I. (78:1–8) I Must Recount the Past Deeds so that Our Children Do Not Forget. The song begins by calling for attention from the gathered congregation (“my people”; Ps. 78:1) and explaining what it aims to do for those who sing and listen: “to tell . . . the glorious deeds of the Lord . . . that the next generation might know them, . . . and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation” (vv. 4, 6, 8).

The “parable” and “dark sayings” (or “riddle”; cf. comment on 49:1–4) in 78:2 are not secret teachings; they are the tools of wisdom teachers and require imagination to unlock their meaning. In this case it is the accounts of Israel’s history that form the vehicle of this wisdom teaching: “things that we have heard and known” (v. 3), which must be passed on to the “coming generation” (v. 4). “Generation” is a key word in this section (vv. 4, 6, 8): the OT describes the people of God as those whom God has chosen to receive his particular revelation (“testimony” and “law”; v. 5) with the responsibility “to teach their children, that the next generation might know them” (vv. 5–6; cf. Gen. 17:7; 18:19; Deut. 6:6–9). The process does not bring its benefits in any automatic way; each of the members must take the provisions of the covenant as his own, embrace God’s grace, “set [his] hope in God,” and “keep his commandments.” Sadly, far too many Israelites, and too many generations, received the covenant as an external arrangement but did not embrace it from their hearts. Thus they were “stubborn and rebellious,” their “heart was not steadfast,” and their “spirit was not faithful to God”—these describe a condition of unbelief or apostasy, not simply the sins that even genuine believers commit. But if each generation will take to heart the lessons of this psalm, it need not repeat these episodes of unbelief.

Jesus uses Psalm 78:2 to describe his own practice of telling parables (Matt. 13:35). He may simply have found this text a convenient summary of what a wisdom teacher does, challenging his audiences to apply themselves to his wisdom. But he may also be suggesting that at least some of his parables are like this psalm in drawing lessons from Israel’s history (cf. Matt. 21:33–44) and perhaps in pointing forward to the fruition of God’s plans for the Davidic dynasty (e.g., Matt. 13:18–23, where the sower is possibly the messianic Son of Man; Matt. 13:37).526

II. (78:9–16) God’s People Forgot His Great Deeds of the Exodus. This stanza provides the first historical section and begins by recounting an otherwise unknown incident in which “the Ephraimites . . . turned back on the day of battle” (Ps. 78:9); presumably this was a battle in which Israel was defending itself and in which all Israel was expected to participate, each tribe serving the others because of their bond as God’s people. Ephraim’s failure, then, was a failure not simply in patriotism but also in brotherhood and faith. “They did not keep God’s covenant” (the practice of unity), because they “forgot” God’s “works.” This forgetting is not a simple mental lapse but a deliberate turning away from the implications of these great deeds, which marked Israel out as the body of God’s chosen people, under obligation both to God and to each other.

Verses 12–16 go on to mention some of these great deeds, such as the exodus from Egypt (vv. 12–13). Zoan (v. 12) is a city in Egypt (Num. 13:22), not far from where the Israelites lived. It is paired with Egypt again in Psalm 78:43 as a place from which God’s “wonders” upon the Egyptians would have been visible to the Israelites (cf. Isa. 19:13). The description here evokes what we read in Exodus 14–15, and the fifth stanza will return to list some of the other events. Then we move on to God’s care for the people in the wilderness (vv. 14–16), again with terms familiar from the Pentateuch—for example, the cloud and fire (Ex. 13:21–22; Num. 9:15–16) and the water from the rock (Ex. 17:6; Num. 20:8). Israel in every generation should have learned from these, but often they did not.

III. (78:17–31) Yet They Sinned Still More in the Wilderness. The next section advances the people’s worthiness of blame: “Yet they sinned still more against” God, in spite of the deeds they had seen (Ps. 78:12–16). The words “sin,” “rebel,” and “test” recur throughout the psalm (vv. 8, 32, 40–41, 56), keeping the theme in front of us.

The following verses stress the people’s disbelief of God’s continued ability or commitment to care for them, as they demanded food and water, and God provided water (v. 20; cf. Ex. 17:6; Ps. 78:15), manna (vv. 21–25; cf. Ex. 16:1–21), and quail, for which they suffered a plague because of the disbelief they had expressed in their complaints (Ps. 78:26–31; cf. Num. 11:31–34, which corresponds to the description better than does Ex. 16:13). These acts of provision preserved the covenant people, though God cut off the disbelieving along the way (cf. “did not believe,” v. 32; “anger of God,” v. 31).

IV. (78:32–39) In Spite of All They Saw, They Still Sinned. These displays of God’s faithfulness should have been enough to bring about lasting trust on Israel’s part, but it was not. “In spite of all this, they still sinned.” In spite of God’s wonders (cf. v. 11), “they did not believe” (cf. comment on 78:17–31). This section focuses on the judgments with which the Lord disciplined his people, again and again seeking to lead them to repentance. In light of the flow of the psalm the events in view are probably those recorded in the Pentateuch (cf. v. 31). “When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly” (v. 34); putting together the words “rock” and “redeemer” (v. 35) evokes 19:14. And yet their repentance was not deep and sincere (78:36; they only “flattered” and “lied” in their professions of faith and obviously did not deceive God), so it did not last: “Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant” (v. 37; cf. v. 8).

And yet, God did not do what one might expect, namely, wiping them out and starting over. Even though he would purge them of unbelieving members, he “did not destroy them; . . . he did not stir up all his wrath.” All this was because he is “compassionate,” and therefore “he atoned for their iniquity” (v. 38; he accepted the sacrifices they offered and conveyed his blessing of forgiveness). The words translated “compassionate” and “wrath” here correspond to the terms “merciful” and “anger” in the basic confession of Israel (cf. Ex. 34:6; Ps. 77:8–9); the Lord’s works consistently display his unwaveringly benevolent disposition toward his people.

V. (78:40–55) How Often They Rebelled, Forgetting the Exodus and Conquest. The next section takes us back to the exodus, describing all of the plagues God brought against the Egyptian oppressors (vv. 42–53), with a brief summary of the conquest of the Promised Land (vv. 54–55). It begins with the now sickeningly familiar “How often they rebelled against,” “grieved,”527 “tested,” and “provoked” the Holy One!528 The reason for this horrifying response on the people’s part is that “they did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe”—which explains the inadequacy of their “memory” described in verse 35. The story is one of constant disbelief in the face of unimaginable grace and of even more grace being granted in the face of the disbelief!

The “signs” and “marvels” (v. 43) are especially the plagues in Egypt, which finally persuaded Pharaoh to allow Israel to leave. In Exodus ten plagues are described. Both here and Psalm 105 recount a selection of the plagues, with a different order from that in Exodus (cf. table 1.3).

TABLE 1.3: Plagues Recounted in Psalm 78 and Psalm 105

These differing orders do not reflect differing views of the plagues; rather, since everyone in the congregation knows the exodus story, the poets can choose, and even order, the plagues in light of their own poetic purposes. Here the poet does enough to remind the congregation of the utter destruction God brought upon the Egyptians, which he did not send upon his own people (even in the presence of their severe provocations and repeated rebellions). As in the table of nations, this psalm (cf. 105:23, 27; 106:22) places Egypt in the family of Ham (78:51; Gen. 10:6).

The rest of the stanza follows Israel from Egypt, from which God “led out his people like sheep” (cf. comment on 77:10–20 [at v. 20]). Here the song stresses how God cared for his people like a shepherd and makes no mention of the wilderness rebellions (unlike earlier in the psalm); the idea is to see how God fulfilled his promise to bring the people to “his holy land” (i.e., Canaan),529 “to the mountain which his right hand had won” (i.e., Mount Zion, as the next verse makes clear; cf. Ex. 15:17). Then Psalm 78:55 summarizes the conquest, with the events in Joshua probably mostly in view. Once again, God is unyielding in his faithful care for his people.

VI. (78:56–64) They Tested and Rebelled against God in the Promised Land. Now that Israel has come to the Promised Land, this section describes the time of the judges, leading up to the captivity of the ark and the deaths of Eli and his sons (vv. 60–64; cf. 1 Samuel 4). Just as before, and just as disappointingly, they “tested and rebelled against the Most High” and “provoked him to anger.”530 The cycles of apostasy followed by repentance, followed by more apostasy—so familiar from Judges and the early chapters of 1 Samuel—are in view (Ps. 78:56–58). The sons of the high priest Eli, who ministered at God’s “tent” at Shiloh (v. 60; 1 Sam. 2:12–17), brought the ark (in which the “glory” dwelt) to battle as a good luck charm against the Philistines, but the Philistines won and took the ark into “captivity” (Ps. 78:61; 1 Sam. 4:1–22).531 It would appear that the victorious Philistines went on to devastate the site of Shiloh as well (Jer. 7:12–15).

Psalm 78:59–64 lays out God’s response to this unfaithfulness: he “utterly rejected Israel” (v. 59). In context, of course, God’s “rejection” means that he cut off many of the Israelites for their unbelief, as these verses describe; he nevertheless retains his interest in the people, as verses 65–72 will make plain. The deaths are grim and sinister: if the “young men” die, the “young women” will have no “marriage song” (v. 63) because they have no one to marry—and the lack of marriage could spell the end of Israel, whose existence was to embody God’s promise to Abraham and his offspring (cf. comment on 78:1–8). Just as sad is the loss of both sanctuary (v. 60) and priests (v. 64); Israel was called to be a holy people, and thus the ministry of the priests was essential to their calling. Further, Israel’s “widows made no lamentation”—we are to imagine them as totally overwhelmed with grief and loss.

VII. (78:65–72) Finally God Answered by Choosing the Line of David. The final section celebrates how God graciously answered this recurring pattern by raising up David to be king of Israel. In verse 65 “the Lord awoke as from sleep”; this is a bold image, with sleep conveying what the believer can attribute to God when he has not yet seen how God is active. God “awakes,” that is, he stirs himself from apparent inactivity to take action on behalf of his suffering people even when, as here, they are suffering for their own unbelief (cf. 35:23; 44:23; 59:5).

The action God took was to install a king, selecting a man from the “tribe of Judah” rather than the “tribe of Ephraim,” which, being descended from Joseph, might have seemed a more likely candidate. The Pentateuch had foretold just this (Gen. 49:10), and the Law made provision for a king and required him to lead the people in faithfulness (Deut. 17:14–20). God also chose “Mount Zion” (in Jerusalem) to be not only the capital but the location of “his sanctuary” (cf. Ps. 78:54). The sanctuary at Mount Zion was intended to unify the people: it lies in the land not of Judah but of Benjamin.

David, like Moses (Ex. 3:1), learned how to shepherd with actual sheep; God called him “from the sheepfolds” (Ps. 78:70). In the ancient Near East a king could be called the shepherd of his people, but David’s role as shepherd is to be modeled not on the kings of other nations but on the Lord’s own shepherding care for his “sheep.” (For the image of God’s people as sheep cf. comments on 23:1–4; 74:1–3.). Like the Lord, the ideal king shepherds his people (cf. 2 Sam. 5:2), caring for them, protecting them, and leading them in faithfulness to the covenant. David at his best did his work “with upright heart” and “skillful hand” (v. 72), though he had his own moral failures; many kings in his line were much less upright or skillful.

The term “shepherd” came to be used of leaders in Israel (priests, nobles, and judges), and the prophet Ezekiel speaks against the greedy shepherds in his day (Ezekiel 34). He looks forward to the time after the exile when God will raise up “David his servant,” the Messiah who will be the “shepherd” of his people (Ezek. 34:23–24). The Lord’s “servant” is someone he appoints for a special purpose on behalf of his people (Pss. 89:20; 132:10; 144:10). Isaiah never calls the servant of the Lord in his book an heir of David, but the fact that David can be called this helps support the messianic interpretation of that figure in Isaiah (Isa. 42:1–9). When Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14) he claims to be the long-awaited heir of David who would guide his people perfectly. In Jesus, the Lord as shepherd and the heir of David as shepherd combine!