Psalm 78

I was very tempted to leave this Psalm out or at least use a black highlighter over the parts that are uncomfortable.  But, I believe that God is good.  That his word is sharper than a double edged sword...and often things that seem horrible and cruel are for our own good - gifts even.  They draw us to Him.  Nothing is better than being close to Him.

¹ My people, hear my teaching;

   listen to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth with a parable;

   I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

³ things we have heard and known,

   things our ancestors have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their descendants;

   we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,

   his power, and the wonders he has done.

⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob

   and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our ancestors

   to teach their children,

⁶ so the next generation would know them,

   even the children yet to be born,

   and they in turn would tell their children.

⁷ Then they would put their trust in God

   and would not forget his deeds

   but would keep his commands.

⁸ They would not be like their ancestors—

   a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose hearts were not loyal to God,

   whose spirits were not faithful to him.

 ⁹ The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
   turned back on the day of battle;
¹⁰ they did not keep God’s covenant
   and refused to live by his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
   the wonders he had shown them.
¹² He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors

   in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹³ He divided the sea and led them through;

   he made the water stand up like a wall.

¹⁴ He guided them with the cloud by day

   and with light from the fire all night.

¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness

   and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

¹⁶ he brought streams out of a rocky crag

   and made water flow down like rivers.

 ¹⁷ But they continued to sin against him,
   rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
¹⁸ They willfully put God to the test
   by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God;
   they said, “Can God really
   spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ True, he struck the rock,
   and water gushed out,
   streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
   Can he supply meat for his people?”
²¹ When the LORD heard them, he was furious;
   his fire broke out against Jacob,
   and his wrath rose against Israel,
²² for they did not believe in God
   or trust in his deliverance.
²³ Yet he gave a command to the skies above
   and opened the doors of the heavens;
²⁴ he rained down manna for the people to eat,

   he gave them the grain of heaven.

²⁵ Human beings ate the bread of angels;

   he sent them all the food they could eat.

²⁶ He let loose the east wind from the heavens

   and by his power made the south wind blow.

²⁷ He rained meat down on them like dust,

   birds like sand on the seashore.

²⁸ He made them come down inside their camp,

   all around their tents.

²⁹ They ate till they were gorged—

   he had given them what they craved.

³⁰ But before they turned from what they craved,

   even while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹ God’s anger rose against them;

   he put to death the sturdiest among them,

   cutting down the young men of Israel.

 ³² In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
   in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
³³ So he ended their days in futility
   and their years in terror.
³⁴ Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
   they eagerly turned to him again.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their Rock,

   that God Most High was their Redeemer.

³⁶ But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

   lying to him with their tongues;

³⁷ their hearts were not loyal to him,

   they were not faithful to his covenant.

³⁸ Yet he was merciful;

   he forgave their iniquities

   and did not destroy them.

Time after time he restrained his anger

   and did not stir up his full wrath.

³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,

   a passing breeze that does not return.

 ⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
   and grieved him in the wasteland!
⁴¹ Again and again they put God to the test;
   they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not remember his power—
   the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

⁴³ the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,

   his wonders in the region of Zoan.

⁴⁴ He turned their river into blood;

   they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵ He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

   and frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

   their produce to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail

   and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail,

   their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹ He unleashed against them his hot anger,

   his wrath, indignation and hostility—

   a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰ He prepared a path for his anger;

   he did not spare them from death

   but gave them over to the plague.

⁵¹ He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

   the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

⁵² But he brought his people out like a flock;

   he led them like sheep through the wilderness.

⁵³ He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

   but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,

   to the hill country his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them

   and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

   he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

 ⁵⁶ But they put God to the test

   and rebelled against the Most High;

   they did not keep his statutes.

⁵⁷ Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,

   as unreliable as a faulty bow.

⁵⁸ They angered him with their high places;

   they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹ When God heard them, he was furious;

   he rejected Israel completely.

⁶⁰ He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

   the tent he had set up among humans.

⁶¹ He sent the ark of his might into captivity,

   his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

⁶² He gave his people over to the sword;

   he was furious with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire consumed their young men,

   and their young women had no wedding songs;

⁶⁴ their priests were put to the sword,

   and their widows could not weep.

 ⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
   as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
⁶⁶ He beat back his enemies;

   he put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷ Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

   he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,

   Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights,

   like the earth that he established forever.

⁷⁰ He chose David his servant

   and took him from the sheep pens;

⁷¹ from tending the sheep he brought him

   to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

   of Israel his inheritance.

⁷² And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;

   with skillful hands he led them.

I have "bolded" all words that remind me of the following gifts:

Gifts of God's nature    -    Gifts He offers us    -   Gifts he asks of us