Psalm 78
Learning From Our History
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
These are the words of George Santayana, the Spanish-American philosopher of the 20th century. But the reality is stronger. We neglect and reject the past, thinking we know best. And when we do, we fall into the same trap as many before us.
But this is a Psalm that shows us how the past can guard us from sin (1 Cor 10.6) and how God’s grace is greater than our sin.
A maskil of Asaph.
1 My people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
I will utter hidden things, things from of old –
3 things we have heard and known,
things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach their children,
6 so that the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors –
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;
10 they did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them.
The history of the people of God is a cautionary tale (8-11). They broke the law, neglected their own people, and rebelled against the God who had redeemed them.
In this Psalm, the highlights of God’s grace and lowlights of Israel’s sin will be handed from generation to generation to generation. The purpose of this Psalm is to fuel and fortify a faith that goes the distance (6-8).
We do not just hear Asaph here but Jesus himself. For when Jesus taught through parables, he fulfilled the pattern of this Psalm (Matthew 13.35). In teaching about the Kingdom, he was fuelling and fortifying his disciples with the truths of heaven.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand up like a wall.
14 He guided them with the cloud by day
and with light from the fire all night.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness
and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag
and made water flow down like rivers.17 But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
18 They wilfully put God to the test
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God;
they said, ‘Can God really
spread a table in the wilderness?
20 True, he struck the rock,
and water gushed out,
streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
Can he supply meat for his people?’
21 When the LORD heard them, he was furious;
his fire broke out against Jacob,
and his wrath rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe in God
or trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Human beings ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens
and by his power made the south wind blow.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made them come down inside their camp,
all around their tents.
29 They ate till they were gorged –
he had given them what they craved.
30 But before they turned from what they craved,
even while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger rose against them;
he put to death the sturdiest among them,
cutting down the young men of Israel.32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.
We are drawn back to the wilderness. This is the place where God led his people after liberating them from Pharaoh (12-13). In that place he guided them safely through the dark and dangers, and he miraculously provided water for them from the rock (14-16).
“But…”
They were not content under the fatherly care of God. Even though they had seen miracles, they still questioned his faithfulness and his power (17-20). Just like the Pharisees who saw all Jesus did, yet still continued to test him and try to trick him. Hard heartedness continues through the generations.
God identified the problem. They did not believe his word or trust their future to him (22). He demonstrated once more his great power, raining the bread of angels on them, and cutting down the haughty (21-31).
As their sin went from generation to generation, so his grace traces a constant line from generation to generation (32-39). The Israelites of that generation feigned repentance when they saw judgement coming. But their false words were shown to be hollow when they retreated to their rebellion again.
And so the question is, how will we respond to this grace? Will we be like the Israelites or will we realise that God’s kindness is a call to repentance (Romans 2.4)?
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power –
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their river into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility –
a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.56 But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was furious;
he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among humans.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendour into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword;
he was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
Their problem is diagnosed. They did not remember God’s power (42).
Once more we are summoned back into the halls of history, here to Egypt. Asaph outlines God’s judgement of Pharaoh through the plagues, God’s supernatural salvation of the people, and how God led his people to the place he promised Abraham (40-55).
“But…”
Even in the Promised Land, the people fell back into the ways of the generation before them. These patterns of sin go from one generation to the next. (56-58).
And so God rejected Israel by removing his presence from them (59-64).
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established for ever.
70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skilful hands he led them.
But God’s faithfulness follows a through line from generation to generation. Never deviating. Whatever promises he makes are the promises he keeps.
God rose up and defeated the enemies of his people (65-66), restored his presence among his people (69), and then raised up a Shepherd King, David, for his people (70-72). After hundreds of years, God raised up another Shepherd King, Jesus, raising him even from the dead. And with purity of heart, he leads us along the path of life and righteousness.
Glory be to God the Father, whose faithfulness stretches to the heavens.
Glory be to God the Son, the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his flock.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who reminds the church of the persevering grace of the Lord.
Ever three and ever One.
Home Group: Healthy Gospel Church Week 6
Read Matthew 28.16-20
What do you think it means to “make disciples”? How do we do that?
Who has helped you most in your own discipleship?
What role does a local congregation have in disciple making?
Read Colossians 3.1-11
What reasons does Paul give for growing in Christ-likeness?
Does discipleship get easier the longer you have been a Christian? Why or why not?