An old man and a small boy sit by a low fire outside a stone house at night, seen from behind, the boy turned up to him, the sky above dark and full of stars.

History · Asaph

Psalm 78

The longest story in the Psalms, told so your children won’t repeat it. Why did they keep forgetting?

72 verses≈ 8 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–41Book IDavid's prayers: 'The LORD is my shepherd'
42–72Book II'As the deer pants'; the throne under pressure
73–89Book IIIAsaph and Korah: the kingdom fallsPsalm 78
90–106Book IVBack to Moses: the LORD reigns
107–150Book VSongs of ascents, and the last Hallelujah

I Will Open My Mouth in Parables

A Maskil of Asaph.

Give ear, O my people, to my instruction;

listen to the words of my mouth.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

I will open my mouth in parables;

I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

that we have heard and known

and our fathers have relayed to us.

We will not hide them from their children

but will declare to the next generation

the praises of the LORD and His might

and the wonders He has performed.

For He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which He commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

that the coming generation would know them—

even children yet to be born—

to arise and tell their own children

that they should put their confidence in God,

not forgetting His works,

but keeping His commandments.

Then they will not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose heart was not loyal,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Live it

The next person

What has God done in your life that the next person has not heard from you? Think of one name, a child, a friend, someone younger in the faith. Write down what you will tell them.

The loop

Whiteboard

This is the shape of the whole psalm. Watch it go around, and watch which step changes it.

The archers of Ephraim

turned back on the day of battle.

They failed to keep God’s covenant

and refused to live by His law.

They forgot what He had done,

the wonders He had shown them.

A flat bare slab of rock in the empty desert at evening, a long shadow beside it, tents very far off.

But they continued to sin against Him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

They willfully tested God

by demanding the food they craved.

They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

When He struck the rock, water gushed out

and torrents raged.

But can He also give bread

or supply His people with meat?”

0:23

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Therefore the LORD heard

and was filled with wrath;

so a fire was kindled against Jacob,

and His anger flared against Israel,

because they did not believe God

or rely on His salvation.

Yet before they had filled their desire,

with the food still in their mouths,

God’s anger flared against them,

and He put to death their strongest

and subdued the young men of Israel.

In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

So He ended their days in futility,

and their years in sudden terror.

When He slew them, they would seek Him;

they repented and searched for God.

And they remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.

A hillside of thin grass bending to one soft gust, the rest of the slope still.

And yet He was compassionate;

He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.

He often restrained His anger

and did not unleash His full wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

And yet He was compassionate

Question

Quick question

The psalm keeps naming one failure underneath all the others.

What does the psalm say they failed to do, again and again?

How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness

and grieved Him in the desert!

Again and again they tested God

and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember His power—

the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

when He performed His signs in Egypt

and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

He unleashed His fury against them,

wrath, indignation, and calamity—

a band of destroying angels.

He cleared a path for His anger;

He did not spare them from death

but delivered their lives to the plague.

He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,

the virility in the tents of Ham.

Seen from above, Israel's long column with flocks passes along the foot of red sandstone mountains, while a few herdsmen of Edom stand on a ridge with their staffs, watching.

He led out His people like sheep

and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

He led them safely, so they did not fear,

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

He brought them to His holy land,

to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

He drove out nations before them

and apportioned their inheritance;

He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

But they tested and disobeyed God Most High,

for they did not keep His decrees.

They turned back and were faithless like their fathers,

twisted like a faulty bow.

They enraged Him with their high places

and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

He rejected the tent of Joseph

and refused the tribe of Ephraim.

But He chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which He loved.

He built His sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth He has established forever.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

From Shiloh to Zion

Shiloh, in the hills of Ephraim, held the tent for centuries. The psalm ends about a day’s walk south, on Mount Zion in Judah.

He chose David His servant

and took him from the sheepfolds;

from tending the ewes He brought him

to be shepherd of His people Jacob,

of Israel His inheritance.

So David shepherded them with integrity of heart

and guided them with skillful hands.

Pray

Pray it

Lord, You have been compassionate to me far more often than I have remembered. Don’t let me forget Your works. Give me a loyal heart, not only a sorry one. And let the next generation hear from me what You have done. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Psalm 78

0 of 150 psalms read

A verse to carry with you

We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.

Psalm 78:4

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