¹ Maschil of Asaph.

Give ear, O my people,
to my law:
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth in a parable:
I will utter dark sayings of old:
³ Which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
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.

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:
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:
⁷ That they might set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments:
⁸ And might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation;
a generation that set not their heart aright [not establishing its heart],
and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim,
being armed,
and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
¹⁰ They kept not the covenant of God,
and refused to walk in his law;
¹¹ And forgat his works,
and his wonders that he had shewed them.

¹² Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt,
in the field of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea,
and caused them to pass through;
and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
¹⁴ In the daytime also he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light of fire.
¹⁵ He clave the rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
¹⁶ He bought streams also out of the rock,
and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ And they sinned yet more against him
by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart
by asking meat for their lust.
¹⁹ Yea, they spake against God;
they said,
Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
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?
²¹ Therefore the LORD heard this,
and was wroth:
so a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and anger also came up against Israel;
²² Because they believed not in God,
and trusted not in his salvation:
²³ Though he had commanded the clouds from above,
and opened the doors of heaven,
²⁴ And had rained down manna upon them to eat,
and had given them of the corn of heaven.
²⁵ Man did eat angels' food:
he sent them meat to the full.

²⁶ He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven:
and by his power he bought in the south wind.
²⁷ He rained flesh also upon them as dust,
and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
round about their habitations.
²⁹ So they did eat,
and were well filled:
for he gave them their own desire;
³⁰ They were not estranged from their lust.
But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
³¹ The wrath of God came upon them,
and slew the fattest of them,
and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

³² For all this they sinned still,
and believed not for his wondrous works.
³³ Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,
and their years in trouble.
³⁴ When he slew them,
then they sought him:
and they returned and enquired early after God.
³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock,
and the high God their redeemer.

³⁶ Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth,
and they lied unto him with their tongues.
³⁷ For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
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.
³⁹ For he remembered that they were but flesh;
a wind that passeth away,
and cometh not again.
⁴⁰ How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness,
and grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹ Yea, they turned back and tempted God,
and limited the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They remembered not his hand,
nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
⁴³ How he had wrought his signs in Egypt,
and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
⁴⁴ And had turned their rivers into blood;
and their floods,
that they could not drink.
⁴⁵ sent divers sorts of flies among them,
which devoured them;
and frogs,
which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ gave also their increase unto the caterpiller,
and their labour unto the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycomore trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave up their cattle also to the hail,
and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ He cast upon them
the fierceness of his anger,
wrath,
and indignation,
and trouble,
by sending evil angels among them.
⁵⁰ He made a way to his anger;
he spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the pestilence;
⁵¹ And smote all the firstborn in Egypt;
the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
⁵² But made his own people to go forth like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ And he led them on safely,
so that they feared not:
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he bought them to the border of his sanctuary,
even to this mountain,
which his right hand had purchased.
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.
⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God,
and kept not his testimonies:
⁵⁷ But turned back,
and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers:
they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
⁵⁹ When God heard this,
he was wroth,
and greatly abhorred Israel:
⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent which he placed among men;
⁶¹ And delivered his strength into captiviy,
and his glory into the enemy's hand.
⁶² He gave his people over also unto the sword;
and was wroth with his inheritance.
⁶³ The fire consumed their young men;
and their maidens were not given to marriage.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword;
and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
⁶⁶ And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts:
he put them to a perpetual reproach.
⁶⁷ Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph,
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah,
the mount Zion which he loved.
⁶⁹ And he built his sanctuary like high palaces,
like the earth which he hath established for ever.
⁷⁰ He chose David also his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds [pens of the flock]:
⁷¹ From following the ewes great with young
he bought him to feed Jacob his people,
and Israel his inheritance.
⁷² So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart;
and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

* NOTE: On Opening and Closing Comments in the Psalms.
[Some commentators take the Psalm in Habakkuk 3 to be a standard model for the Psalms.
Habakkuk's Psalm begins with the name of the composer (Habakkuk) and a musical notation ("upon Shigionoth").
It closes with a dedication or a "send to" notice ("To the chief singer on my stringed instruments").
I have arranged similar material, where it is found in the Psalter, in accord with the model in Habakkuk.]