Psalms 76-78 (Week 26)

1. In Judah God Is Known

A year in the Psalms Psalm seventy six In Judah God is known, his name is great in Israel, and Salem also in his tabernacle in his dwelling place in Zion. There he broke the arrows of the bow, the shield and sword of battle. You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey, the stout hearted and plundered. They have sunk into their sleep, and none of the mighty men have found the use of their hands. At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep. You yourself are to be feared, and who may stand in your presence when once you are angry? You cause judgment to be heard from heaven. The earth feared and was still.

2. I Will Remember the Works of the Lord

Surely the wrath of man shall praise you, with the remainder of wrath you shall gird yourself. Make vows to the Lord your God and pay them. Let all who are around him bring presents to him who ought to be feared. He shall cut off the spirit of princes. He is awesome to the kings of earth. Judah was the largest of the twelve tribes, and the capital of the Israelite nation was in that tribe. For that reason David declared that God was known or recognized in Judah. The national worship was centered at the headquarters, and that was where people had to go to see the divine exhibition of power and knowledge. A year in the Psalms, Psalm seventy-seven. I cried out to my God with my voice, to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing. My res my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. You hold my eyelids open, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times, I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more? Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And I said, This is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.

I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary, who is so great a God as our God. You are the God who does wonders, you have declared your strength among the peoples. You have your arm redeemed, your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you, they were afraid, the depths also trembled, the clouds poured out water, the skies sent out a sound, your arrows also flashed about. The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightnings lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, your path in the great waters, and your footsteps were not known.

You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. The general life of David was one of devotion to God. In view of that, it was consistent for him to call upon him when in trouble. My sore is rendered my hand in the margin which is correct. The statement of David meant he held out his hand in supplication all night because of his sore trials. David was so troubled at times that it kept him from sleeping. His distress was so depressing that he was unable to express himself. David was a normal human being, even though an inspired man when writing or speaking for God.

3. Telling to the Generation to Come

There is nothing in the history of Ezekiel 14 and 15 that indicates any literal rainfall at that time. The actual event was the opening and closing of the sea. That might indeed induce the psalmist to paint a picture in general of God’s control of all the elements of the universe. A year in the Psalms, Psalm seventy-eight. Give ear, O my people to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

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, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God, they refused to walk in his law and forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shown them.

4. They Tested God in the Wilderness

Marvelous things he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the water stand up like a heap. In the daytime also he led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink in abundance like the depths. He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. But they sinned even more against him, by rebelling against the most high in the wilderness, and they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy. Yes, they spoke against God. They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

Behold, he struck the rock so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide meat for his people? Therefore the Lord Lord heard this and was furious. So a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel, because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation. Yet he had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, and rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. Man ate angels’ food, and sent them food to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he brought in the south wind. He also rained meat on them like the dust, feathered fowl like the sand of the seas, and he let them fall in the midst of their camp, and all around their dwellings, so they ate and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire.

They were not deprived of their craving. But while their food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came against them and slew the stoutest of them, and struck down the choice men of Israel. In spite of this they still sinned and did not believe in his wondrous works. Therefore their days he consumed in futility, and their years in fear. When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and sought earnestly for God. Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the most high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they flattered him with their mouth, and they lied to him with their tongue, for their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful in his covenant. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them.

Yes, many a time he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. How often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the holy one of Israel. They did not remember his power the day when he redeemed them from the enemy, when he worked his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan, turned their rivers into blood, and their streams that they could not drink. He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them, and he also gave their crops to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locusts.

And he also gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to fiery lightning. He cast on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending angels of destruction among them. He made a path for his anger, and he did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague and destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham. But he made his own people go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock, and he led them on safely so that they did not fear. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies, and he brought them to his holy border. This mountain which his right hand had acquired. He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

5. He Chose Judah and David His Servant

Yet they tested and provoked the most high God, and did not keep his testimonies, but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bull, for there provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their carved images. When God heard this he was furious and greatly abhorred Israel, so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had placed among them, and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand. He also gave his people over to the sword, and was furious with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given in marriage. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a mighty man who shouts because of wine, and he beat back his enemies and put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover, he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved, and he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever, and also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the ewes that had young he had brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he shepherd them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. This is a marvelous psalm, and it’s so full of important subject matter that we shall need to study carefully lest we overlook some of its teaching.

6. The Folly of Being Stubborn

David was going to recount many of the events in the history of the nation under him. Give ear was a call for attention to what he was about to say. Law was used in an extended sense, including any teaching that would be given, whether in the form of commandments or history intended for their information and admonition. Most of the things David intended to write about had occurred many years before and had become a matter of record. But the voice of history has to be repeated many times to impress mankind with its importance. The children of one generation were to tell the story to the next generation, etcetera, and thus it was to be continued down through the years. The coming generations were expected to profit by the mistakes of their fathers.

The main lesson to be learned was the folly of being stubborn. Were it not for the mercy of God, his justice would cut off the human race when man reached the years of knowledge. But while the divine wrath was displayed for the benefit of the wayward people, God did not completely destroy them, did not stir up his wrath.