I am following a chronologically ordered Bible study set forth by Skip Andrews. Again, he says, "Although we may not be able to precisely date these Psalms at this time, their general themes fit the topics we have just read in Deuteronomy." I covered Psalm 91 in the last post. Now, continuing with a chronological Bible study:
(Psalm 78:1) [Maschil of Asaph.] Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
Because Asaph penned this psalm, we know this wasn't recited at the time of Moses; however, it does speak to the times of Moses, and for that reason, it is suited to this position in a chronological study. Asaph was a minister of song of David's. A maschil was a psalm to give instruction. Asaph started the words of his psalm by exhorting God's people Israel to really listen to the words of his psalm and of the law that he was about to give.
(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.
Asaph would be speaking in what he called a parable, which in this sense meant a statement by analogy or comparison drawn from the ancient history of the people, which the people of his day had heard passed down from their forefathers and they knew.
(4) We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done.
Those people of that generation as of Asaph, would not hide these sayings of old from the children and ongoing generations of the Jewish fathers. They would continue to show future generations all the wonderful works and strength of their Lord God.
(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.
The Lord had established a testimony, a covenant between God and men, in Jacob, and enacted a law in Israel, which He had commanded their fathers to make known and teach to their children.
(6) That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born should arise and declare them to their children.
Their forefathers had been commanded to teach the law to their children who would in turn teach it to their children, and that would continue through the generations.
(7) That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.
By teaching future generations about God's law and His wonderful works, those generations to come would be able to have hope in God because of the wonderful things He had done, and they would desire to keep His commandments.
(8) And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
The hope and purpose of the psalmist in continuing to teach God's law and their fathers' history, they might learn not to be as their fathers had been, stubborn and rebellious, and not in harmony with God's Spirit and will.
(9) The children of Ephraim, armed, carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
This is one of the times when I am not satisfied with this particular chronological order of the Bible, as I have not yet studied the event which the psalmist speaks of. This psalm, it seems to me, belongs properly in the time of David, but as I began with this chronological study, I cannot change now, as I might miss something. The psalmist speaks of a time when the tribe of Ephraim, as one of the largest tribes, was the chief tribe in a rebellion. The commentators I study are not in agreement as to what rebellion this might be, and since I have not yet studied any such rebellion, I can't offer any opinion. However, by reading the end of this psalm, together with the words of Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible, I have come to the conclusion that Ephraim, probably meaning his tribe and the nine other tribes with him, with Ephraim being the largest, "had turned away from the worship of the true God." Ten tribes, excluding Judah and Benjamin, would eventually make up the Kingdom of Israel and Judah and Benjamin would make up the Kingdom of Judah. In consequence of Ephraim's (the ten tribes') "apostasy, the government had been transferred to another tribe - the tribe of Judah" (verses 67-68). Whether they were literally armed with weapons and turned back from a battle, or whether it meant they were armed with the truth and knowledge of God and turned away, I can't be certain; however, in light of the next verses, I imagine it was the latter, if not both.
(10) They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law, (11) And forgot His works and His wonders that He had showed them.
Those ten tribes (actually probably all of Israel at this point) did not keep the covenant of God and would not walk in His law. They had forgotten all the wonderful things He had done and shown them.
(12) Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
They had forgotten all the wondrous things He had done when they were in bondage in Egypt, in the territory of Zoan, an ancient city of Egypt.
(13) He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
They had forgotten how the Lord had divided the Red Sea by a strong east wind that was raised, which caused the sea to go back, and divided the waters of it. That allowed the Israelites to pass through the sea with the waters standing as walls on both sides of them.
(14) In the daytime also He led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire.
In their journey out of Egypt, the Lord led His people by a pillar of cloud in the daytime and by a pillar of fire at night.
(15) He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave drink as the great depths. (16) He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
The Lord provided water for His people from rocks as plentiful as if they drank from the sea. He brought forth streams out of rock that flowed 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.
This stubborn and rebellious people sinned even more against their Lord with their ingratitude. While the Lord provided for all their needs in the wilderness, they wanted more. I like the way the 1599 Geneva Bible Translation Notes explained what tempting the Lord meant, "to require more than is necessary, and to separate God's power from his will, is to tempt God." They had manna and water which was sufficient for their sustenance, but they craved meat for their pleasure. The Lord knows we need food and even taught it was right to ask for it in His model prayer that is called The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:11). However, as James said in James 4:3, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your lusts." To want more when you have all you need is to be terribly ungrateful and selfish.
(19) Yes, they spoke against God; they said, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? (20) Behold, He struck the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed; can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?"
The people began to speak against God, questioning His power. They admitted that He had provided water, so could He not give them more? Could He not provide bread and meat and a plentiful table in the wilderness?
(21) Therefore the Lord heard and was angry, so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel, (22) Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation.
The Lord heard their complaints and was angry. His anger like a fire rose up against His people because they did not trust in His providence and salvation.
(23) Though He had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven, (24) And had rained down manna on them to eat and had given them of the corn of heaven. (25) Man ate angels' food; He sent them food to the full.
The Lord was angry because He had literally opened the doors of heaven to rain down a perfect food for His people, giving them all the nutrition they needed, yet they were not satisfied and were ungrateful.
(26) He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind. (27) He rained meat also on them as dust and feathered fowls like the sand of the sea, (28) And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
So the Lord caused winds to blow that brought quails and He rained them upon the people as numerous as the dust or the sand of the sea. He let them fall into their camps, two cubits thick and as far as a day's journey on every side (Numbers 11:31).
(29) So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire. (30a) They were not estranged from their lust.
The people ate and were actually more than well filled. The original word "meod" that was transcribed as "well" actually meant "vehemently." The Lord gave them their own gluttonous desire. They ravenously ate as much as they wanted or lusted after.
(30b) But while their meat was yet in their mouths, (31) The wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and struck down the chosen of Israel.
While the people were still stuffing their faces, the wrath of God came upon them and killed the fattest of them. I believe that might mean the most gluttonous of all. With those, some of the most healthy and strong were struck down in their gluttony. I am always struck by the thought that although God could have certainly and righteously actively killed those people, He didn't have to actively do it. He can just let us be on our own in our own foolish lusts and we will kill ourselves. Without the Lord's guidance, protection, and salvation, we would all perish.
(32) For all this they sinned still and did not believe in His wondrous works.
Even witnessing all that, the people continued to sin, and the Lord's wondrous works had no effect on them.
(33) Therefore their days He consumed in vanity and their years in trouble.
Because they continued to sin, God made their days full of fruitless wandering in the desert, in fact, years of wandering and trouble.
(34) When He slew them, then they sought Him, and they returned and enquired early after God.
When the Lord killed some of the people in His righteous wrath, the survivors would then seek Him first thing.
(35) And they remembered that God was their Rock and the High God their redeemer.
It was then that they remembered that God was their protection and strength and redeemer. Even in God's anger, His actions are about bringing people back to Him, their only salvation. Without Him, they die, so can His punishment be a bad thing if it brings us back to Him?
(36) Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongues.
However, the people only honored God with their lips and apparently made promises they did not keep.
(37) For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant.
Their hearts were not right with the Lord. They were wavering and inconsistent in their faith and were not steadfast in their adherence to His covenant.
(38) But He, full of compassion, forgave iniquity and did not destroy; yes, many a time He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath.
However, God, full of compassion and mercy for His people, forgave their iniquity and did not completely destroy them as they deserved. Many times He turned His anger away and did not arouse all His anger, but the punishment was much less than the iniquity deserved.
(39) For He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes away and does not come again.
What a beautiful and loving thought! God knew His people were only flesh, weak mortal creatures, easily destroyed and unable to come back. In His love and mercy, He always saved at least a remnant of His people, never completely destroying them.
(40) How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, grieved Him in the desert!
The people very often provoked the Lord by their rebellion and many sins against Him. They grieved His Holy Spirit.
(41) Yes, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.
The people often turned back away from God and limited Him. Not that anyone can truly limit God's power, but we often try to put God in a box with our mere weak mortal ideas of what He should and can do. We can't see the larger picture and know what a much greater work the Lord is doing. Rather than praying for our silly insignificant wants, we should always desire His will as that is always much better than anything we can imagine.
(42) They did not remember His hand, the day when He delivered them from the enemy.
They did not remember the glorious works of His hand when He so remarkably delivered them from Pharaoh. The parting of the Red Sea is perhaps one of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament, and the people so easily dismissed and forgot about it.
(43) How He had wrought His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan; (44) And had turned their rivers into blood, that they could not drink.
Just as remarkably awesome were all the miracles God did against the Egyptians each time Pharaoh refused to let God's people go. He turned their rivers and streams into blood (Exodus 7:20), actual blood, not just the color of blood, so that they were unable to drink it. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible, pointed out something I had not thought of when I studied that passage in Exodus. He wrote that that particular plague was a righteous retaliation for drowning all the boy infants of the Israelites in the river (Exodus 1:22).
(45) He sent diverse sorts of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
The Lord sent a grievous swarm of flies into Egypt (Exodus 8:24) which was said to have corrupted their land which surely destroyed some of the inhabitants because of lack of food and perhaps disease. He also sent frogs (Exodus 8:5) which would have destroyed them in a similar fashion.
(46) He also gave their increase to the caterpillar and their labor to the locust.
The Lord sent locusts to devour all of Egypt's produce on which much labor had been expended. In Exodus 10:13, we are told only about the locusts, not the caterpillars. However, the meaning of the original word "chasiyl" that was translated as "caterpillar" means more completely "the ravager, that is, a locust; caterpillar."
(47) He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost.
The Lord rained down hail (Exodus 9:23) which covered the land like frost and killed the vines and the trees, actually every herb and tree of the field (Exodus 9:25).
(48) He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
According to the account in Exodus 9:23, the Lord sent both hail and thunder and fire that ran along upon the ground, lightning, and it killed Egypt's cattle and flocks.
(49) He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels.
The Lord had cast upon the Egyptians the fullness of His anger, that which He held back for the rebellious Israelites (verse 38 above). He sent angels instructed by Him to destroy the Egyptians. The Israelites, who had seen the full anger of the Lord, did not consider what He could justly do to them because of their rebellion.
(50) He made a way for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death but gave their life over to the plague; (51) And killed all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
The Lord forged ahead in His anger and did not spare their souls from death but gave them over to the plagues He sent. He killed all the firstborn in Egypt, the pride and glory and heirs in Egypt, the posterity of Ham.
(52) But made His own people to go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
However, the Lord did not harm His own people in the plagues but led them out of Egypt and guided them through the wilderness.
(53) And He led them on safely so that they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
The Lord led His people safely through the midst of the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but the waters covered the Egyptians who were chasing them.
(54) And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, this mountain His right hand had purchased.
The Lord brought His people to the border of the land of Canaan, the land He had promised to His people that was acquired by His own power and goodness. The mountain is probably Mount Moriah or Zion, referring to the same mountain, the mountain on which the temple was built, as it is believed that this psalm was actually written "after it was made known to David, by the prophet Gad, the place where the temple should be built; namely, on the very mountain" (Dr. John Gill).
(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.
The Lord cast out the heathen nations from their promised land and then divided the land into exact lots as an inheritance to each tribe. Thus the Israelites dwelt in the tents of the heathens who had once lived there.
(56) Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies, (57) But turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
After all the goodness and provision of their Lord, the people provoked Him to anger because of their wickedness and disobedience. They turned away from God and were unfaithful just as their fathers had been when the Lord first brought them out of Egypt. They were turned aside like a crooked bow, or a bow that appears that it will carry an arrow straight but does not.
(58) For they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their engraved images.
The people provoked God to anger with their elevated places they built for other deities. They moved Him to jealousy because of their worship of false idols. The Lord's jealousy is a righteous one. He was not jealous of the false idols, but rather because of His passionate love for His people as if a bride to Him, He was jealous and zealous for the relationship and did not want them destroyed by false gods that could do nothing for them.
(59) When God heard, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel.
When God heard His people worshipping false gods, He was very angry. The original word "maas" which was translated as "abhorred" does not mean that God hated them. Rather, it means that He rejected them, cast them away from Him as if He abhorred them. But of course, God always acted as He did because He loved His people and desired for them to return to Him which was their only place of salvation.
(60) So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He placed among men, (61) And delivered His strength into captivity and His glory into the enemy's hand.
Chronologically, this refers to a future event, when God abandoned the tabernacle that had been erected for Him in Shiloh and allowed the Ark of the Covenant, called His strength and glory, to be taken by their enemy.
(62) He gave His people over also to the sword and was wroth with His inheritance.
The Lord allowed His people to be killed by the sword, 30,000 of them according to 1 Samuel 4:10. He was very angry and turned away from the people He had chosen for His inheritance. Without His protection, they were killed by the enemy.
(63) The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
As this psalm is not truly placed in proper chronological order, once again events are being mentioned which I have not yet studied. However, I believe the fire mentioned is not a physical fire, but rather a destructive war of fiery swords or even perhaps the righteous anger of the Lord consuming them like a fire. Because the young men had been killed, young maidens were not able to marry.
(64) Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Even their priests were killed by the enemy and because of the fierce invasion, their widows were unable to have proper funerals or time for mourning.
(65) Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts because of wine. (66) And He struck His enemies in the hinder parts; He put them to a perpetual reproach.
It's not as if the Lord had truly been asleep and suddenly realized what was happening to His people. But as one who had been asleep who suddenly awoke and shouted, the Lord decided the destruction of His people up to that point was enough, and He struck their enemies, making them defeated and scattered and unable to contend with Him.
That's the way I interpreted the verses, having no knowledge of what had actually happened since chronologically, this event had not yet occurred. However, in studying commentators on these verses, the true meaning of striking the enemy in the hinder parts meant that He "smote them that troubled them with hemorrhoids in their posteriors" (Targum of the Jewish scriptures). That brings a whole new meaning to their perpetual reproach or disgrace. It seems in testimony of their humiliation, they sent golden "emerods" representing the disease as an offering to the Lord (1 Samuel 6:4).
(67) Moreover He refused the tabernacle of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, (68) But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved.
The Lord refused to have His ark abide any longer in the tabernacle at Shiloh, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, when the ark was brought back by the Philistines. He chose the tribe of Judah, out of which He chose David to be ruler and king, and He chose Mount Zion in Jerusalem for His temple of worship where the ark was placed. Psalm 87:2 said that the Lord loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The Lord choosing Judah fulfilled prophecy in Genesis 49:8-10 which stated that indeed his brothers would praise him, and their descendants would bow down before him. It prophesied that the king's scepter would not depart from that tribe until the Messiah came.
(69) And He built His sanctuary like the high, like the earth which He has established forever.
The Lord built His sanctuary exalted, as if it were on a high hill, prominent and permanent, not to be moved from place to place as the tabernacle had been, but established as firmly as the earth itself.
(70) He chose David also His servant and took him from the sheepfolds, (71) From following the ewes great with young, He brought him to feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance.
The Lord chose David, a simple shepherd boy, to be His servant and His people's king. From attending and nourishing to bring up young sheep, the Lord brought David up to attend and shepherd His people, His inheritance, Israel.
(72) So he fed them accordingly to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
David fed the Lord's people according to the integrity of his heart which was upright and pure, according to the will of God. He guided them by his counsel and defended them by his power.
Although this psalm was placed here chronologically because it detailed much of the history of the Israelites from Egypt through their forty years in the wilderness, it was composed during the time of David or even after. Its main purpose was to show why Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had been rejected and Judah had been chosen to be the head of the nation.
