Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
He
established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he
commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation
might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their
children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of
God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not
steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
In
spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not
believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.
When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They
remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.
But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their
heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet
he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he
restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the
desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They
did not remember his power when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels
in the fields of Zoan.
He
rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but he
chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves. He built his sanctuary
like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever. He chose
David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing
ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With
upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.
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