¶ 1 A Psalme to give instruction committed to Asaph. Heare my doctrine, O my people: incline your eares vnto the wordes of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of olde.
3 Which we haue heard and knowen, and our fathers haue tolde vs.
4 Wee will not hide them from their children but to the generation to come we wil shewe the praises of the Lord his power also, and his wonderful woorkes that he hath done:
5 How he established a testimonie in Iaakob, and ordeined a Law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they shoulde teache their children:
6 That the posteritie might knowe it, and the children, which should be borne, should stand vp, and declare it to their children:
7 That they might set their hope on God, and not forget the workes of God but keepe his commandements:
8 And not to bee as their fathers, a disobedient and rebellious generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirite was not faithfull vnto God.
9 The children of Ephraim being armed and shooting with the bowe, turned backe in the day of battell.
10 They kept not the couenant of God, but refused to walke in his Lawe,
11 And forgate his Actes, and his wonderfull woorkes that he had shewed them.
12 Hee did marueilous thinges in the sight of their fathers in the lande of Egypt: euen in the fielde of Zoan.
13 He deuided the Sea, and led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heape.
14 In the day time also hee led them with a cloude, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He claue the rockes in the wildernes, and gaue them drinke as of the great depths.
16 He brought floods also out of the stonie rocke; so that hee made the waters to descend like the riuers.
17 Yet they sinned stil against him, and prouoked the Highest in the wildernesse,
18 And tempted God in their heartes in requiring meate for their lust.
19 They spake against God also, saying, Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse?
20 Behold, he smote the rocke, that the water gushed out, and the streames ouerflowed: can hee giue bread also? or prepare flesh for his people?
21 Therefore the Lord heard and was angrie, and the fire was kindled in Iaakob, and also wrath came vpon Israel,
22 Because they beleeued not in God, and trusted not in his helpe.
23 Yet he had comanded the clouds aboue, and had opened the doores of heauen,
24 And had rained downe MAN vpon them for to eate, and had giuen them of the wheate of heauen.
25 Man did eate the bread of Angels: hee sent them meate ynough.
26 He caused the Eastwinde to passe in the heauen, and through his power he brought in the Southwinde.
27 Hee rained flesh also vpon them as dust, and feathered foule as the sand of the sea.
28 And hee made it fall in the middes of their campe euen round about their habitations.
29 So they did eate and were well filled: for he gaue them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lust, but the meate was yet in their mouthes,
31 When the wrath of God came euen vpon them, and slew the strongest of them, and smote downe the chosen men in Israel.
32 For all this, they sinned stil, and beleeued not his wonderous woorkes.
33 Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily.
34 And when hee slewe them, they sought him and they returned, and sought God earely.
35 And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not vpright with him: neither were they faithfull in his couenant.
38 Yet he being merciful forgaue their iniquitie, and destroied them not, but oft times called backe his anger, and did not stirre vp all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were flesh: yea, a winde that passeth and commeth not againe.
40 How oft did they prouoke him in the wildernes? and grieue him in the desert?
41 Yea, they returned, and tempted God, and limited the Holie one of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he deliuered them from the enemie,
43 Nor him that set his signes in Egypt, and his wonders in the fielde of Zoan,
44 And turned their riuers into blood, and their floods, that they could not drinke.
45 Hee sent a swarme of flies among them, which deuoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gaue also their fruites vnto the caterpiller, and their labour vnto the grassehopper.
47 He destroied their vines with haile, and their wilde figge trees with the hailestone.
48 He gaue their cattell also to the haile, and their flockes to the thunderboltes.
49 Hee cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger, indignation and wrath, and vexation by the sending out of euill Angels.
50 He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soule from death, but gaue their life to the pestilence,
51 And smote al the firstborne in Egypt, euen the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But hee made his people to goe out like sheepe, and led them in the wildernes like a flocke.
53 Yea, he caried them out safely, and they feared not, and the Sea couered their enemies.
54 And he brought them vnto the borders of his Sanctuarie: euen to this Mountaine, which his right hand purchased.
55 He cast out the heathe also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet they tempted, and prouoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies,
57 But turned backe and delt falsely like their fathers: they turned like a deceitfull bowe.
58 And they prouoked him to anger with their high places, and mooued him to wrath with their grauen images.
59 God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel,
60 So that hee forsooke the habitation of Shilo, euen the Tabernacle where hee dwelt among men,
61 And deliuered his power into captiuitie, and his beautie into the enemies hand.
62 And hee gaue vp his people to the sworde, and was angrie with his inheritance.
63 The fire deuoured their chosen men, and their maides were not praised.
64 Their Priestes fell by the sworde, and their widowes lamented not.
65 But the Lord awaked as one out of sleepe, and as a strong man that after his wine crieth out,
66 And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetuall shame.
67 Yet he refused the tabernacle of Ioseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Iudah, and mount Zion which he loued.
69 And he built his Sanctuarie as an high palace, like the earth, which he stablished for euer.
70 He chose Dauid also his seruant, and tooke him from the shepefolds.
71 Euen from behinde the ewes with yong brought he him to feede his people in Iaakob, and his inheritance in Israel.
72 So he fed them according to the simplicitie of his heart, and guided them by the discretion of his hands.