- A Psalme to giue instruction comitted to Asaph.
- 1
- 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, & 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, & his wonderful woorkes that he hath done:
- 5
- How he established a testimonie in Iaakob, and ordeined a Law in Israel, which he commaunded our fathers, that they shoulde teache their children:
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- 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 & 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, & 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, & 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, & destroied them not, but oft times called backe his anger, & did not stirre vp all his wrath.
- 39
- For he remebred 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, & tempted God, and limited the Holie one of Israel.
- 42
- They remebred 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, & 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, & 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, & 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 & 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, & 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.
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