Bible Commentaries
Psalms 78

Verses 1-72

PSALM 78

The way of God in the midst of the failure of His people, securing His glory and their blessing.

In Psalm 77 the godly soul, though realizing the failure of Israel, is delivered from the terrible thought that God has cast off the nation for ever, and that His promises and grace have failed. He learns in the sanctuary that, in spite of the failure of Israel, God has a “way” by which He secures His own glory and the blessing of His people. Psalm 78 traces the failure of the nation from Egypt until the times of David, and discovers to us God's “way” of blessing.

(vv. 1-4) The psalmist speaks with the authority of one coming from God. He appeals to the people to listen to the testimony of the law. He is about to utter a parable: he gives us, in fact, history. While, however it is history that shows us the failure of the people of God, it is also a parable to teach the hidden way of God to those who incline their ear to hear ( Psa_77:19 ). Such will discern behind the failure and weakness of the people the strength of the Lord, the “wonderful works that he hath done.” Thus the history of the people will turn to “the praises of the Lord.”

(vv. 5-11) God's testimony and how it was treated by the people. Before turning to the history of Israel, the psalmist reminds us that God had “established a testimony” to be rendered by the fathers to the children, and by the children to their children, in order that they might set their hope in God, walk in obedience, and not forget His works. Thus they would escape the stubbornness of former generations whose affections were not set upon God, and whose spirits were not steadfast with God.

Ephraim, as a representative tribe, shows how completely the people failed to answer to this testimony. Though well equipped for conflict they turned back in the day of battle, disobeyed God, and forgot His works, and His wonders.

The history that follows shows that the children were like their fathers. The flesh learns nothing from its own failure, or the failure of past generations; it never changes.

(vv. 12-20) God's wonders and how they were treated by the people. The Palmist now passes from the testimony of God to speak of the wonders of God. In rapid review he brings before us God's wonders in Egypt; His wonders at the Red Sea; His wonders in the desert - the cloud, the pillar of fire, and the water that gushed from the rock.

The people had not profited by God's testimony; how did they act in the presence of these wonders? Alas! they sinned yet more and more. They profited neither by a testimony rendered to them by their fathers, nor by miracles wrought before their eyes. They tempted God by speaking against Him. In a miraculous way God had provided the streams to quench their thirst; nevertheless their unbelief said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” They own, indeed, that God had wrought miraculously on their behalf, but they said, as it were, “He has given us water, can He give us bread?” Men speak against God when there are no miracles, and ask “Why does He not intervene?” They forget that when God wrought miracles before the eyes of men, they spake against God. Miracles and signs do not change the heart of man. Miracles or no miracles, the natural man is unbelieving.

(vv. 21-32) God's governmental dealings in chastening His people, and the result. The people refused the testimony of God, and scoffed in the presence of the miracles of God; now God will test them by chastening. Governmental wrath came upon them because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation. He had opened heaven and rained down manna, thus giving them the bread of the mighty. The people, however, turned from the manna and desired flesh (v. 20). God sends them the flesh in greater abundance than the manna. It comes upon them “as dust,” and like “the sand of the sea.” It could be gathered without labour, for “He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.” Instead, however, of this wonderful manifestation of God's power leading them to condemn their murmuring, they used it as an occasion for their lust, and thus brought upon themselves the governmental consequences of their own folly. The chosen men of Israel were smitten down. Alas! the only result of this chastening was that “they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.”

(vv. 33-42) God's way with the people tempered by mercy. God had tested the people in the wilderness, only to bring out their utter failure. Now verses 33 to 42 present God's ways with His people in the days of the Judges. In those days God's governmental ways with His people were tempered with mercy. Captivity after captivity was followed by repeated deliverance, for God is full of compassion. He remembered the weakness of His people; that “they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away; and cometh not again.” The result was that, as in the wilderness, they had provoked and grieved God, so in the land, “they turned again and tempted God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor” (JND).

(vv. 43-45) God's ways that are carried out in spite of man's failure. These varied testings had proved the utter evil of the flesh. Nevertheless the psalmist shows that God carried out His purposes for the glory of His Name and for the blessing of His people. Thus, for the second time in the psalm, we are taken over the history of God's people from Egypt to the land. In this second account, however, nothing is said of the failure of the people. From beginning to end it is an account of what God has done to maintain His glory in dealing with all His enemies and delivering His people; bringing them forth like sheep; guiding them through the wilderness like a flock; leading them safely, and bringing them to the border of His sanctuary; casting out the heathen before them, and dividing the land amongst the tribes of Israel.

(vv. 46-64) God breaks all outward links with the people who have forsaken Him. The fact that God had thus carried out His purposes in spite of all the unbelief and rebellion of His people should surely have led them to yield obedience to the Lord, and worship Him only. Alas! as they had tempted God in the wilderness, and kept not His testimonies, so now they forsook the sanctuary - God's centre - and set up high places, and turned from God to graven images.

The solemn result was that God broke all outward links with the people. He greatly abhorred Israel; He forsook His tabernacle; He allows the ark to pass into captivity, and His people are given over to the sword.

(vv. 65-72) Blessing secured for ruined man on the ground of sovereign grace. Man has been fully tested by the testimony of God, the mighty works of God, the governmental dealings of God, and the mercy of God; but all in vain. Man utterly ruins himself and forfeits every claim to blessing on the ground of carrying out his responsibilities. It is therefore made abundantly plain that if man is to be blessed, all must depend upon God. Man's complete ruin makes way for the manifestation of God's love and power on behalf of His people. If, however, God intervenes on behalf of a people who have hopelessly ruined themselves, it cannot be on the ground of what they are for God, but wholly because of what God is for the people. Thus, in the closing section of the psalm, the Lord is presented as acting from Himself in sovereign grace.

The Lord awakens as one out of sleep. The figure of a mighty man is used to express the energy with which the Lord deals with all His enemies. Moreover He refuses Ephraim and strength of nature, and acts according to His sovereign choice. In sovereignty He “chose” the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion for His sanctuary, and David to feed His people. Zion thus becomes the symbol of grace, and David the type of Christ, the One through whom all the grace is ministered. Thus the people are at last brought into blessing on the ground of grace, according to the integrity of God's heart and the skillfulness of His hands. God's way in the sanctuary is thus made plain by His ways in the world (cp. Psa_77:13 ; Psa_77:19 ).