Maschil of Asaph.
Give ear, O my people, to my {Or, teaching}law:
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,
And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.
For he established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which he commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born;
Who should arise and tell them to their children,
That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep his commandments,
And might not be as their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation {Or, that prepared not their hearts}that set not their heart aright,
And whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
Turned back in the day of battle.
They kept not the covenant of God,
And refused to walk in his law;
And they forgat his doings,
And his wondrous works that he had showed them.
Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through;
And he made the waters to stand as a heap.
In the day-time also he led them with a cloud,
And all the night with a light of fire.
He clave rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock,
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
Yet went they on still to sin against him,
To rebel against the Most High in {Or, a dry land}the desert.
And they tempted God in their heart
By asking food {Or, for themselves}according to their desire.
Yea, they spake against God;
They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out,
And streams overflowed;
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide flesh for his people?
Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob,
And anger also went up against Israel;
Because they believed not in God,
And trusted not in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above,
And opened the doors of heaven;
And he rained down manna upon them to eat,
And gave them {Hebrew: grain.}food from heaven.
{Or, Every one}Man did eat the bread of the mighty:
He sent them food to the full.
He {Hebrew: led forth the east wind.}caused the east wind to blow in the heavens;
And by his power he guided the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them as the dust,
And winged birds as the sand of the seas:
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their habitations.
So they did eat, and were well filled;
And he gave them their own desire.
They were not estranged from that which they desired,
Their food was yet in their mouths,
When the anger of God went up against them,
And slew of the fattest of them,
And smote down the young men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still,
And believed not in his wondrous works.
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,
And their years in terror.
When he slew them, then they inquired after him;
And they returned and sought God earnestly.
And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their redeemer.
But they flattered him with their mouth,
And lied unto him with their tongue.
For their heart was not {Or, stedfast}right with him,
Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:
Yea, many a time turned he his anger away,
And did not stir up all his wrath.
And he remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness,
And grieve him in the desert!
And they turned again and tempted God,
And {Or, limited}provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand,
Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
How he set his signs in Egypt,
And his wonders in the field of Zoan,
And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
And frogs, which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar,
And their labor unto the locust.
He {Hebrew: killed.}destroyed their vines with hail,
And their sycomore-trees with {Or, great hailstones}frost.
He gave over their cattle also to the hail,
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,
{Hebrew: A sending.}A band of angels of evil.
He {Hebrew: levelled.}made a path for his anger;
He spared not their soul from death,
But gave {Or, their beasts to the murrain}their life over to the pestilence,
And smote all the first-born in Egypt,
The {Hebrew: beginning. See Deuteronomy 21:17.}chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
But he led forth his own people like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
And he led them safely, so that they feared not;
But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And he brought them to {Or, his holy border}the border of his sanctuary,
To this {Or, mountain land}mountain, which his right hand had gotten.
He drove out the nations also before them,
And allotted them for an inheritance by line,
And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
And kept not his testimonies;
But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers:
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
When God heard this, he was wroth,
And greatly abhorred Israel;
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
The tent which he placed among men;
And delivered his strength into captivity,
And his glory into the adversary's hand.
He gave his people over also unto the sword,
And was wroth with his inheritance.
Fire devoured their young men;
And their virgins had no marriage-song.
Their priests fell by the sword;
And their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
And he smote his adversaries backward:
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
But chose the tribe of Judah,
The mount Zion which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which he hath established for ever.
He chose David also his servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds:
From following the ewes that have their young he brought him,
To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Querverweise zu Psalm 78,72 Ps 78,72
When I shall {Hebrew: take.}find the set time,I will judge uprightly.
And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great lovingkindness, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great lovingkindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
And now, O Jehovah my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in.
And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Give thy servant therefore an {Hebrew: hearing.}understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this thy {Hebrew: heavy.}great people?
A Psalm of David.I will sing of lovingkindness and justice:Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I sing praises.
I will {Or, give heed unto the perfect way}behave myself wisely in a perfect way:Oh when wilt thou come unto me?I will walk within my house {Or, in the integrity of my heart}with a perfect heart.
I will set no base thing before mine eyes:I hate {Or, the doing of unfaithfulness}the work of them that turn aside;It shall not cleave unto me.
A perverse heart shall depart from me:I will know no {Or, evil person}evil thing.
Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I destroy:Him that hath a high look and a proud heart will I not suffer.
Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me:He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall minister unto me.
He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house:He that speaketh falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes.
Morning by morning will I destroy all the wicked of the land;To cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of Jehovah.
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.
And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness unto all his people.
And Jehovah said unto me, Take unto thee yet again the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not {Or, miss}visit those that are {Or, lost}cut off, neither will seek {Or, the young}those that are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which {Hebrew: standeth.}is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces.
Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and mine ordinances;
not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
because David did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.
And {Or, he shall be of quick understanding}his {Hebrew: scent.}delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears;
but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the {Or, land}earth; and he shall smite the {Or, land}earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, {Or, holding a straight course in the word of truth Or, rightly dividing the word of truth}handling aright the word of truth.
And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; to whom also he bare witness and said, {1 Samuel 13:14; Psalm 89:20.}I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who shall do all my {Greek: wills.}will.
But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
For David, after he had {Or, served his own generation by the counsel of God, fell asleep Or, served his own generation, fell asleep by the counsel of God}in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: