Psalms 78:1-72 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

LXXVIII. The Lesson of Israel's History. The northern tribes have been perverse from the first. Their wickedness has culminated in the schismatical religion of the Samaritans. God, on the contrary, has chosen Zion, the sanctuary of Judah. The Ps. must have been written before John Hyrcanus (134 B.C.) destroyed the Samaritan shrine on Mt. Gerizim (p. 608).

Psalms 78:1-11. Introduction.

Psalms 78:2. parable: rather poem. dark sayings: rather enigmas in the history of Israel and Judah which the Psalmist explains.

Psalms 78:4. Point with LXX, It was not hid from their children: they told it for the generation that was, etc.

Psalms 78:5. testimony: i.e. the Law which bears witness to the Divine will.

Psalms 78:9. Correct from Psalms 78:57, The children of Ephraim, like a deceitful bow, turned back, etc. They were like mercenaries who fled when danger came (cf. Hosea 7:16). The Psalmist would find a plausible support for his theory in the Book of Judges, a North-Israelite production, and concerned with Israel's, not Judah's sins.

Psalms 78:12-39 dwells chiefly on God's wonderful work on His people's behalf, though it also relates instances of their perversity and God's merciful forgiveness.

Psalms 78:12. Zoan: Tanis (Isaiah 19:11 *). It was at the NE. corner of Egypt.

Psalms 78:25. Manna was the ordinary food of the strong, i.e. angels (see Ps. 10:3, 20).

Psalms 78:30. They were as yet in full enjoyment of the flesh; they were not tired or sick of it.

Psalms 78:33. in vanity: i.e. in aimless wanderings through the desert.

Psalms 78:40-58. Israel's constant apostasy despite all that God had done for them, especially by punishing their enemies in Egypt and by destroying the Canaanites.

Psalms 78:48. hail: read, pestilence.

Psalms 78:49 f. Here the Psalmist adds to the story as told in Exodus. The band of evil angels, and the general plague, are not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.

Psalms 78:51. Ham: a name for Egypt in late Pss. (Psalms 105:23 *). Egypt was the greatest of Ham's sons.

Psalms 78:54. Follow mg.

Psalms 78:55 b. Read, and allotted their (the Canaanites-') inheritance by line (cf. Isaiah 37:17).

Psalms 78:59-72. Shiloh replaced by Jerusalem. The Kingdom of David.

Psalms 78:59. Israel in the old language included the central and northern tribes, as distinct from Judah, though after the captivity of the northern nation, Judah adopted the now vacant name. Shiloh was the great shrine and was destroyed, we know not how, probably by the Philistines (see 1 Samuel 7:1 *, Jeremiah 7:12-14 *, Jeremiah 26:6-9).

Psalms 78:64. Read with LXX, No lament was made for their widows.

Psalms 78:65 b. Translate with LXX, like a mighty man who had been overpowered by wine. The Ephraimites and the other tribes associated with him are the adversaries: God has been patient with them too long: now He rises, as from sleep or wine, to punish the Samaritans, who in their rejection of the shrine at Jerusalem upheld the old evil tradition. But the sequence of thought is far from clear.

Related Commentaries of Psalms 78:1

Psalms 78:1-72

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 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:

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

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8 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 stedfast with God.

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

10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

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

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

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

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

17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnishb a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

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

22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

25 Manc did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

26 He caused an east wind to blowd in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and featherede fowls like as the sand of the sea:

28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

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

32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

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

40 How oft did they provokef 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 wroughtg 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 caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

47 He destroyedh their vines with hail, and their sycomore 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 madei 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 firstborn 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 overwhelmedj 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 establishedk for ever.

70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71 From followingl 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.