Psalm 78

Authorship

This psalm was authored by Asaph.

Outline

(This began as Wendland's Expository Outline, but may be adapted.)

I. Give ear, O my people, to my law. (1-4)

A. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

B. I will open my mouth in a parable.

C. I will utter dark sayings of old:

1. Which we have heard and known.

2. Which our fathers have told us.

D. We will not hide it from their children, shewing to the generation to come:

1. The praises of the Lord.

2. His strength.

3. His wonderful works that He hath done.

II. 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. (5-8)

A. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children.

B. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.

C. That they might not be as their fathers:

1. A stubborn and rebellious generation.

2. A generation that set not their heart aright.

3. A generation whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

III. The sin of Ephraim (Israel). (9-20)

A. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

B. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law.

C. They forgot His works, and His wonders that He had shewed them in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

D. He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as an heap.

E. In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

F. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

1. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

2. Yet they sinned more against Him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

3. They tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

4. They spoke against God. They said:

a. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

b. Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed, but can He give bread also?

c. Can He provide flesh for His people?

IV. God’s response to Israel’s sin. (21-35 )

A. Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

1. Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.

2. Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven.

3. Though He had rained down manna upon them to eat:

a. Man ate the corn of heaven. 179

b. Man age angels' food.

B. God sent them meat to the full.

1. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by His power he brought in the south wind.

2. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.

3. He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

4. They ate, and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire.

5. They were not estranged from their lust, but while their meat was yet in their mouths:

a. The wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

b. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works.

C. Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

D. When He slew them:

1. They sought Him.

2. They returned and inquired early after God.

3. They remembered that God was their rock.

4. They remembered that the high God was their redeemer.

V. Israel’s response to God’s judgment. (36-37)

A. Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth.

B. They lied unto Him with their tongues.

C. Their heart was not right with Him.

D. Neither were they stedfast in His covenant.

VI. God’s response to Israel’s sin. (38-39)

A. But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not.

B. Many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.

C. For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

VII. Israel continually forgot God. (40-41)

A. How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!

B. Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

VIII. Israel forgot Egypt: They remembered not his hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy. (42-53)

A. He wrought His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan:

B. He turned their rivers into blood and their floods, that they could not drink.

C. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

D. He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

E. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

F. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

G. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

H. He made a way to His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence.

I. He smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.

J. He made His own people to go forth like sheep:

1. He guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

2. He led them on safely, so that they feared not.

3. He allowed the sea to overwhelm their enemies.

IX. Israel forgot how God opened their promised land. (54-58)

A. He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased.

B. 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.

C. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not His testimonies.

D. They turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

E. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

X. God’s response to Israel’s sin. (59-64)

A. When God heard this, He was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel.

B. He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men.

C. He permitted His strength and glory to go into the hands of the enemy.

D. He gave His people over unto the sword.

E. He was wroth with His inheritance.

F. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

G. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

XI. Finally, God moved again upon Israel. (65-72)

A. The Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

B. He smote His enemies in the hinder parts.

C. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

D. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved.

E. He built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He hath established for ever.

F. He chose David also his servant:

1. He took him from the sheepfolds.

2. He took him from following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

3. David fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

Textual Criticism

The following is from Barthélemy's Critique textuelle de l’Ancien Testament volume on the Psalms. For a key to the various symbols and abbreviations, click here.

Ps 78,28 וַיַּפֵּל {C} MT, σ', T // assim-ctext: G, Hebr, S clav וַיִּפֹּל

Ps 78,34 אֵל {B} MT, G, Hebr, T // transl: S?

Ps 78,48 לַבָּרָד {B} MT, G, α', θ', Hebr, S, T // perm: m, σ' לדבר

Ps 78,71 וּבְיִשְׂרָאֵל נַחֲלָתוֹ {A}