1 An instruction of Asaph. Give ear, my people, to my law; incline your ear to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings from of old;
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide [them] from their sons, telling the generations to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his wondrous works which he wrought.
5 For (or And) he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law. in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make [them] known to their sons,
6 That the generation to come might know, sons to be born, who should rise up and tell their sons,
7 And (or That) they might set their hope in God, and not forget the deeds of God (El), and keep his commandments;
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set (prepared) not their hearts, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God (El).
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned in the day of battle.
10 They kept not God’s covenant and in his law refused to walk;
11 And they forgot his deeds and his wondrous works which he caused them to see.
12 In the sight of their fathers he wrought wonders in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
13 He slave the sea and caused them to pass through and made the waters to stand as a heap;
14 And he led them with a cloud by day and all the night with light of fire.
15 He slave rocks in the wilderness, and gave drink as the depths abundantly,
16 He brought streams from the rock (crag) and caused waters to come down like the rivers.
17 Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert (dry);
18 And they tempted God in their hearts by asking food for their lust (souls).
19 And they spoke against God; they said, Shall God be able to furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; can he give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?
21 Therefore Jehovah heard and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel;
22 Because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 And he rained upon them manna to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.
25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.
26 He led forth (or roused) the east [wind] in the heavens, and by his strength guided the south [wind],
27 And he rained flesh upon them as dust and winged fowl as sand of the sea,
28 And let it fall in the midst of the camp round about their habitations.
29 And they did eat and were well filled. He brought to them their desire;
30 They were not estranged from their desire; their food [was] yet in their mouths,
31 When God’s anger went up against them and slew their fattest, and smote down the chosen of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not in his wondrous works;
33 He consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
34 When he slew them, then they enquired after him, and turned and sought God (El) eagerly.
35 And they remembered that God [was] their rock, and God Most High their redeemer.
36 And they flattered (enticed) him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
37 And their heart was not firm with him, nor were they stedfast in his covenant.
38 But he mercifully forgave iniquity, and destroyed not, and often withdrew his anger and did not arouse all his wrath;
39 And he remembered that they [were] flesh, a wind passing and not coming again.
40 How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert!
41 And they turned again and tempted God (El), and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from oppression,
43 How he set his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan,
44 And turned their rivers to blood, and their streams that they could not drink.
45 He sent among them dogflies, and they devoured them; and frogs, and they destroyed them.
46 And he gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
47 He killed their vines with the hail, and their sycamore trees with the frost,
48 And delivered their cattle to the hail and their flocks to the lightnings.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress, by sending angels of woes.
50 He made a path for his anger, he withheld their soul from death, and their life he gave over to the pestilence;
51 And he smote every first-born in Egypt, the first fruits of vigor in the tents of Ham.
52 And he made his people go as the sheep, and guided them as the flock in the wilderness;
53 And he led them safely, and they feared not; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And he brought them to the border of his holiness, this mountain his right hand purchased,
55 And drove out before them nations, and allotted them by a line [for] an inheritance, and caused the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents..
56 But they tempted and resisted God Most High, and kept not his testimonies,
57 And revolted, and dealt treacherously like their fathers; they were turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 God heard and was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel.
60 And he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tent he pitched among men,
61 And gave his strength into captivity, and his beauty into the oppressor’s hand.
62 And he gave over to the sword his people, and was wrath with his inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their chosen, and their maidens were not praised in song;
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows wept not.
65 And the Lord awoke as a sleeper, as a mighty man shouting aloud from wine;
66 And he smote his adversaries backward and put them to everlasting reproach.
67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and the tribe of Ephraim did not chose;
68 And he chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like high [places], like the earth he founded for ever.
70 And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfold;
71 From behind suckling [ewes] he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
72 And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and in the skill of his hands he led them.
Notes on Psalm 78
This is “An instruction, of Asaph.”
The third of these three is alike full, beautiful, and important. It sets out the total failure of Israel under governmental dealings. Law, no matter what the long-suffering goodness that accompanies it, can only issue in the ruin of sinful man. Sovereign grace alone avails. The testimony Jehovah raised in Jacob was excellent, the law He set in Israel holy and good; but what could either avail, the people being what they were? “As many as are of works of law are under curse” (Gal. 3). It is but a ministry of death and condemnation. Real and stable blessing turns on God and His grace. Do what He would in nature or law, Israel brought Him but shame, with misery on themselves. Then did He choose Judah, Zion, and David, the pledge and security of ultimate blessing and triumph, when the children shall indeed learn to profit by their fathers’ failure, the final and everlasting passage from flesh and law to the true Beloved and the grace that brings salvation.
These psalms (79-85) beautifully follow up the moral instruction of Psalm 78, for the whole people’s interest Godward.