Psalm 78
A Psalm of Asaph Recalling God’s Praiseworthy Acts for Israel
This psalm is titled A Contemplation of Asaph. The author Asaph was the great singer and musician of David and Solomon’s era (1 Chronicles 15:17-19, 16:5-7; 2 Chronicles 29:13). 1 Chronicles 25:1 and 2 Chronicles 29:30 add that Asaph was a prophet in his musical compositions. - David Guzik
Asaph appealed to his audience to listen to his instruction about God’s acts, power, and wonders. He had received these teachings from former generations and was now passing them on to the next generation, as God had commanded. - Thomas Constable
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 - These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Asaph recounted some of the most well-known stories in Jewish history in this didactic psalm and toggled between describing God’s acts and Israel’s responses. His lyrics depicted a faithful God and His often faithless people and were recorded to be passed to posterity so that no generation of Israel would repeat the sins of their fathers.
Psalm 78 is the longest of the historical psalms. Its lesson is that history must not repeat itself. The people must never again be unbelieving. - James Montgomery Boice
The Praiseworthy Acts of The Lord
Works and Word
Vs. 2-4 - I will speak mysteries from the past— things we have heard and known and that our ancestors have passed down to us. We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his might, and the wondrous works he has performed.
Vs. 5-6 - He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children so that a future generation—children yet to be born—might know.
Using poetic repetition for style and emphasis, Asaph began by describing one of the greatest of God’s wonderful works – the giving of God’s word to Israel. Centuries later the Apostle Paul would explain that one of the great advantages God gave to Israel was that He committed to them His word, the oracles of God (Romans 3:2). - David Guzik
The first praiseworthy act that Asaph chose to highlight in this psalm was the giving of the law of God to Israel. It was through this “testimony” that God began to reveal His character to the world.
Deliverance from Slavery in Egypt
Vs. 12-13 - He worked wonders in the sight of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan. He split the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall.
Vs. 43 - he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt
Another mighty work of Yaweh described by Asaph was Israel’s miraculous exodus from slavery in Egypt, the most repeated and recounted event in all of Jewish scripture.
Provision in the Wilderness
Vs. 14-16 - He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths. He brought streams out of the stone and made water flow down like rivers.
Vs. 52 - He led his people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.
Asaph then described the way that God guided and provided for His people on their long journey to Canaan. Because of their unbelief, a generation wandered homeless for decades, but God gave them the food of angels and even water in the desert.
Numbers 20:11 - Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that abundant water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Victory in the Promised Land
Vs. 54-55 - He brought them to his holy territory, to the mountain his right hand acquired. He drove out nations before them. He apportioned their inheritance by lot and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
When their desert wanderings finally ended, God “drove out” the nations of Canaan to make room for His people in the land He had promised. Under Joshua’s leadership, Israel began claiming the land that God had first mentioned to Abraham so many generations before.
A King from The Tribe of Judah
Vs. 70-71 - He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; he brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over his people Jacob—over Israel, his inheritance.
The final praiseworthy act of God that Asaph highlighted in this lyric was God’s provision of King David. To Asaph, the king guarded his people like a shepherd protected his sheep.
Skillful and Compassionate Shepherd
Vs. 38-39 - Yet he was compassionate; he atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often turned his anger aside and did not unleash all his wrath. He remembered that they were only flesh, a wind that passes and does not return.
Vs. 72 - He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.
Throughout Israel’s history, God had guided and provided for His people like a watchful shepherd. Even as He punished them, He looked on them with pity.
A Stubborn And Rebellious Generation
Vs. 8 - Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Israel did not always respond properly to God’s provision, and Asaph highlighted a few examples of their ingratitude. As Moses had instructed, Asaph for posterity’s sake so that no generation of Israel would repeat the sins of their fathers.
Vs. 32 - Despite all this, they kept sinning and did not believe his wondrous works.
In some ways this is the most tragic line of this psalm. Despite all the blessings and the strongest of corrections, they still sinned. Israel didn’t learn either from God’s goodness or from His wrath. - David Guzik
Ephraim in Battle
Vs. 9-10 - The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.
The prophetic writings show that Ephraim became the leader in the rebellion and disloyalty that cursed the nation, and so, figuratively and standing for the rest, Ephraim is here addressed. - Morgan
The reference to Ephraim in Psalm 78:9-11 is not to be taken as alluding to any cowardly retreat from actual battle. Psalm 78:9 seems to be a purely figurative way of expressing what is put without a metaphor in the two following verses. Ephraim’s revolt from God’s covenant was like the conduct of soldiers, well armed and refusing to charge the foe. - Maclaren
Testing God
Vs. 40-41 - How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. They constantly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
Vs. 18-19 - They deliberately tested God, demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
Israel had seen the wonderful works of God, cleaving the sea, lighting the night, and giving water from rocks. Yet they questioned God’s ability to give bread, and to spread out a table in the wilderness. - Meyer
Vs. 30-31 - while the food was still in their mouths, God’s anger flared up against them, and he killed some of their best men. He struck down Israel’s fit young men.
Asaph highlighted a few specific instances of Israel’s faithlessness and ingratitude during their wilderness wanderings, one of which was their weariness with manna and demand for meat. God grew weary of their complaining and sent a “very severe plague” as judgment.
Numbers 11:33-34 - While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord’s anger burned against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague. So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat.
The Tabernacle at Shiloh
Vs. 60-61 - He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he resided among mankind. He gave up his strength to captivity and his splendor to the hand of a foe.
After Joshua died, the people again tested God by failing to drive the inhabitants of the land out as He had commanded them to do. They turned from Him to worship false gods. Consequently God permitted the Philistines to capture the ark at Shiloh (1 Samuel 4:4-11). Many Israelites died on that occasion, including the priests Hophni and Phinehas. - Thomas Constable
1 Samuel 4:10-11 - So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. The slaughter was severe—thirty thousand of the Israelite foot soldiers fell. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
Summary
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. - Allen
