Psalms

A Maskil of Asaph.

1Give ear, O my people, to my instruction;listen to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in parables;I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

3that we have heard and knownand our fathers have relayed to us.

4We will not hide them from their childrenbut will declare to the next generationthe praises of the LORD and His mightand the wonders He has performed.

5For He established a testimony in Jacoband appointed a law in Israel,which He commanded our fathersto teach to their children,

6that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children

7that they should put their confidence in God,not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

8Then they will not be like their fathers,a stubborn and rebellious generation,whose heart was not loyal,whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9The archers of Ephraimturned back on the day of battle.

10They failed to keep God’s covenantand refused to live by His law.

11They forgot what He had done,the wonders He had shown them.

12He worked wonders before their fathersin the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

13He split the sea and brought them through;He set the waters upright like a wall.

14He led them with a cloud by dayand with a light of fire all night.

15He split the rocks in the wildernessand gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

16He brought streams from the stoneand made water flow down like rivers.

17But they continued to sin against Him,rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18They willfully tested Godby demanding the food they craved.

19They spoke against God, saying,“Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

20When He struck the rock, water gushed outand torrents raged.But can He also give breador supply His people with meat?”

21Therefore the LORD heardand was filled with wrath;so a fire was kindled against Jacob,and His anger flared against Israel,

22because they did not believe Godor rely on His salvation.

23Yet He commanded the clouds aboveand opened the doors of the heavens.

24He rained down manna for them to eat;He gave them grain from heaven.

25Man ate the bread of angels;He sent them food in abundance.

26He stirred the east wind from the heavensand drove the south wind by His might.

27He rained meat on them like dust,and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

28He felled them in the midst of their camp,all around their dwellings.

29So they ate and were well filled,for He gave them what they craved.

30Yet before they had filled their desire,with the food still in their mouths,

31God’s anger flared against them,and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

33So He ended their days in futility,and their years in sudden terror.

34When He slew them, they would seek Him;they repented and searched for God.

35And they remembered that God was their Rock,that God Most Highwas their Redeemer.

36But they deceived Him with their mouths,and lied to Him with their tongues.

37Their hearts were disloyal to Him,and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

38And yet He was compassionate;He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.He often restrained His angerand did not unleash His full wrath.

39He remembered that they were but flesh,a passing breeze that does not return.

40How often they disobeyed Him in the wildernessand grieved Him in the desert!

41Again and again they tested Godand provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

43when He performed His signs in Egyptand His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

44He turned their rivers to blood,and from their streams they could not drink.

45He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,and frogs that devastated them.

46He gave their crops to the grasshopper,the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47He killed their vines with hailstonesand their sycamore-figs with sleet.

48He abandoned their cattle to the hailand their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49He unleashed His fury against them,wrath, indignation, and calamity— a band of destroying angels.

50He cleared a path for His anger;He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

51He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,the virility in the tents of Ham.

52He led out His people like sheepand guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

53He led them safely, so they did not fear,but the sea engulfed their enemies.

54He brought them to His holy land,to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

55He drove out nations before themand apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56But they tested and disobeyed God Most High,for they did not keep His decrees.

57They turned back and were faithless like their fathers,twisted like a faulty bow.

58They enraged Him with their high placesand provoked His jealousy with their idols.

59On hearing it, God was furiousand rejected Israel completely.

60He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,the tent He had pitched among men.

61He delivered His strength to captivity,and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

62He surrendered His people to the swordbecause He was enraged by His heritage.

63Fire consumed His young men,and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

64His priests fell by the sword,but their widows could not lament.

65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

66He beat back His foes;He put them to everlasting shame.

67He rejected the tent of Josephand refused the tribe of Ephraim.

68But He chose the tribe of Judah,Mount Zion, which He loved.

69He built His sanctuary like the heights,like the earth He has established forever.

70He chose David His servantand took him from the sheepfolds;

71from tending the ewes He brought himto be shepherd of His people Jacob, of Israel His inheritance.

72So David shepherded them with integrity of heartand guided them with skillful hands.

1lắng tai đón nhận lời lẽ miệng tôi.

2công bố điều huyền bí thuở xa xưa.

3do cha ông kể lại cho mình,

4với những kỳ công Chúa đã làm.

5cho con cháu các cụ được tường,

6rồi mai ngày đến lượt kể cho con cháu mình.

7và tuân giữ lệnh Người truyền dạy :

8nòi tâm địa thất thường, dạ bất trung cùng Chúa.

9ngày giao chiến đành phải tháo lui ;

10và chẳng chịu sống theo luật Chúa ;

11những kỳ công Người đã cho chứng kiến.

12tại cánh đồng Xô-an bên Ai-cập.

13dồn nước lại như tường thành sừng sững ;

14và ban đêm lấy lửa hồng soi sáng.

15khiến nước tuôn tràn cho dân được uống,

16nước đổ dạt dào như những con sông.

17phản nghịch cùng Đấng Tối Cao tại miền hoang địa ;

18đòi được ăn cho vừa sở thích.

19liệu Chúa Trời có thể dọn gì cho ta ăn ?

20bánh và thịt nữa chăng ?

21nổi trận lôi đình với Ít-ra-en,

22chẳng cậy trông ơn Người cứu độ.

23lại truyền mở rộng cánh thiên môn ;

24và ban bánh bởi trời nuôi dưỡng họ.

25Chúa gửi đến cho họ dồi dào lương thực.

26dùng sức mạnh đưa ngọn gió nam về.

27chim chóc ê hề như cát đại dương ;

28Người cho rớt vào ngay doanh trại, chung quanh lều dân ở.

29thèm thứ gì, Người đãi cho thứ đó.

30khi miếng ăn còn chưa kịp nuốt,

31Chúa giết liền bọn trai trẻ ấy.

32chẳng buồn tin việc lạ Chúa làm,

33tuổi đời họ, Người chấm dứt thình lình.

34mới trở lại và mau mắn kiếm Người,

35Thiên Chúa Tối Cao là Đấng cứu chuộc họ.

36Miệng họ phỉnh phờ Chúa, lưỡi họ lừa dối Người ;

37chẳng trung thành giữ giao ước của Người.

38nén giận đã bao lần, chẳng khơi bùng nộ khí.

39gió thoảng qua, không hẹn ngày về.

40trêu giận Người giữa chốn hoang liêu.

41làm cực lòng Đức Thánh của Ít-ra-en,

42quên ngày Chúa cứu khỏi ách quân thù.

43và bao dấu lạ trong cánh đồng Xô-an.

44khiến cho dân Ai-cập không thể nào uống nổi.

45Người sai mòng đến cắn, ếch nhái làm tan hoang,

46cào cào ăn lúa má, châu chấu phá mùa màng ;

47mưa đá huỷ vườn nho, sương muối diệt cây vả,

48dịch tàn sát chiên dê, thời khí hại bò lừa.

49đó là cả một đạo hung thần.

50nhưng bắt phải chết vì dịch tễ.

51là tinh hoa của dòng giống họ Kham.

52đem họ vào sa mạc chẳng khác bầy chiên,

53nhưng quân thù họ bị biển khơi chôn vùi.

54là vùng núi non tay Người đã chiếm.

55để họ tới dựng lều cư ngụ.

56lệnh Người đã ban truyền, họ chẳng tuân chẳng giữ.

57luôn tráo trở thất thường như cánh cung sai chạy.

58lại tôn sùng ngẫu tượng khiến Chúa phải ghen tuông.

59quyết tình ruồng rẫy Ít-ra-en,

60và từ bỏ ngôi đền Si-lô là lều Chúa ngự giữa loài người.

61Người cũng để tay thù chiếm đoạt mang đi.

62Người phó mặc họ cho lưỡi gươm hung tàn.

63thiếu nữ chẳng còn được nghe điệu vu quy !

64goá phụ thương chồng mà chẳng được khóc than !

65như tướng hùng đã thấm men say,

66phải thảm thê nhục nhã muôn đời.

67chi tộc Ép-ra-im, Người không tuyển chọn,

68và núi Xi-on, nơi Người ưa thích.

69và cũng như trái đất Người đặt vững muôn đời.

70cho vời đến, lúc đang giữ bầy chiên,

71và Ít-ra-en sản nghiệp của Người.

72tay dẫn đưa khéo léo tài tình.