Psalm
78
A
Psalm of Asaph
According
to 1 Chronicles 16:5, Asaph was the chief of the singers. We also read in that
chapter that he was a “recorder” to whom David gave his psalms to be preserved,
think secretary or perhaps even an arranger of the music. We know that Asaph
played the cymbals, so he was a percussionist. He was a composer of many of the
Psalms himself.
Psalm
78 was a didactic (teaching) hymn for the purpose of instructing the children
in the history of the nation of Israel. It begins with an exhortation for
parents to teach the history of God’s relationship with His people Israel to
the future generations. The hope was that they would learn from the mistakes of
their ancestors during the Exodus. The intent was that they would understand
that obedience is better than sacrifice.
Psalm
78:1-11
Pass
Down the Heirlooms,
The
Jewels of HISstory
Psalm 78:1 Give ear, O my
people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
Susan: The Lord is using Asaph as His megaphone
to prophesy to His beloved Israel.
Susie: This Psalm recounts the highlights of
Israel’s history from the time God delivered them from slavery in Egypt until
the time of King David. Asaph begins with a call to listen to God’s law.
Susan: The Law encompasses not the Ten
Commandments alone, but the instruction found in the entire Pentateuch, which
is comprised of the five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy.
Susie: The people are instructed to “incline
their ears,” in other words, to listen intently to what the psalmist has to
say.
Susan: To me, this means to lean into, to hang on
every word.
Psalm 78:2 I will open my
mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
Susan: In this case, the word parable refers to
oral teaching of authentic, historical facts of the nation of Israel.
Susie: Even though the psalm is historically
accurate, it is a parable because he is recounting it in story or poetic form.
Susan: Nor is this account is not strictly
chronological.
Susie: What is meant by “dark sayings?”
Susan: A dark saying is something not easily
understood. The word for dark is defined as follows in The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:
2420
chîydâh – from 2330; a puzzle, hence, a trick, conundrum, sententious maxim: —
dark saying (sentence, speech), a hard question, proverb, riddle.
Psalm 78:3 Which we have heard
and known, and our fathers have told us.
Susie: The history of Israel was passed on orally
from generation to generation in each family as Moses had instructed them:
Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed
to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which
thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy
life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
Psalm 78:4 We will not hide
them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the
Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
Susan: Asaph is saying they need to be faithful
and consistent in this process of instructing future generations in the
sovereignty of God as demonstrated in the history of the nation of Israel.
Susie: They were to tell of God’s power and to
praise Him, but as we will see, they were to be honest about the Israelites’
own shortcomings.
Psalm 78:5 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: That
the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born;
who should arise and declare them to their children:
Susan: God commanded that the history of His
gracious dealings with Israel should be heralded and passed down from
generation to generation.
Susie: Remember, this was in an age when the
printing press was not yet invented. There was not a “Bible” in every house.
The priests had the scrolls, and much later they would be copied by scribes to
be in the synagogues, but families did not own their own copy of the law.
Therefore, the teachings, the commandments, and the history of Israel had to be
verbally taught to children.
Susan: Each generation was accountable to share the
word of God with the next for its understanding and obedience.
Susie: Since the Psalms were Israel’s hymnal,
this psalm was most likely taught to the children as a song or chant. This
would make it easier to memorize and pass down to their children. This is the
reason, the music teacher at Glenview Christian School and I took the time to
set all of the second-grade memory verses to music. That way they could
memorize six-verse passages!
Susan: Truths are much easier to commit to memory
when set to a tune rather than just rehearsing rote facts.
Psalm 1:7 That they might set
their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
Susie: As Susan expressed, each subsequent
generation would only be able to keep the commandments as they learned them
from their parents. These stories bring hope as they would hear about the
miraculous care of God for His people even though they often sinfully rebelled.
Psalm 78:8 And might not be as
their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not
their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
Susan: The Israelites could have been called “The
Yo-Yo People” because they were hot and then cold in their service to the Lord.
They would follow, then fall away, follow, then fall away even though God was
consistent throughout their history. This is difficult to understand in light
of the miracles they had observed and experienced. It can only be attributed to
the fact that they, like us, were human—just dust.
Psalm 103:14 For he knoweth
our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
Susie: Lest we judge the Israelites harshly, we
must examine our own walks with the Lord for inconsistencies.
Psalm 78:9 The children of
Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. 10
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; 11 And
forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
Susie: The Bible does not elaborate on the
incident mentioned here of the Ephraimites turning back either in battle or in
devotion to the Lord.
Susan: However, in Psalm 78:67-68, it is made
clear that the Lord rejected Shiloh, a city of the Ephraimites, as the location
for His temple, the seat of worship. He chose Jerusalem in the territory of the
tribe of Judah instead.
Susie: The point is that obedience is rewarded
and disregarding God’s commands is punished.
QUESTIONS
1. What
is a parable?
2. Who
else taught in parables? Look up Matthew 13:35 and write it out.
3. How
was the history of Israel passed on to the next generation?
4. Did
they tell only the stories of their faithfulness or include their failures as
well?
5. How
does your family pass on the truth about the Lord in your lives?
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