The 78th Psalm
| 1. Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. | 1. O pray, may my eye turn unto God who writes of miracles. Lo, time, love, hope. |
| 2. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: | 2. By all of my mind I'll speak out. Lo, I wrap truth in wierd analogies. |
| 3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. | 3. The old ink has vouchsafed what word under Heaven? Ah, "Warn!" |
| 4. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. | 4. We shall confirm to their kids what the chosen men of old hath done, and where; to learn the worth of their enlightened thoughts, their most inspiring war deeds. |
| 5. 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: | 5. The proper Jewish mom hath told her kids daily about Abraham and Isaac, and then if new wicked influences menace them, they halt sin, hold on to their roots. |
| 6. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: | 6. To let each choice son and daughter bred, see what noble works the honored men in olden time have done; which rich truth might thrill them. |
| 7. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: | 7. It's not good to knock my truth; a few men might then go to the dire depths of shame-breeding paths. |
| 8. And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. | 8. Will these babes of ours be good or bad. That depends. Good tots, hating that sin, that error that Satan wants them in, if we urge a great inner anti-sin in their hearts. |
| 9. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. | 9. Taking blame, the northern tribe of cry-baby cowards did run, hide and flee the campaign. |
| 10. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; | 10. Lo, not knowing the Lord they've sunk anew to a disaffected path; |
| 11. And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them. | 11. And seeketh not, and hath hid from what? His shrewd, sage words. |
| 12. Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. | 12. In thy flight from the Nile, in zone east of the river, the hand of God split sea in half. Thugs died. |
| 13. He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap. | 13. He has dumped a devastating disaster and death on the much hated steeds. Waste one Pharaoh! |
| 14. In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. | 14. The tuft of white in the air will lead them ahead. Holy candle hath lit dim goings. |
| 15. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. | 15. Sad trek? Draught which had delight, even like the vast ocean, seeps from rent stone. |
| 16. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. | 16. H-two-O gushed from cracked stone; reveals unusual resort. Drink at it, shower, boat! |
| 17. And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. | 17. The mighty God is irked by non-valiant men. They sin. In His throne's power, He gets mad. |
| 18. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. | 18. The thin, slim, hungry men did beg to partake of the dietary treats. |
| 19. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? | 19. Teeny faith! The Lord's Yankee genius is able to dish a sandwich, egg, and a pastry! |
| 20. Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? | 20. Ah, doth God produce potable flows from the harsh stones for survival? He does. Big help! We need rather the meat, the cheese, and cakes to live. |
| 21. Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; | 21. His children in disaster area keep order? God had an absolute fit at the news of amoral and arrogant Jewish scalawags! |
| 22. Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: | 22. Did vain, evil, inconstant guys burn to death? He's able to see it done! |
| 23. Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, | 23. Aha! God had dumped much bread onto the chosen, from the oven of loaves he'd done. |
| 24. And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. | 24. Had an humane covenant? Amen! He had not deprived them of a dinner. Gnaw on that food! |
| 25. Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full. | 25. O, the needs! God made the tasteful manna to fill them. |
| 26. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. | 26. How the unchained air hath been blown up west and north by the divine gust. Oh, wide oases! |
| 27. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: | 27. Israel, a host, needed more stuff to keep fed, as a thousand hens fell. Hail hash and stew! |
| 28. And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. | 28. Outside His heir children bite that fat bird meat, fill up on that manna too. |
| 29. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; | 29. Ah! a wonder! Lo God's delivered them sweet feathery relief in the wild. |
| 30. They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, | 30. The fattest generation, it wisheth trouble. They murmured tiresomely. What whiners! |
| 31. The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. | 31. He saw most red at the sight of malcontent men and women who feasted. Ah, He offed the most corpulent. |
| 32. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. | 32. Thankless in a world of errors, of devils in us, they'd not bend to His will. |
| 33. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. | 33. Their raunchy sin, behavior done yesterday, did insure them a rotten life. |
| 34. When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God. | 34. They, worry? When Hell did ensnare them, God threatened the quite naughty freed humans. |
| 35. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. | 35. The mad God hath cringed. Meek, they regretted their harebrained whoredoms. |
| 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. | 36. The truth? Humanity withheld it from God. His love in eternity ? He withheld it! Sure netted shame. |
| 37. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. | 37. Heaven hath withdrawn inheritance from these egotists. Why if it isn't the terror! |
| 38. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. | 38. Did one annoyed unhappy Lord inhibit that fierce vengeful ire from time to time, and, sans that mad rage, quit hurting his wayward sons? Yeah, absolutely! |
| 39. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. | 39. Note: ache due! The men's breath was a temporary whiff, and that's why an irate God let them be. |
| 40. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! | 40. Do the warm thirsting folks ever dishonor Him? Then the divine eye did weep! |
| 41. Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. | 41. A Stop-the-Lord Federation mumbled inane talk: "Hey! cheat God, deny Deity!" |
| 42. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. | 42. He'd hereby send the men wrath; remind them they need rely on him to have freedom. |
| 43. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan. | 43. Thus he let Zion go. Why? When frogs did sting Pharoah, when a son died: finis! |
| 44. And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. | 44. Did that very odd red current inundation then tend to kill fish? Abhor loath odors! |
| 45. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. | 45. Thus he, God, covered them with horrid swarms of insects; they died of the germs and flesh venom. |
| 46. He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust. | 46. A loath bug there ate the tree. Lo, voracious insects ate up all their lunch or dinner. |
| 47. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost. | 47. Via his cold whim he destroyeth these, their wines and forest territory. |
| 48. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. | 48. O, the Lord shocked all the sheep; after that the bulls too, via hot cutting rain. |
| 49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. | 49. Howling Egyptians caught in God's mire, as thrashing forces from Heaven beset, innundate, and entomb thee, Nile land! |
| 50. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; | 50. The irate God erupteth; therefore in his wrath they've no salvation from disease, coma, the plague. Bleed! |
| 51. And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: | 51. I gotcha, son! By lethal strength hath he entombed certain riff-raff in their stone temples. |
| 52. But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. | 52. Despite enemies, God now urged his folk to flee home, led path back unto Israel with kind help. |
| 53. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. | 53. My Lord released you; he defeateth the evil heathen foes and entombs them in the waters. |
| 54. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. | 54. I, God, have bid them come forth unhurt, then south, this drab harsh way to high-up sacred Sinai, and thence north. |
| 55. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. | 55. With the eminent credential of the Lord, the men in all tribes did have the beatific treat: a share in the booted enemy's land and houses. |
| 56. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: | 56. Not meek, they did sink to empty depths; O God notes viperish men that got death. |
| 57. But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. | 57. Like a wildly untrue, unstable, ineffectual dart, he did cut off the law breakers; burned they take hit, die. |
| 58. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. | 58. Hey! he that hath envied their gods' improper fame got glum and sick. Who? I Am. Not jovial, his ire grew very hot. |
| 59. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: | 59. Ah, how the Lord has anger when he regards a tribe's tawdry idol. |
| 60. So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; | 60. O, God hath chosen arch-foe heathens whom hell infects, to obtain the temple ark. |
| 61. And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. | 61. Very hotly, indignantly, he did hand over his gems to pathetic tainted sinners. |
| 62. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. | 62. He vieweth what Israel's sons worship under: an idol! Ah, woe! The north go captive. |
| 63. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. | 63. A grim turn here: he cremated their native sons; women did groan: "I meet no fine guy!" |
| 64. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation. | 64. Battle's heat? When holy men did die in it, damsels wept not for warriors. |
| 65. Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. | 65. O ya! When God's alarm went off, he, like one that hath been drunk, emitteth a loud noise: "Apostasy!" |
| 66. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach. | 66. Oh dear! The pain! As he hits these more Satanic people in the rump, the tender rump! |
| 67. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: | 67. "Praise the esteemed fourth brother of mine?" Ha! eleventh son of Jacob reproached! |
| 68. But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. | 68. Oh mob of north ceded; he utilizeth south bunch, via the Jew. |
| 69. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. | 69. Like a wise architect, he hath charted his huge faith shrine by the lush olive peaks' herbal land. |
| 70. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: | 70. The Lord of the Cosmos has loved this naive kid of a shepherdsman. |
| 71. From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. | 71. This low boy charged with the life of pregnant sheep, has just been made in charge of our whole religion: "O! I'm it?!" |
| 72. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. | 72. So since then, this destined farm boy hath taken mighty fine care of his God's huge truth-shielded fold. |