Reflections on Psalms 78

 Psalms 78(Contemporary English Version)

1. (A special psalm by Asaph.) My friends, I beg you to listen as I teach.sermons
   
2. I will give instruction and explain the mystery of what happened long ago.sermons
   
3. These are things we learned from our ancestors,sermons
   
4. and we will tell them to the next generation. We won't keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the LORD.sermons
   
5. God gave his Law to Jacob's descendants, the people of Israel. And he told our ancestors to teach their children,sermons
   
6. so that each new generation would know his Law and tell it to the next.sermons
   
7. Then they would trust God and obey his teachings, without forgetting anything God had done.sermons
   
8. They would be different from their ancestors, who were stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful to God.sermons
   
9. The warriors from Ephraim were armed with arrows, but they ran away when the battle began.sermons
   
10. They broke their agreement with God, and they turned their backs on his teaching.sermons
    
11. They forgot all he had done, even the mighty miraclessermons
    
12. he did for their ancestors near Zoan in Egypt.sermons
    
13. God made a path in the sea and piled up the water as he led them across.sermons
    
14. He guided them during the day with a cloud, and each night he led them with a flaming fire.sermons
    
15. God made water flow from rocks he split open in the desert, and his people drank freely, as though from a lake.sermons
    
16. He made streams gush out like rivers from rocks.sermons
    
17. But in the desert, the people of God Most High kept sinning and rebelling.sermons
    
18. They stubbornly tested God and demanded from him what they wanted to eat.sermons
    
19. They challenged God by saying, "Can God provide food out here in the desert?sermons
    
20. It's true God struck the rock and water gushed out like a river, but can he give his people bread and meat?"sermons
    
21. When the LORD heard this, he was angry and furious with Jacob's descendants, the people of Israel.sermons
    
22. They had refused to trust him, and they had doubted his saving power.sermons
    
23. But God gave a command to the clouds, and he opened the doors in the skies.sermons
    
24. From heaven he sent grain that they called manna.sermons
    
25. He gave them more than enough, and each one of them ate this special food.sermons
    
26. God's mighty power brought a strong wind from the southeast,sermons
    
27. and it brought birds that covered the ground, like sand on the beach.sermons
    
28. Then God made the birds fall in the camp of his people near their tents.sermons
    
29. God gave his people all they wanted, and each of them ate until they were full.sermons
    
30. But before they had swallowed the last bite,sermons
    
31. God became angry and killed the strongest and best from the families of Israel.sermons
    
32. But the rest kept on sinning and would not trust God's miracles.sermons
    
33. So he cut their lives short and made them terrified.sermons
    
34. After he killed some of them, the others turned to him with all their hearts.sermons
    
35. They remembered God Most High, the mighty rock that kept them safe.sermons
    
36. But they tried to flatter God, and they told him lies;sermons
    
37. they were unfaithful and broke their promises.sermons
    
38. Yet God was kind. He kept forgiving their sins and didn't destroy them. He often became angry, but never lost his temper.sermons
    
39. God remembered that they were made of flesh and were like a wind that blows once and then dies down.sermons
    
40. While they were in the desert, they often rebelled and made God sad.sermons
    
41. They kept testing him and caused terrible pain for the Holy One of Israel.sermons
    
42. They forgot about his power and how he had rescued them from their enemies.sermons
    
43. God showed them all kinds of wonderful miracles near Zoan in Egypt.sermons
    
44. He turned the rivers of Egypt into blood, and no one could drink from the streams.sermons
    
45. He sent swarms of flies to pester the Egyptians, and he sent frogs to cause them trouble.sermons
    
46. God let worms and grasshoppers eat their crops.sermons
    
47. He destroyed their grapevines and their fig trees with hail and floods.sermons
    
48. Then he killed their cattle with hail and their other animals with lightning.sermons
    
49. God was so angry and furious that he went into a rage and caused them great trouble by sending swarms of destroying angels.sermons
    
50. God gave in to his anger and slaughtered them in a terrible way.sermons
    
51. He killed the first-born son of each Egyptian family.sermons
    
52. Then God led his people out of Egypt and guided them in the desert like a flock of sheep.sermons
    
53. He led them safely along, and they were not afraid, but their enemies drowned in the sea.sermons
    
54. God brought his people to the sacred mountain that he had taken by his own power.sermons
    
55. He made nations run from the tribes of Israel, and he let the tribes take over their land.sermons
    
56. But the people tested God Most High, and they refused to obey his laws.sermons
    
57. They were as unfaithful as their ancestors, and they were as crooked as a twisted arrow.sermons
    
58. God demanded all their love, but they made him angry by worshiping idols.sermons
    
59. So God became furious and completely rejected the people of Israel.sermons
    
60. Then he deserted his home at Shiloh, where he lived here on earth.sermons
    
61. He let enemies capture the sacred chest and let them dishonor him.sermons
    
62. God took out his anger on his chosen ones and let them be killed by enemy swords.sermons
    
63. Fire destroyed the young men, and the young women were left with no one to marry.sermons
    
64. Priests died violent deaths, but their widows were not allowed to mourn.sermons
    
65. Finally the Lord woke up, and he shouted like a drunken soldier.sermons
    
66. God scattered his enemies and made them ashamed forever.sermons
    
67. Then the Lord decided not to make his home with Joseph's descendants in Ephraim.sermons
    
68. Instead he chose the tribe of Judah, and he chose Mount Zion, the place he loves.sermons
    
69. There he built his temple as lofty as the mountains and as solid as the earth that he had made to last forever.sermons
    
70. The Lord God chose David to be his servant and took him from tending sheepsermons
    
71. and from caring for lambs. Then God made him the leader of Israel, his own nation.sermons
    
72. David treated the people fairly and guided them with wisdom.sermons

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Another psalm of Asaph. This lengthy psalm has the purpose of telling "a future generation the praises of the LORD, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed." (78:4) To do that, it must also point out the unfaithfulness of the Israelites and God's patience with them and also His anger with them. As with most Old Testament accounts that review God's mighty works on Israel's behalf, it recounts the events of God leading her out of Egypt into the land of promise.

At Mount Sinai God "established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel." (78:5) This established the guidelines of Israel's relationship with God for both present and future generations. They were commanded to teach them to their children so future generations would also know and teach to their children. In doing so all generations "might put their confidence in God and not forget God's works, but keep His commandments." (78:7)

Asaph hoped that by teaching their generation and beyond "they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God." (78:8) He wanted them not only to know God's instructions to them but to learn from the mistakes of their ancesters. Though God had "split the sea" bringing them across the Red Sea on dry land, and had "led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night," and had "split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths," they "continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High." (78:13, 14, 15, 17) They "deliberately tested God," Asaph said, by "demanding the food they craved." (78:18) They said, "He struck the rock and water gushed out; torrents overflowed. But can He also provide bread or furnish meat for His people?" (78:20) What insolence! At that point God lost patience with them and He rained down fire upon them. But then He provided the food they craved.

Then, "Despite all this, they kept sinning and did not believe His wonderful works." (78:32) So God, "made their days end in futility, their years in sudden disaster." (78:33) When God punished them they repented and "remembered that God was their rock," but even in this, "their hearts were insincere toward Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant." (78:37) Concerning the people's unfaithfulness Asaph comments, "Yet He was compassionate; He atoned for their guilt 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." (78:38-39) What a wonderful statement of God's mercy - "He remembered that they were only flesh." So God extended His mercy rather than His wrath.

Once they were established in the Promised Land they "rebelliously tested the Most High God, for they did not keep His decrees." Nothing changed regardless of what God did for them. Not only did they fail to keep God's instructions to them, they turned to worship other gods. Eventually God "completely rejected Israel." (78:59) In doing so, He "surrendered His people to the sword," turning them over to their enemies.

Eventually, though, "the Lord awoke as if from sleep." After taking His hand away from Israel for a period of time and seemingly "slept," God "awoke" and again favored Israel. But things changed. "He rejected the tent of Joseph," the tribe that had been in leadership, and "He chose instead the tribe of Judah." (78:67, 68) From the tribe of Judah God chose David to be Israel's leader and within the territory of Judah He chose Mount Zion, the location of Jerusalem, to establish His sanctuary. Under this arrangement Israel enjoyed a number of years of prosperity and faithfulness to God.

And so the moral of Asaph's psalm is to pay attention to God's instructions and be faithful to Him and He will bless you. Otherwise it will not go well for you.