Why read Psalm 77?
Read Psalm 77 to reflect on past mistakes and the responsibility to pass faith on to children. The history of the people recounts both disobedience and God's patience so that later generations may learn.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
The complete text of Psalm 77 (78 verses), from Kathisma 11 of the Psalter. The opening words — “Attend, my people, to my law...” — are also the traditional “name” of the psalm: our grandmothers did not say “psalm 77”, but called it by its opening words.
Text of Psalm 77
1. Attend, my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2. I will open my mouth in parables; I will tell what has been from the beginning,
3. What we have heard and known, and what our fathers taught us.
4. They were not hidden from their sons, from generation to generation,
5. Proclaiming the praises of the Lord and His powers and the wonders He has done.
6. And He established a testimony in Jacob and set a law in Israel.
7. What He commanded our fathers to show their sons, that the generation to come might know them,
8. The sons who will be born and will arise and proclaim them to their sons,
9. That they may place their hope in God and not forget God's benefits, and keep His commandments,
10. That they may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation,
11. A generation that did not set its heart aright and did not entrust its spirit to God.
12. The sons of Ephraim, armed archers, turned their backs on the day of war.
13. They did not keep God's covenant and did not wish to walk in His law.
14. And they forgot His benefits and His wonders, which He had shown them,
15. The wonders He did before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Tanis.
16. He split the sea and brought them through; the waters stood like a wall;
17. He guided them by a cloud during the day and all night by a light of fire;
18. He split a rock in the wilderness and gave them abundant water to drink.
19. He brought water out of the rock, and the waters flowed like rivers.
20. But they still sinned before Him; they grieved the Most High in a place without water.
21. And they tempted God in their hearts, asking for food for their souls.
22. And they spoke against God and said: “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?”
23. — For He struck the rock, and waters flowed, and the streams filled with water.
24. Can He also give bread, or can He spread a table for His people?
25. For this the Lord heard and grew angry, and fire was kindled over Jacob, and anger rose over Israel.
26. For they did not believe in God or hope in His deliverance.
27. And He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven
28. And rained manna upon them for food, and gave them heavenly bread.
29. Man ate angels' bread; He sent them food in abundance.
30. From heaven He commanded a wind from the east, and by His power brought a wind from the south.
31. And He rained flesh upon them like dust, and flying birds like the sand of the sea.
32. And they fell in the midst of their camp, around their tents.
33. And they ate and were greatly satisfied, and fulfilled their desire.
34. They lacked nothing of what they desired, and the food was still in their mouths,
35. When God's anger rose over them and killed their well-fed ones, and struck down the chosen of Israel.
36. Despite all this they still sinned and did not believe in His wonders.
37. And their days faded in vanity, and their years quickly.
38. When He killed them, they sought Him and turned back and returned to God.
39. And they remembered that God is their helper, and the Most High God is their deliverer.
40. But they deceived Him with their mouths and lied to Him with their tongues.
41. In their hearts they were not upright with Him, nor did they believe in His covenant.
42. But He is compassionate; He will cleanse sins and will not destroy them.
43. He will turn back His anger many times and will not kindle all His wrath.
44. He remembered that they are flesh, a breath that passes and does not return.
45. How often did they grieve Him in the wilderness, anger Him in a land without water?
46. And they turned back and tempted God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
47. They did not remember His arm or the day He delivered them from the oppressor's hand.
48. For He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the plain of Tanis:
49. He turned their rivers and their waters into blood, so that they would not drink.
50. He sent horseflies upon them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
51. He gave their fruit over to decay, and their labors to locusts.
52. He struck their vine with hail and their mulberry trees with stones.
53. He gave their beasts over to hail, and their possessions to fire.
54. He sent upon them the wrath of His anger; anger, wrath and affliction He sent through destroying angels.
55. He made a path for His anger; He did not spare their souls from death, and gave their beasts over to death.
56. He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their labors, in the dwellings of Ham.
57. He led His people out like sheep and brought them like a flock into the wilderness.
58. He guided them with hope, and they were not afraid, and the sea covered their enemies.
59. He brought them to the boundary of His holiness, the mountain His right hand had acquired.
60. He drove nations out before them and gave them by lot the land as an inheritance;
61. And He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
62. But they tempted and grieved the Most High God and did not keep His commandments.
63. And they turned back and broke the covenant like their fathers; they turned like a crooked bow.
64. And they angered Him with their high places and provoked Him with their idols.
65. God heard and grew angry, and greatly rejected Israel in wrath.
66. He rejected His tent in Shiloh, His dwelling, where He had dwelt among people.
67. And He gave their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the enemy's hands.
68. And He gave His people over to the sword and took no account of His inheritance.
69. Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not surrounded with honor.
70. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows will not weep.
71. And the Lord awoke like one who sleeps, like a warrior dizzy with wine,
72. And He struck His enemies from behind; He gave them everlasting reproach.
73. And He rejected Joseph's tent and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
74. But He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.
75. And He built His holy dwelling like the height of heaven; He established it upon the earth forever.
76. And He chose David His servant and took him from the flocks of sheep.
77. From beside the sheep giving birth He took him, to shepherd Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance.
78. And he shepherded them in the goodness of his heart, and guided them with the skill of his hand.
When Psalm 77 is read
- when the past needs to be learned anew.
- At the end of each psalm, the tradition adds: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Neighboring psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
