
