Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 78:67

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 78:67. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph — Psalms 78:60.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 78:0 Lessons from history

Being a true teacher, the psalmist is concerned for the spiritual condition of his people. His present intention is to comment on events in the history of Israel so that people of future generations may take heed (1-4). God gave his law to his people to guide them. The record of his faithfulness will be an encouragement, the record of Israel’s failures a warning (5-8).

The first reminder is of the stubbornness of the tribe of Ephraim in one of Israel’s early battles (9-11. The psalmist does not name the particular battle). By contrast God was always faithful to Israel. For example, he freed the people from Egypt and provided for their needs miraculously (12-16; see Exodus 13:21; Exodus 14:21; Exodus 17:6). But as soon as the people began to taste the hardships of desert life, they complained bitterly. They challenged God to prove his kindness and power by giving them the food they wanted (17-22). Again God graciously provided for them (23-28), but their greed became the means of their punishment (29-31; see Exodus 16:1-36; Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 11:1-35).

Israel’s constant lack of faith was well demonstrated in the people’s refusal to believe that God could give them victory over the Canaanites. In punishment they suffered disaster and death over the next forty years (32-37). Yet in his mercy God did not destroy the rebellious nation (38-41; see Numbers 14:1-35). By his great power he saved the Israelites from the terrible judgments he sent upon Egypt, both its land and its people (42-51; see Exodus 7:1-31). He cared for his people as they travelled through harsh countryside, from the Red Sea to the borders of Canaan. Finally, he brought them into the land he had promised them (52-55; see Joshua 24:12-13).

Soon, however, the people forgot all that God had done for them. They turned away from the true God to follow the false gods of the Canaanites (56-58; see Judges 2:11-15). This led in turn to the destruction of their place of worship at Shiloh and the loss of the ark of the covenant to the Philistines (59-64; see 1 Samuel 4:1-11; Jeremiah 7:12,Jeremiah 7:14).

Again God saved his people, this time by using a man from the tribe of Judah to stir them up and lead them triumphantly (65-68). This man, David, established the sanctuary on Mount Zion and placed within it the ark of the covenant, the symbol of God’s presence. In this way David showed his determination that God should be the centre of Israel’s national life. Israel’s history had been one of constant failure, but God in his mercy had not forsaken his people. In the symbol of the ark he dwelt among them and through the rule of his chosen king he cared for them (69-72; see 2 Samuel 5:6-10; 2 Samuel 6:1-19).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

GOD'S ANSWER TO THE SITUATION

"Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph, And chose not the tribe of Ephraim, But chose the tribe of Judah, The mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he hath established forever. He chose David also his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes that have their young, he brought him, To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart. And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands."

"The Lord awaked" This is another anthropomorphic metaphor. Of course, God had not been asleep.

These verses state the purpose of God to make David king and to establishing His kingdom "forever," referring not alone to the fleshly line of David's successors, but to the ultimate resurrection of Christ to sit upon that Greater Throne in Heaven, of which the Davidic throne was indeed a very dim and inadequate shadow.

There is a clue here to the time of this psalm.

"The shepherd of Jacob… and of Israel." David ruled over all of Israel, not merely Judah; so the days of the divided kingdom had not yet come as this psalm was written. The division of the kingdom that resulted from the Ephraimitic rebellion against Rehoboam was to come some eighty years afterward. Not even the kingship of David appears to have been established at the time of this psalm, but only the statement of God's intention to accomplish it.

"His sanctuary… like the earth which he established forever" This was not a vain vision. God's sanctuary, typified by the tabernacle on mount Zion, is indeed eternal. "Those who have truly become the subjects of the Christ, the King of Israel and of the world, and who dwell with God in his house (the church of the living God), by dwelling in Jesus, will not rebel against him anymore, nor ever forget his wonders, but will faithfully tell them to generations to come."Alexander Maclaren, op. cit., p. 395.

"He chose David" "This election of David gives its impress to the history of salvation even on into eternity. It is genuinely Asaphic (that is, Asaph himself wrote it, not some of his descendants) in that it so designedly portrayed how the shepherd of the flock of Jesse became the shepherd of the flock of Jahve."F. Delitzsch, op. cit., p. 376.

This great psalm reminds us of the speech of Stephen the Martyr in Acts 7, in that it recounts the terrible record established in the rebellious history of Israel.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph - As a place where his worship should be celebrated. This is the completion of the statement in Psalms 78:60. The design is to show that there had been a transfer of the preeminence from the tribe of Ephraim to the tribe of Judah, and from Shiloh to Zion. Joseph is mentioned here as the father of Ephraim, from whom one of the tribes - (one of the most influential and numerous) - was named. Jacob had twelve sons, from whom the twelve tribes in general took their name. As the tribe of Levi, however, being devoted to the sacerdotal work, was not reckoned as one of the, twelve, the number was made up by giving to the descendants of the two sons of Joseph - Ephraim and Manasseh Genesis 48:5 - a place among the tribes; and, on this account, the name Joseph does not appear as one of the twelve tribes. Yet Joseph is mentioned here, as the ancestor of one of them - that of Ephraim, from whom the priority and supremacy were withdrawn in favor of the tribe of Judah.

And chose not the tribe of Ephraim - To be the tribe within whose limits the tabernacle should be permanently set up; or within whose limits the place of public worship was finally to be established.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

67.And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph. Those who suppose that the word enemies, in the 66^th verse, applies to the Israelites, connect these verses with the preceding, and suppose the meaning to be, that the wound which God had inflicted upon them was incurable. But, preferring the other opinion, which regards the Philistines as spoken of, and the scope to be, that God, in punishing them so severely, evidently showed that the covenant which he had made with his people was not disannulled, since he had avenged himself in such an awful manner upon their enemies, the explanation which I would rather give is, that this is added by way of correction, as if it had been said, That God was not yet fully reconciled towards his people who had wickedly revolted from him, and that, as an evidence of this, there remained among them some traces of the punishment with which he had visited them. The meaning of the text, therefore, is, that when the ark was taken by the Philistines, God was, so to speak, asleep, having been made drunk by the sins of his people, so that he could no longer keep watch for their defense as he had been accustomed to do; and yet, that he did not continue long sunk in sleep, but that, whenever he saw the ungodly Philistines treating with mockery the glory of his majesty, this heinous insult awoke and provoked him, just as if a giant, having well supped, had awoke from his first sleep before he had recovered from the exciting effects of his wine; and that, at the same time, his anger had not been so provoked against this heathen and uncircumcised nation as to prevent him from exhibiting some signs of the chastisement which he had inflicted upon the wicked and ungrateful Israelites even to the end. The rejection spoken of amounts to this, that when God permitted his ark to be carried away to another place, the Israelites were thereby deprived of the honor with which, by special privilege, they had been previously distinguished.

There are two principal points which should here be particularly attended to; in the first place, when the Philistines were smitten with unseemly ulcers, the plainest evidence was afforded that when the Israelites were conquered by them, this happened solely because God willed it to be so. He did not recover new strength, or gather together a new army for the purpose of invading, some short time after, the Philistines who had been victorious, nor did he have recourse, in doing this, to foreign aid. The other point is, that although God stretched forth his hand against the Philistines, to show that he had still some remembrance of his covenant, and some care of the people whom he had chosen, yet in restoring the Israelites in some measure to their former state, he made the rejection of Shiloh a perpetual monument of his wrath. He, therefore, rejected the tribe of Ephraim; ⁽³⁶⁶⁾ not that he cast them off for ever, or completely severed them from the rest of the body of the Church, but he would not have the ark of his covenant to reside any longer within the boundaries of that tribe. To the tribe of Ephraim is here opposed the tribe of Judah, in which God afterwards chose for himself a dwelling-place.

Thus the prophet proceeds to show, that when the ark of the covenant had a resting-place assigned to it on mount Zion, the people were in a manner renewed; and this symbol of reconciliation being restored to them, they were recovered to the favor of God from which they had fallen. As God had, so to speak, been banished from the kingdom, and his strength led into captivity through the sins of the Israelites, they had need to be taught, by this memorial, that God had been so highly displeased with their wickedness, that he could not bear to look upon the place in which he had formerly dwelt. After this separation, although to teach the people to be more on their guard in time to come, there was not a full and perfect restitution, yet God again chose a fixed residence for his ark, which was a manifestation of wonderful goodness and mercy on his part. The ark, after its return, was carried from one place to another, as to Gath, Ekron, and other places, until mount Zion was pointed out by an oracle as its fixed abode; but this intervening period is not taken notice of by the prophet, because his design went no farther than to impress upon the memory, both the example of the punishment, and the grace of God, which was greater than any could have ventured to hope for. ⁽³⁶⁷⁾ That which is often repeated by Moses should also be remembered:

“But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come,” etc., (Deuteronomy 12:5.)

Shiloh having acquired this renown, because the ark had dwelt there for a long time, when the ark was carried away into the country of the enemies of Israel, the minds of men were strangely perplexed, until they knew the place which God had chosen for its future residence. The ten tribes were not at that time rejected, and they had an equal interest in the kingdom and the priesthood with the tribe of Judah; but in process of time their own rebellion cut them off. This is the reason why the prophet says, in scorn, that the tribe of Ephraim was rejected, and that the tribe of Joseph, from whom it sprung, was not chosen.

(366) Shiloh, as formerly observed, was a city in the tribe of Ephraim, and it was rejected as the resting-place of the ark.

(367) “La grace de Dieu plus grande qu’on n’eust ose esperer.” — Fr.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 78:1-72

Psalms 78:1-72 is a psalm that rehearses the history of God's people. And the psalm was written in order to remind the children, the coming generation, of the works of the Lord. One of the important obligations that we have is that we not see a move of God and then see it die with the passing generation. But unfortunately, rarely does a work of God continue into a second generation. Unfortunately, we begin to get our eyes upon the things that God has done, upon the great monuments. And it turns into a monument rather than keeping our eyes upon God who is doing the work to begin with. And it's always a tragedy when the work of God turns into a memorial. Somehow we need to communicate to our children that glorious work and consciousness of God so it goes on and on and on. And the children of Israel sought to do this, but they failed. And so many times you find that from one generation to the next the work of God was forgotten. Case of Hezekiah, followed by Manasseh, his son. Hezekiah, marvelous, righteous king; Manasseh, an evil, wicked king. Somehow his father did not relate well to Manasseh his faith, his trust, his confidence in God. So,

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from the children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works which he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children [passing it on to the children]: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; whom would arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments ( Psalms 78:1-7 ):

So the transmission of truth from generation to generation.

And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle ( Psalms 78:8-9 ).

They did not stand up against the enemy; they retreated.

They kept not the covenant of God, they refused to walk in his law ( Psalms 78:10 );

That is why they turned back in battle.

And they forgot his works, and his wonders that he had showed them ( Psalms 78:11 ).

The forgetfulness.

Marvelous things he did in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea, caused them to pass through; made the waters stand up as a heap. In the daytime he led them by the cloud, and night with a light of fire. He broke the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run like rivers. And yet they sinned against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh to his people? Therefore the LORD heard this, he was angry: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, anger came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation ( Psalms 78:12-22 ):

God's anger because of unbelief. The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God.

Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, he rained down manna upon them to eat, he had given them the corn of heaven. Man did eat angles' food: he sent them meat to their full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like the sand of the sea: And he let it fall in the middle of their camp, round about their houses. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; But they were not estranged from their lust ( Psalms 78:23-30 ):

Even though they were filled, they were still filled with lust. In other words, you lust, but lust cannot really be satisfied. And though they were filled, still they were hungry.

but while their meat was in their mouths, [the anger] the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all of this they continued to sin, and believed not his wondrous works. Therefore their days were spent in emptiness, their years in trouble. And when he slew them, they sought him: and returned and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, but they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, and neither were they steadfast in his covenant ( Psalms 78:30-37 ).

How many times people are doing the same thing, lying to God. Flattering with their mouth, but their hearts are really far from God.

But being full of compassion, he forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time he turned his anger away, and did not stir up all of his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh ( Psalms 78:38-39 );

Thank God for the mercies wherewith He deals with us and He remembers that we are but flesh. Now sometimes we think we are supermen. We think we are a rock of Gibraltar. We think were so strong; we're so powerful. "I am so strong I can stand against... " Oh, how I cringe when I see some of these young Christians. They come up and they say, I really want to go out and I serve God in a mission field." "Well, how long have you been a Christian?" "Two months now. I feel God is calling me to a mission field. I am ready to conquer the world." You feel so strong, but God knows you are just dust. And it's good when we find out that we are just dust too, and we trust not in the arm of our flesh, but we learn to trust the Lord completely.

God remembers that they were but flesh.

a wind that passes away, and comes not again ( Psalms 78:39 ).

People have always asked, "What scripture can you give me against reincarnation?" Well, here is one. You might mark it. Your life is spoken of as a wind that passes away and comes not again. That's talking about your breath of life. It is something that is gonna pass, but it won't come again. So you are not going to come back. But who in the world would want to? When I read the predictions for the year 2000, I don't want to be around. To come back again and have to go through this. Under the conditions that will exist in the year 2000, or even the year 2020 is even going to be worse. No thanks!

Now,

How often they provoked him in the wilderness and they grieved him in the desert! Yes, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel ( Psalms 78:40-41 ).

Here is a very interesting verse, and that is that God can be limited by the unbelief of people. When Jesus was in Nazareth, it said, "He did not many works there because of their unbelief." Your unbelief can actually limit the work that God is wanting to do in your life. The children of Israel put limitations on God, and man today is often putting limitations on God.

One of the limitations that we so often place upon God are dispensational limitations. The dispensation of the apostles, you know. The dispensation of the Holy Spirit. It all ended with the apostles. God doesn't work anymore. God doesn't heal anymore. God doesn't work miracles anymore. The gifts of the Spirit are not in operation anymore. They all ceased with the apostles. And we put limits on God, not because God won't, not because God doesn't want to, but because of our unbelief, our failing to believe God to do it now. And it is still possible for us to be putting limitations on the work that God wants to do in our lives.

When I come to God, I say, "God, help me to be totally open to anything and everything You want to do in my life." I don't want to put any restraints on that which God is wanting to do in or through me. By presuppositions, by my own cultural upbringing, by the things that have been planted in my mind by the past, by my education, or anything else. I don't want anything there that would restrict or limit that which God wants to do. They limited the Holy One of Israel by their unbelief.

They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy: He wrought the signs in Egypt, and turned the rivers into blood; and the floods, that they couldn't drink. He sent the flies and the frogs. And gave the increase of their fields to the caterpillar, and to the locust. And destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. And gave their cattle also to the hail, and the flocks to the hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, and wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them ( Psalms 78:42-49 ).

No doubt reference to the slaying of the firstborn.

He made way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to pestilence; and smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength the tabernacles of Ham: but he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And brought them to the border of the sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. And cast the heathen also before them, divided them the inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. And yet they tempted and provoked the most high, and did not keep his testimonies: But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they provoked him to anger by building the places of false worship, they moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was angry, and abhorred Israel: So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he had placed among men ( Psalms 78:50-60 );

The tabernacle, of course, originally was in the area of Shiloh, which was in the portion that was given to the tribe of Ephraim.

He delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over to the sword; and was angry with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men; the maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword; the widows made no lamentation. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put then to perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim ( Psalms 78:61-67 ):

When God chose then a leader, he refused to take the tribe of Ephraim, or of Joseph, which would have also been Manasseh.

But he chose the tribe of Judah, [and rather than Shiloh] Mount Zion which he loved. And there he built his sanctuary like the high places, like the earth which he established for ever. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands ( Psalms 78:68-72 ).

A beautiful rehearsal of their history to remind them of the work of God in their past. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 78

This didactic psalm teaches present and future generations to learn from the past, and it stresses the grace of God. Didactic psalms offer wisdom to the reader. Some have called this a history psalm (cf. Psalms 105, 106, 114, 135, , 136). [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 230.]

"This could be sub-titled, in view of Psalms 78:12; Psalms 78:68, From Zoan to Zion, for it reviews the turbulent adolescence of Israel from its time of slavery in Egypt to the reign of David. Like the parting song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32) it is meant to search the conscience; it is history that must not repeat itself. At the same time, it is meant to warm the heart, for it tells of great miracles, of a grace that persists through all the judgments, and of the promise that displays its tokens in the chosen city and chosen king." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 280.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. The record of God’s goodness and Israel’s unfaithfulness 78:12-72

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The writer pictured God waking up, though He was always awake and aware of His people’s condition. He simply did not move to deliver them until David’s time. God rejected Joseph (i.e., the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) and particularly Ephraim, the leader of the northern tribes, in the sense that He chose someone from Judah to lead Israel. He also chose Mt. Zion as the site of His sanctuary. David took it from the Jebusites. God’s provision of David, the shepherd king, was the writer’s climactic evidence of God’s grace to Israel.

"The one king whom the psalmists were interested in was David. For the most part the monarchy comes off very well in the Psalms because of the psalmists’ great respect for David and his line. This reverence climaxes Psalms 78, where God’s choice of David is a drastic change in history, a turn from the Rachel line, represented by Saul from the tribe of Benjamin, to the Leah line, represented by David from the tribe of Judah." [Note: Bullock, p. 115.]

Shepherding should always spring from personal integrity and wisdom (Psalms 78:72). A person of integrity is one who practices what he preaches. What a person is determines what he does. Relationship with God shapes character. Wisdom involves taking what God has revealed into consideration as we live.

"Integrity and skill need each other, for no amount of ability can compensate for a sinful heart, and no amount of devotion to God can overcome lack of ability." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 234.]

In view of all His blessings, God’s people should learn from history and remain faithful to the Lord who has been faithful to them (cf. 2 Timothy 2:13). [Note: See Allen, Lord of . . ., pp. 57-70.]

"If Israel’s record is her shame, God’s persistent goodness emerges as her hope (and ours) for the unfinished story." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 286.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph,.... That is, the tabernacle of Moses, which had been for a long time at Shiloh, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph; when the ark was brought back by the Philistines, it was not returned to Shiloh, but carried to Kirjathjearim, where it remained twenty years, and after that was had to Zion, the city of David, 1 Samuel 7:1, so the Targum,

"and he rejected the tabernacle which he had stretched out in the border of Joseph;''

he did not refuse the tabernacle, or remove his presence from it; but he refused the place it had been in, or refused that it should be any more there:

and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: the same thing is designed as before; the meaning is, not that he rejected the tribe of Ephraim from being one of the tribes of Israel; nor does it refer to the revolt of Ephraim, or the ten tribes, from the pure worship of God to idolatry, and their separation from the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; or to their being carried captive into Assyria; since this historical narration reaches no further than the reign of David, or the time of Solomon at furthest; whereas the facts mentioned were a long time afterwards; nor does it regard the removal of government from the tribe of Ephraim, which was the seat of it in the times of Joshua, of which tribe he was, Numbers 13:8, though this tribe was overlooked in the choice of a king, one of the tribe of Benjamin being first chosen; and when he was rejected, then one of the tribe of Judah; but this purely, at least principally, intends that it was the will of God that the seat of worship should not be in this tribe any longer; that the ark and tabernacle should be no more there: perhaps the Ephraimites were more culpable, and more provoked the Lord with their idolatry, than the other tribes, since they are first and last taken notice of as the objects of the divine resentment in this account; see Psalms 78:9.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!   41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.   42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.   43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:   44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.   45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.   46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.   47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.   48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.   49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.   50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;   51 And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:   52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.   53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.   54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.   55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.   56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:   57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.   58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.   59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:   60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;   61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.   62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.   63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.   64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.   65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.   66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.   67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:   68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.   69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.   70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:   71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.   72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

      The matter and scope of this paragraph are the same with the former, showing what great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, how provoking they had been, what judgments he had brought upon them for their sins, and yet how, in judgment, he remembered mercy at last. Let not those that receive mercy from God be thereby emboldened to sin, for the mercies they receive will aggravate their sin and hasten the punishment of it; yet let not those that are under divine rebukes for sin be discouraged from repentance, for their punishments are means of repentance, and shall not prevent the mercy God has yet in store for them. Observe,

      I. The sins of Israel in the wilderness again reflected on, because written for our admonition (Psalms 78:40; Psalms 78:41): How often did they provoke him in the wilderness! Note once, nor twice, but many a time; and the repetition of the provocation was a great aggravation of it, as well as the place, Psalms 78:17; Psalms 78:17. God kept an account how often they provoked him, though they did not. Numbers 14:22, They have tempted me these ten times. By provoking him they did not so much anger him as grieve him, for he looked upon them as his children (Israel is my son, my first-born), and the undutiful disrespectful behaviour of children does more grieve than anger the tender parents; they lay it to heart, and take it unkindly, Isaiah 1:2. They grieved him because they put him under a necessity of afflicting them, which he did not willingly. After they had humbled themselves before him they turned back and tempted God, as before, and limited the Holy One of Israel, prescribing to him what proofs he should give of his power and presence with them and what methods he should take in leading them and providing for them. They limited him to their way and their time, as if he did not observe that they quarrelled with him. It is presumption for us to limit the Holy One of Israel; for, being the Holy One, he will do what is most for his own glory; and, being the Holy One of Israel, he will do what is most for their good; and we both impeach his wisdom and betray our own pride and folly if we go about to prescribe to him. That which occasioned their limiting God for the future was their forgetting his former favours (Psalms 78:42; Psalms 78:42): They remembered not his hand, how strong it is and how it had been stretched out for them, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy, Pharaoh, that great enemy who sought their ruin. There are some days made remarkable by signal deliverances, which ought never to be forgotten; for the remembrance of them would encourage us in our greatest straits.

      II. The mercies of God to Israel, which they were unmindful of when they tempted God and limited him; and this catalogue of the works of wonder which God wrought for them begins higher, and is carried down further, than that before, Psalms 78:12; Psalms 78:12, c.

      1. This begins with their deliverance out of Egypt, and the plagues with which God compelled the Egyptians to let them go: these were the signs God wrought in Egypt (Psalms 78:43; Psalms 78:43), the wonders he wrought in the field of Zoan, that is, in the country of Zoan, as we say, in Agro N., meaning in such a country.

      (1.) Several of the plagues of Egypt are here specified, which speak aloud the power of God and his favour to Israel, as well as terror to his and their enemies. As, [1.] The turning of the waters into blood; they had made themselves drunk with the bloods of God's people, even the infants, and now God gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy,Psalms 78:44; Psalms 78:44. [2.] The flies and frogs which infested them, mixtures of insects in swarms, in shoals, which devoured them, which destroyed them,Psalms 78:45; Psalms 78:45. For God can make the weakest and most despicable animals instruments of his wrath when he pleases; what they want in strength may be made up in number. [3.] The plague of locusts, which devoured their increase, and that which they had laboured for, Psalms 78:46; Psalms 78:46. They are called God's great army,Joel 2:25. [4.] The hail, which destroyed their trees, especially their vines, the weakest of trees (Psalms 78:47; Psalms 78:47), and their cattle, especially their flocks of sheep, the weakest of their cattle, which were killed with hot thunder-bolts (Psalms 78:48; Psalms 78:48), and the frost, or congealed rain (as the word signifies), was so violent that it destroyed even the sycamore-trees. [5.] The death of the first-born was the last and sorest of the plagues of Egypt, and that which perfected the deliverance of Israel; it was first in intention (Exodus 4:23), but last in execution; for, if gentler methods would have done the work, this would have been prevented: but it is here largely described, Psalms 78:49-51; Psalms 78:49-51. First, The anger of God was the cause of it. Wrath had now come upon the Egyptians to the uttermost; Pharaoh's heart having been often hardened after less judgments had softened it, God now stirred up all his wrath; for he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, anger in the highest degree, wrath and indignation the cause, and trouble (tribulation and anguish,Romans 2:8; Romans 2:9) the effect. This from on high he cast upon them and did not spare, and they could not flee out of his hands,Job 27:22. He made a way, or (as the word is) he weighed a path, to his anger. He did not cast it upon them uncertainly, but by weight. His anger was weighed with the greatest exactness in the balances of justice; for, in his greatest displeasure, he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures: the path of his anger is always weighed. Secondly, The angels of God were the instruments employed in this execution: He sent evil angels among them, not evil in their own nature, but in respect to the errand upon which they were sent; they were destroying angels, or angels of punishment, which passed through all the land of Egypt, with orders, according to the weighed paths of God's anger, not to kill all, but the first-born only. Good angels become evil angels to sinners. Those that make the holy God their enemy must never expect the holy angels to be their friends. Thirdly, The execution itself was very severe: He spared not their soul from death, but suffered death to ride in triumph among them and gave their life over to the pestilence, which cut the thread of life off immediately; for he smote all the first-born in Egypt (Psalms 78:51; Psalms 78:51), the chief of their strength, the hopes of their respective families; children are the parents' strength, and the first-born the chief of their strength. Thus, because Israel was precious in God's sight, he gave men for them and people for their life,Isaiah 43:4.

      (2.) By these plagues on the Egyptians God made a way for his own people to go forth like sheep, distinguishing between them and the Egyptians, as the shepherd divides between the sheep and the goats, having set his own mark on these sheep by the blood of the lamb sprinkled on their door-posts. He made them go forth like sheep, not knowing whither they went, and guided them in the wilderness, as a shepherd guides his flock, with all possible care and tenderness, Psalms 78:52; Psalms 78:52. He led them on safely, though in dangerous paths, so that they feared not, that is, they needed not to fear; they were indeed frightened at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10), but that was said to them, and done for them, which effectually silenced their fears. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies that ventured to pursue them into it, Psalms 78:63; Psalms 78:63. It was a lane to them, but a grave to their persecutors.

      2. It is carried down as far as their settlement in Canaan (Psalms 78:54; Psalms 78:54): He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to that land in the midst of which he set up his sanctuary, which was, as it were, the centre and metropolis, the crown and glory, of it. That is a happy land which is the border of God's sanctuary. It was the happiness of that land that there God was known, and there were his sanctuary and dwelling-place, Psalms 76:1; Psalms 76:2. The whole land in general, and Zion in particular, was the mountain which his right hand had purchased, which by his own power he had set apart for himself. See Psalms 44:3. He made them to ride on the high places of the earth,Isaiah 58:14; Deuteronomy 32:13. They found the Canaanites in the full and quiet possession of that land, but God cast out the heathen before them, not only took away their title to it, as the Lord of the whole earth, but himself executed the judgment given against them, and, as Lord of hosts, turned them out of it, and made his people Israel tread upon their high places, dividing each tribe an inheritance by line, and making them to dwell in the houses of those whom they had destroyed. God could have turned the uninhabited uncultivated wilderness (which perhaps was nearly of the same extent as Canaan) into fruitful soil, and have planted them there; but the land he designed for them was to be a type of heaven, and therefore must be the glory of all lands; it must likewise be fought for, for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.

      III. The sins of Israel after they were settled in Canaan, Psalms 78:56-58; Psalms 78:56-58. The children were like their fathers, and brought their old corruptions into their new habitations. Though God had done so much for them, yet they tempted and provoked the most high God still. He gave them his testimonies, but they did not keep them; they began very promisingly, but they turned back, gave God good words, but dealt unfaithfully, and were like a deceitful bow, which seemed likely to send the arrow to the mark, but, when it is drawn, breaks, and drops the arrow at the archer's foot, or perhaps makes it recoil in his face. There was no hold of them, nor any confidence to be put in their promises or professions. They seemed sometimes devoted to God, but they presently turned aside, and provoked him to anger with their high places and their graven images. Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset them, and which, though they often professed their repentance for, they as often relapsed into. It was spiritual adultery either to worship idols or to worship God by images, as if he had been an idol, and therefore by it they are said to move him to jealousy,Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 32:21.

      IV. The judgments God brought upon them for these sins. Their place in Canaan would no more secure them in a sinful way than their descent from Israel. You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you,Amos 3:2. Idolatry is winked at among the Gentiles, but not in Israel, 1. God was displeased with them (Psalms 78:59; Psalms 78:59): When God heard this, when he heard the cry of their iniquity, which came up before him, he was wroth, he took it very heinously, as well he might, and he greatly abhorred Israel, whom he had greatly loved and delighted in. Those that had been the people of his choice became the generation of his wrath. Presumptuous sins, idolatries especially, render even Israelites odious to God's holiness and obnoxious to his justice. 2. He deserted his tabernacle among them, and removed the defence which was upon that glory, Psalms 78:60; Psalms 78:60. God never leaves us till we leave him, never withdraws till we have driven him from us. His name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God; and therefore no marvel if a people whom he had betrothed to himself be loathed and rejected, and he refuse to cohabit with them any longer, when they have embraced the bosom of a stranger. The tabernacle at Shiloh was the tent God had placed among men, in which God would in very deed dwell with men upon the earth; but, when his people treacherously forsook it, he justly forsook it, and then all its glory departed. Israel has small joy of the tabernacle without the presence of God in it. 3. He gave up all into the hands of the enemy. Those whom God forsakes become an easy prey to the destroyer. The Philistines are sworn enemies to the Israel of God, and no less so to the God of Israel, and yet God will make use of them to be a scourge to his people. (1.) God permits them to take the ark prisoner, and carry it off as a trophy of their victory, to show that he had not only forsaken the tabernacle, but even the ark itself, which shall now be no longer a token of his presence (Psalms 78:61; Psalms 78:61): He delivered his strength into captivity, as if it had been weakened and overcome, and his glory fell under the disgrace of being abandoned into the enemy's hand. We have the story 1 Samuel 4:11. When the ark has become as a stranger among Israelites, no marvel if it soon be made a prisoner among Philistines. (2.) He suffers the armies of Israel to be routed by the Philistines (Psalms 78:62; Psalms 78:63): He gave his people over unto the sword, to the sword of his own justice and of the enemy's rage, for he was wroth with his inheritance; and that wrath of his was the fire which consumed their young men, in the prime of their time, by the sword or sickness, and made such a devastation of them that their maidens were not praised, that is, were not given in marriage (which is honourable in all), because there were no young men for them to be given to, and because the distresses and calamities of Israel were so many and great that the joys of marriage-solemnities were judged unseasonable, and it was said, Blessed is the womb that beareth not. General destructions produce a scarcity of men. Isaiah 13:12, I will make a man more precious than fine gold, so that seven women shall take hold of one man,Isaiah 4:1; Isaiah 3:25. Yet this was not the worst: (3.) Even their priests, who attended the ark, fell by the sword, Hophni and Phinehas. Justly they fell, for they made themselves vile, and were sinners before the Lord exceedingly; and their priesthood was so far from being their protection that it aggravated their sin and hastened their fall. Justly did they fall by the sword, because they exposed themselves in the field of battle, without call or warrant. We throw ourselves out of God's protection when we go out of our place and out of the way of our duty. When the priests fell their widows made no lamentation,Psalms 78:64; Psalms 78:64. All the ceremonies of mourning were lost and buried in substantial grief; the widow of Phinehas, instead of lamenting her husband's death, died herself, when she had called her son Ichabod,1 Samuel 4:19, c.

      V. God's return, in mercy, to them, and his gracious appearances for them after this. We read not of their repentance and return to God, but God was grieved for the miseries of Israel (Judges 10:16) and concerned for his own honour, fearing the wrath of the enemy, lest they should behave themselves strangely,Deuteronomy 32:27. And therefore then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep (Psalms 78:65; Psalms 78:65), and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, not only like one that is raised out of sleep and recovers himself from the slumber which by drinking he was overcome with, who then regards that which before he seemed wholly to neglect, but like one that is refreshed with sleep, and whose heart is made glad by the sober and moderate use of wine, and is therefore the more lively and vigorous, and fit for business. When God had delivered the ark of his strength into captivity, as one jealous of his honour, he soon put forth the arm of his strength to rescue it, stirred up his strength to do great things for his people.

      1. He plagued the Philistines who held the ark in captivity, Psalms 78:66; Psalms 78:66. He smote them with emerods in the hinder parts, wounded them behind, as if they were fleeing from him, even when they thought themselves more than conquerors. He put them to reproach, and they themselves helped to make it a perpetual reproach by the golden images of their emerods, which they returned with the ark for a trespass-offering (1 Samuel 6:5), to remain in perpetuam rei memoriam--as a perpetual memorial. Note, Sooner or later God will glorify himself by putting disgrace upon his enemies, even when they are most elevated with their successes.

      2. He provided a new settlement for his ark after it had been some months in captivity and some years in obscurity. He did indeed refuse the tabernacle of Joseph; he never sent it back to Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim, Psalms 78:67; Psalms 78:67. The ruins of that place were standing monuments of divine justice. God, see what I did to Shiloh,Jeremiah 7:12. But he did not wholly take away the glory from Israel; the moving of the ark is not the removing of it. Shiloh has lost it, but Israel has not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men, though this or that place may have its candlestick removed; nay, the rejection of Shiloh is the election of Zion, as, long after, the fall of the Jews was the riches of the Gentiles, Romans 11:12. When God chose not the tribe of Ephraim, of which tribe Joshua was, he chose the tribe of Judah (Psalms 78:68; Psalms 78:68), because of that tribe Jesus was to be, who is greater than Joshua. Kirjath-jearim, the place to which the ark was brought after its rescue out of the hands of the Philistines, was in the tribe of Judah. There it took possession of that tribe; but thence it was removed to Zion, the Mount Zion which he loved (Psalms 78:68; Psalms 78:68), which was beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth; there it was that he built his sanctuary like high palaces and like the earth,Psalms 78:69; Psalms 78:69. David indeed erected only a tent for the ark, but a temple was then designed and prepared for, and finished by his son; and that was, (1.) A very stately place. It was built like the palaces of princes, and the great men of the earth, nay, it excelled them all in splendour and magnificence. Solomon built it, and yet here it is said God built its, for his father had taught him, perhaps with reference to this undertaking, that except the Lord build the house those labour in vain that build it, Psalms 127:1, which is a psalm for Solomon. (2.) A very stable place, like the earth, though not to continue as long as the earth, yet while it was to continue it was as firm as the earth, which God upholds by the word of his power, and it was not finally destroyed till the gospel temple was erected, which is to continue as long as the sun and moon endure (Psalms 89:36; Psalms 89:37) and against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

      3. He set a good government over them, a monarchy, and a monarch after his own heart: He chose David his servant out of all the thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre into his hand, out of whose loins Christ was to come, and who was to be a type of him, Psalms 78:70; Psalms 78:70. Concerning David observe here, (1.) The meanness of his beginning. His extraction indeed was great, for he descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah, but his education was poor. He was bred not a scholar, not a soldier, but a shepherd. He was taken from the sheep-folds, as Moses was; for God delights to put honour upon the humble and diligent, to raise the poor out of the dust and to set them among princes; and sometimes he finds those most fit for public action that have spent the beginning of their time in solitude and contemplation. The Son of David was upbraided with the obscurity of his original: Is not this the carpenter? David was taken, he does not say from leading the rams, but from following the ewes, especially those great with young, which intimated that of all the good properties of a shepherd he was most remarkable for his tenderness and compassion to those of his flock that most needed his care. This temper of mind fitted him for government, and made him a type of Christ, who, when he feeds his flock like a shepherd, does with a particular care gently lead those that are with young,Isaiah 40:11. (2.) The greatness of his advancement. God preferred him to feed Jacob his people,Psalms 78:71; Psalms 78:71. It was a great honour that God put upon him, in advancing him to be a king, especially to be king over Jacob and Israel, God's peculiar people, near and dear to him; but withal it was a great trust reposed in him when he was charged with the government of those that were God's own inheritance. God advanced him to the throne that he might feed them, not that he might feed himself, that he might do good, not that he might make his family great. It is the charge given to all the under-shepherds, both magistrates and ministers, that they feed the flock of God. (3.) The happiness of his management. David, having so great a trust put into his hands, obtained mercy of the Lord to be found both skilful and faithful in the discharge of it (Psalms 78:72; Psalms 78:72): So he fed them; he ruled them and taught them, guided and protected them, [1.] Very honestly; he did it according to the integrity of his heart, aiming at nothing but the glory of God and the good of the people committed to his charge; the principles of his religion were the maxims of his government, which he administered, not with carnal policy, but with godly sincerity, by the grace of God. In every thing he did he meant well and had no by-end in view. [2.] Very discreetly; he did it by the skilfulness of his hands. He was not only very sincere in what he designed, but very prudent in what he did, and chose out the most proper means in pursuit of his end, for his God did instruct him to discretion. Happy the people that are under such a government! With good reason does the psalmist make this the finishing crowning instance of God's favour to Israel, for David was a type of Christ the great and good Shepherd, who was humbled first and then exalted, and of whom it was foretold that he should be filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and should judge and reprove with equity,Isaiah 11:3; Isaiah 11:4. On the integrity of his heart and the skilfulness of his hands all his subjects may entirely rely, and of the increase of his government and people there shall be no end.