Study Desk

A Lesson of Asaph. O my people, listen to my law; bow your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable; I will pour forth dark sayings of old,

those which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their sons; to declare to the coming generation the praises of Jehovah; yea, His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.

For He raised a Testimony in Jacob, and He set a Law in Israel; which He commanded our fathers to make them known to their sons;

so that a coming generation may know; sons shall be born; they shall rise up and tell their sons,

so that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.

And they shall not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not its heart; yea, whose spirit was not faithful with God.

The sons of Ephraim, armed shooters of bows, turned back in the day of battle.

They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His Law.

And they forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them;

He did wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.

He divided the sea and passed them through; and He caused the waters to stand in a heap.

And He led them by a cloud in the day, and all the night with a light of fire.

He split the rocks in the wilderness and made them drink, as from great floods.

And He brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to go down like rivers.

Yet they sinned still more against Him, to provoke the Most High in the desert.

And they tested God in their heart, by asking food for their souls.

And they spoke against God, saying, Shall God be able to set a table in the wilderness?

Behold! He struck the rock and the waters gushed out, and the torrents were overflowing. Can He also give bread? Will He provide flesh for His people?

So Jehovah heard and He passed over, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and also anger went up against Israel,

because they did not believe in God and trusted not in His salvation.

And He commanded the fine clouds above; and He opened the doors of the heavens;

and He rained on them manna to eat; yea, He gave the grain of the heavens to them.

Man ate the bread of the mighty; He sent them food to the full.

He made an east wind blow in the heavens; and He led out the south wind by His power.

Yea, He rained flesh on them like dust, and winged birds as the sand of the seas.

And He made them fall amidst their camp, all around to their tents.

They ate and were filled full; for their own lust He brought to them.

They were not estranged from their lust; their food was still in their mouths,

and God's wrath came on them and killed the fattest of them; and He struck down the choice ones of Israel.

In all this they sinned still; and they did not believe in His wonderful works;

and He ended their days in vanity, and their years in sudden terror.

When He killed them, then they sought Him; and they turned and searched for God.

So they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.

But they flattered Him with their mouths, and with their tongues lied to Him.

For their heart was not steadfast with Him; and they were not faithful in His covenant.

But He being merciful, atoned for iniquity and did not destroy; and He added to turn away His anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.

For He remembered that they were flesh, a breath passing away, and not returning.

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness, angering Him in the desert!

Yea, they turned back and tested God, and pained the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember His hand, on the day He redeemed them from the enemy;

who set His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan.

He turned their rivers into blood, also their streams that they might not drink.

He sent swarms of flies against them, and they devoured them; also frogs, and they destroyed them.

He also gave their crops to the stripping locust, and their labor to the locust.

He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with sleet.

He gave their cattle up to the hail, and their flocks to bolts of fire.

He sent the heat of His anger on them, fury and indignation and distress, a sending of angels of evils.

He leveled a path for His anger; He did not keep back their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague.

And he struck all the first-born in Egypt, the firstfruits of strength in the tents of Ham;

and He led His people forth like sheep; and He led them like a flock in the wilderness.

And he led them on safely, and they did not fear; but the sea flooded over their enemies.

He brought them to the border of His holy place; this mountain that His right hand had gained.

And He cast out the nations before them; and by a line He made a possession fall to them; and He made the tribes of Israel to live in their tents.

Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God; and they did not keep His testimonies;

but they turned back and betrayed, like their fathers; they veered aside like a deceitful bow.

For they enraged Him with their high places; and they provoked Him to jealousy with their molten images.

When God heard, and He passed over, and He utterly rejected Israel.

And He left the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He dwelt in among men;

and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hands.

And He gave His people to the sword, and was angry with His inheritance.

The fire burned up their young men; and their virgins were not praised.

Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows were not able to weep.

Then the Lord awoke, as one asleep, like a mighty man rejoicing with wine.

And He drove His enemies backward; He put them to a never-ending shame.

And He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

but He elected the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved.

And He built His sanctuary like high places, like the earth He has founded forever.

He also chose His servant David, and took him from the folds of the flock;

He brought him in from the suckling ewes ; He brought him to feed His people Jacob, and His inheritance, Israel.

And he fed them in the integrity of his heart; and guided them in the skillfulness of his hands.