Psalms 78:1-72 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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Bible Comments

Title. Maschil of Asaph. Rabbi Kimchi says, that this title, which signifies to give instruction, designates also the species of music or melody to which the words were set, as is now the practice of composers. Handel named his celebrated piece, The Messiah. This psalm is a species of carmen seculare to the Hebrews.

Psalms 78:1. Give ear, oh my people. Hebrew poetry generally begins with bold addresses. Psalms 45:1; Isaiah 1:2.

Psalms 78:2. A parable, a succession of wise and instructive sayings. It is a psalm of rehearsal, that the worshipper might derive instruction from the ways of providence.

Psalms 78:5. A testimony in Jacob. The Ark of the testimony, as in twenty places; for there the Lord dwelt in glory, and his law attested his covenant.

Psalms 78:9. Ephraim being armed turned back; that is, according to Kimchi, though actually in the field of battle, to fight against Amalek in the desert, he ran away with shame, and is branded for it. 1 Chronicles 7:21. Others think this act of cowardice happened when the ark of God was taken, for the people of Amalek were allies of the Philistines.

Psalms 78:12. Zoan. The LXX read, Tunis, as in Numbers 13:22. It was situate on the eastern branch of the Nile, in the Delta, and was the northern capital of the kings of Egypt. Rosetta is the same place now, and built on its ruins.

Psalms 78:25. Man did eat angels' food. אבירים abirim, the mighty ones. St. Paul seems to cite this text when he says, “the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7.

Psalms 78:33. Their days did he consume in vanity: their sentence, couched in the name of Abel, to waste away in the desert, it would seem, quickly followed that of the ten unbelieving spies. It made them sick at heart; they gradually fainted and died. As unbelief is the damning sin of the world, so the Lord made those old rebels a fearful example to posterity.

Psalms 78:35. Their Redeemer. Hebrews גאלם goalam, their goël, as in Job 19:25. The Messiah was ever employed in redeeming and saving his people.

Psalms 78:39. A wind that passeth away. Hebrews רוח ruach, a spirit.

Psalms 78:41. They limited the Holy One of Israel. After the Lord had given water and manna, they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? How soon they forgot what their eyes had seen. They were not allowed to see the new miracles which he wrought in the land of Canaan.

Psalms 78:49. By sending evil angels among them, to destroy the firstborn of the Egyptians; but they had no power to touch the families where the blood of the covenant was sprinkled.

Psalms 78:63. Their maidens were not given to marriage. The Hebrew is praise or marriage song, and dances, as the Epithalamia of the heathen. The young men being cut off in war, there were no husbands for them; or, as the Syriac, they were ravished by the victorious Philistines.

Psalms 78:64. Their priests fell by the sword. Eli's two sons and other priests, for whom their widows made no lamentation, their death being a disgrace.

REFLECTIONS.

In this review of Hebrew history, we see the deep stain of original sin breaking out on all occasions into new forms of crime. The old man cannot amend; he must be put off; he must be crucified. This is the grand point of instruction to posterity. For death will make all men coward, as well as Ephraim: true courage reposes in virtuous minds.

We admire the just portrait which Asaph draws of the rebellious Hebrews in the desert: they wantonly lusted for flesh, when they ate bread that God had given them from heaven. They provoked the Holy One to anger; but their punishment was less than their sin. Take warning, oh my soul, and tempt not Christ, as they tempted him.

See the compassion and tender mercy of God. All the deliverances of Israel are traced up to thee; and this is recorded for our encouragement, that we may turn to the Lord, and hope in his mercy. But if we continue in sin because grace abounds, our sin will be exceeding sinful. With God there is forgiveness, that he may be feared. His goodness is designed to lead us to repentance, and keep us from sinning against him; and if it answers this end, we, through patience and comfort of the scripture, shall have hope.

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.