Psalm 78:1-72
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Summary
- Remembering God's Works in the wilderness and in Egypt.
Details and/or Comments
- Remember what the people of the past did, and don't rebel against God, like they did!
- It must be remembered that this was the God who made them, who miraculously delivered them out of Egypt, and who took care of all their needs. They considered him not trust-able.
- 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 also tells us that the things that happened to Israel were intended to teach us!
- See also: Psalm 105:1-45 (God's goodness, focusing on Abraham through the departure from Egypt) and Psalm 106:1-48 (Israel's sinfulness, focusing on the wilderness experience).
Scripture
Psalm 78:1-72
- See also: The Power and Works of God.
Introduction
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:1 Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
Psa 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, Psa 78:3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Psa 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done. |
These things must be communicated from generation to generation.
"Parables" - The Old Testament concept is not the same as the New Testament concept. Here, it refers to the use of history to teach people how to live. (In the New Testament, Stephen's discourse, in Acts 7, would be comparable.)
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| Psa 78:5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
Psa 78:6 that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children, Psa 78:7 that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, Psa 78:8 and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God. |
The purpose for this training/teaching: So that future generations will trust God, will not forget his works; but will obey him and not rebel as did their ancestors.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is one of the passages, in which God commands parents to teach their children. |
Israel (emphasizing the northern kingdom) abandoned God and forgot God's past works.
(This was probably written after the kingdom had been divided, and the northern kingdom had turned to idolatry.)
- Ephraim (which eventually became the head of the northern kingdom) was the original location of the tabernacle. Near the end of this psalm (v. 67-69), we read about God relocating it to Judah.
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Psa 78:10 They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law. Psa 78:11 They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them. |
The "turning back" may refer to their abandonment of the God of Israel, rather than to a specific battle situation. (This fits well with the next two verses.)
They turned from God, in spite of all the wonders he did in Egypt and in the wilderness. |
| Psa 78:12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Psa 78:13 He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap. Psa 78:14 In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire. Psa 78:15 He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. Psa 78:16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. |
God's wonders in Egypt, dividing the Red Sea, leading them with a cloud/fire, providing water in marvelous ways. God demonstrated his power in ways that had never before been experienced. |
In the wilderness, Israel rebelled. God provided and also disciplined them.
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:17 Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
Psa 78:18 They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire. Psa 78:19 Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Psa 78:20 Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?" |
In spite of the wonders they had witnessed, they refused to trust God! Instead they rebelled and questioned God's ability to provide for them! In Exodus, this was described as "putting God to the test." |
| Psa 78:21 Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,
Psa 78:22 because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation. |
This judgment came because they still didn't trust him. They considered him untrustworthy, in spite of all he had done. They questioned his integrity (to keep the promises he had made to them) and power (to do what he had promised).
God was rightfully angry! |
| Psa 78:23 Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.
Psa 78:24 He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky. Psa 78:25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full. |
Nevertheless, he sent manna (raining down from the sky)... |
| Psa 78:26 He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
Psa 78:27 He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas. Psa 78:28 He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations. Psa 78:29 So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. Psa 78:30 They didn't turn from their cravings. |
... and quail (blown in by the winds).
They got what they wanted (though they didn't deserve it); but their unrepentant hearts did not change... |
| Their food was yet in their mouths,
Psa 78:31 when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel. |
... and so God put some of them to death. |
Further examples of Israel abandoning God.
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:32 For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.
Psa 78:33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror. |
They still refused to trust him, so he sent further judgment. Eventually, they would all die in the wilderness. |
| Psa 78:34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
Psa 78:35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. |
When he judged them, they looked to him... |
| Psa 78:36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
Psa 78:37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant. |
... but it was only superficial. Their hearts did not change. They had remorse, not repentance. |
| Psa 78:38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.
Psa 78:39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again. |
This kept on happening; yet he didn't give them what they deserved, knowing that they would soon be gone.
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Israel's rebellion, contrasted with God's goodness.
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
Psa 78:41 They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Psa 78:42 They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; |
They kept on doing this, ignoring all he had done in the past for them...
... deliverance from their enemies. |
| Psa 78:43 how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
Psa 78:44 he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. Psa 78:45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. Psa 78:46 He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. Psa 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost. Psa 78:48 He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. Psa 78:49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil. Psa 78:50 He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence, Psa 78:51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham. |
... signs and wonders in Egypt – destroying and devastating the Egyptians who had enslaved them. |
| Psa 78:52 But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
Psa 78:53 He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. Psa 78:54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken. |
Contrast what they did to the goodness of God!
... leading his people safely, like a shepherd guides his sheep. (Below, David is also described as shepherding Israel.) |
| Psa 78:55 He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. | ... driving out nations before them and making Israel a nation.
As we read elsewhere, he drove out the other nations because of their wickedness. |
Rebellion - an ongoing lifestyle, even after God brought them into the land of Canaan.
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;
Psa 78:57 but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. Psa 78:58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images. |
Once in the land (just as God had promised), they continued to distrust God, like their ancestors, and went after false gods. |
| Psa 78:59 When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
Psa 78:60 So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; Psa 78:61 and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand. Psa 78:62 He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance. Psa 78:63 Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song. Psa 78:64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep. |
So he sent destruction and devastation to them. Examples of this can be found in the book of Judges, as well as in the other books about Israel's history.
The "tent of Shiloh" refers to the tabernacle, which originally resided at Shiloh. |
God's grace, in choosing Judah (which would eventually become the southern kingdom).
| Scripture Passage | Comments and Links |
| Psa 78:65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
Psa 78:66 He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach. |
Later he restored them... |
| Psa 78:67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,
Psa 78:68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. |
... but rejected Ephraim and chose Judah... |
| Psa 78:69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
Psa 78:70 He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; Psa 78:71 from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. Psa 78:72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. |
... to be the place where his sanctuary (the tabernacle, and eventually the temple) would reside. He also established David to lead them - to lead them like a shepherd, with integrity and skill. |
Scripture Passages
(Only books that have relevance to this study have active links. The others are in italics.)
Genesis • Exodus • Leviticus • Numbers • Deuteronomy • Joshua • Judges • Ruth • 1 Samuel • 2 Samuel • 1 Kings • 2 Kings • 1 Chronicles • 2 Chronicles • Ezra • Nehemiah • Esther • Job • Psalms • Proverbs • Ecclesiastes • Song of Solomon • Isaiah • Jeremiah • Lamentations • Ezekiel • Daniel • Hosea • Joel • Amos • Obadiah • Jonah • Micah • Nahum • Habakkuk • Zephaniah • Haggai • Zechariah • Malachi Matthew • Mark • Luke • John • Acts • Romans • 1 Corinthians • 2 Corinthians • Galatians • Ephesians • Philippians • Colossians • 1 Thessalonians • 2 Thessalonians • 1 Timothy • 2 Timothy • Titus • Philemon • Hebrews • James • 1 Peter • 2 Peter • 1 John • 2 John • 3 John • Jude • Revelation |
—— To avoid any copyright issues, all Scripture is either from a public domain translation (such as the World English Bible), my own translation, or a combination of these. ——
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The name "Yahweh," when present in an Old Testament passage, represents the Hebrew name for the God of the Bible.
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Unless otherwise noted, all notes and comments are © by Dennis Hinks.
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