For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 78:1-8

1 My people, hear my teaching;
    listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
    I will utter hidden things, things from of old –
3 things we have heard and known,
    things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
    we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
    his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
    and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach their children,
6 so that the next generation would know them,
    even the children yet to be born,
    and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
    and would not forget his deeds
    but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors –
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
    whose spirits were not faithful to him.

A. Find Out:

1. What does the psalmist say he will do? v.1-3
2. Yet what more will he do? v.4
3. What had God done? v.5
4. Why? v.6
5. With what result? v.7
6. So from who would they differ? v.8

B. Think:

1. What from the past does the psalmist want to talk about?
2. Why does he want to do that?
3. What does he want to avoid?

C. Comment:

This is a long psalm and so we will deal with it in four parts. This first part sets the scene and tells us what the psalmist wants to do and why he wants to do it.

First of all, WHAT HE WANTS TO DO. There are two parts to this. First, he wants to speak of the things of Israel ‘s past (v.2), the things that had been passed on by word of mouth (v.3). But he is more specific than that; he wants to tell of the wondrous things God has done (v.4) and the decrees and statutes that God had given Israel (v.5). For Judaism and Christianity, there is history to be told. Both faiths are founded in history, in what God HAS done.

Now the second part is TO WHOM HE WANTS TO DO THIS. He wants to tell the next generation (v.4-6). It is important to pass on to succeeding generations what we know, what we have learnt.

Next, WHY HE WANTS TO DO IT. There is a positive and a negative side to this. First, the positive side. He wants to tell the next generation so that they too will put their trust in God (v.7). Relationship with God is founded on what He has done in the past. The negative side is to stop them being like their forefathers (v.8) who were unfaithful to God. This latter part comes out as a warning again and again. It is what this psalm is really all about.

D. Application:

1. Do we relish recounting what God has done for us?
2. Do we use it to stir and build our faith?

Passage: Psalm 78:9-31

9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
    turned back on the day of battle;
10 they did not keep God’s covenant
    and refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done,
    the wonders he had shown them.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
    in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through;
    he made the water stand up like a wall.
14 He guided them with the cloud by day
    and with light from the fire all night.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness
    and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag
    and made water flow down like rivers.

17 But they continued to sin against him,
    rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
18 They wilfully put God to the test
    by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God;
    they said, ‘Can God really
    spread a table in the wilderness?
20 True, he struck the rock,
    and water gushed out,
    streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
    Can he supply meat for his people?’
21 When the Lord heard them, he was furious;
    his fire broke out against Jacob,
    and his wrath rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe in God
    or trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
    and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,
    he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Human beings ate the bread of angels;
    he sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens
    and by his power made the south wind blow.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
    birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made them come down inside their camp,
    all around their tents.
29 They ate till they were gorged –
    he had given them what they craved.
30 But before they turned from what they craved,
    even while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger rose against them;
    he put to death the sturdiest among them,
    cutting down the young men of Israel.

A. Find Out:

1. Who failed how? v.9,10
2. What specifically did they do? v.11
3. What had God done? v.12-16
4. How had they responded? v.17-20
5. How had God responded? v.21-31

B. Think:

1. List the ways god had blessed them in v.12-16.
2. What were the blessings of v.23-29
3. Yet what did God also bring? v.31

C. Comment:

Remember yesterday we said that a large part of this psalm was about revealing the failures of Israel and warning against such failures. Here today, the men of Ephraim (shorthand for Israel, Ephraim being one of the largest and most influential tribes) are shown as an example NOT to follow (v.9)

The sin of Israel had been to forget what God had done for them and to turn away from Him (v.11,17). He provided miracles to deliver them out of Egypt (v.12,13) and to lead them in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land (v.14-16) yet despite this they responded badly to Him (v.17-20). Having seen His incredible provision for Him they didn’t simply ask for further provision in the desert, they complained against Him.

Now although God’s response was anger (v.21,31) He also gave them what they wanted – manna and quails. Both of these were again miraculous provisions (v.23-29). We might have given up on Israel at this point but God did not. Yes, there was an accounting and judgement came on the complainers and they were taken (v.31) but that still left the rest, the majority of the people to continue. Whenever God brought judgement on a group of the people, it was to contain the wrong attitudes that they had expressed and allow the rest of the nation to continue into the future blessings of God.

D. Application:

1. Realise the wonder of all of God’s provisions for us even today.
2. Be careful not to have a wrong attitude towards God.

Passage: Psalm 78:32-55

32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
    in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility
    and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
    they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
    that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
    lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him,
    they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful;
    he forgave their iniquities
    and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
    and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a passing breeze that does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
    they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power –
    the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
    his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their river into blood;
    they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
    and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
    their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
    their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,
    his wrath, indignation and hostility –
    a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger;
    he did not spare them from death
    but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
    the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
    he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
    but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
    to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them
    and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
    he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

A. Find Out:

1. How had Israel carried on sinning? v.32,36,40-42
2. What had they forgotten? v.42-55
3. What happened when they turned away? v.33
4. How had God dealt with them? v.34
5. Yet what are we told about that? v.38,39

B. Think:

1. List the things God had done in v.43-55.
2. Summarise the psalmist’s assessment of Israel .
3. Summarise what he said about God’s dealing with them.

C. Comment:

Remember the psalmist’s objective is to warn future generations not to follow in the way of their forefathers. That is what this psalm is all about. Previously we saw how Israel had complained and had a bad attitude in the wilderness after having been delivered from Egypt. Having written that, it almost seems as if the psalmist feels that that was an inadequate warning about their folly. Thus now in today’s verses he summarises their activity as not believing (v.33) and being unfaithful to God (v.37), and forgot what God had done (v.42).

God had dealt with them again and again and again. Yes some did die (v.34) – see Judges, when they turned away God allowed their enemies to chasten them in war. Yet again and again God restrained His hand of judgement (v.38) and did not wipe them out.

What seems so amazing to the psalmist was that Israel could have such an incredible history with God, yet still forget and turn away from this wonderful God. This is the Lord who had brought the plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt (v.43-51) and delivered Israel (v.52) and brought them to the Promised Land and drove out their enemies before them (v.54,55). This is an incredible testimony to the greatness, power and love of God. How could Israel forget it so easily!

D. Application:

1. God gives us Communion or the Lord’s Supper to remind us what Jesus did.
2.  Don’t be casual; don’t forget that wonder.
3. Live your life in the light of that wonder. Don’t be casual about it or you become like Israel.

Passage: Psalm 78:56-72

56 But they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High;
    they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places;
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was furious;
    he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
    the tent he had set up among humans.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
    his splendour into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword;
    he was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
    and their young women had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword,
    and their widows could not weep.

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
    he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
    like the earth that he established for ever.
70 He chose David his servant
    and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
    to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
    of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
    with skilful hands he led them.

A. Find Out:

1. List the ways Israel failed? v.56-58
2. How did the Lord respond? v.59-64
3. But then what happened? v.65,66
4. Who did the Lord reject and who did he choose? v.67,68
5. What did He do there? v.69
6. And who did He choose to do what? v.70-72

B. Think:

1. How did Israel fail?
2. How did Israel deal with them?
3. Yet how did He make a fresh start with Israel ?

C. Comment:

In the start of this part, the psalmist has moved on in history from that recorded in Judges to that recorded in 1 Samuel. Yes, yet again Israel turned away from the Lord (v.56). The did not keep His laws (v.56) and they turned to idols (v.58). At that time the ark of the covenant was kept at the tabernacle at Shiloh (v.60) and in the ensuing history found in the earlier chapters of 1 Samuel, the ark was taken by the Philistines and Israel were defeated.

But then, with the passing of time, (Saul is not mentioned) the Lord chose a man for Himself, not from the mighty tribe of Ephraim (v.67) but from Judah (v.68), David the shepherd boy (v.70) who came eventually in 2 Samuel to lead all Israel. In Jerusalem He had the tabernacle established and eventually the Temple which would be the meeting place between God and man.

This psalm is a remarkable testimony to the grace and mercy of God. It was written, you may remember, as a warning to future generations not to follow the ways of their forefathers. It has recounted how, even from shortly after leaving Egypt , Israel had bad attitudes towards God, had problems getting into the Promised land, and once there continually turned from God. Yet the story is also of how God prevailed and did not give up on this people. Amazing!

D. Application:

1. God has an eternal purpose and will not be diverted from it.
2. Even if we fail, He will work with the next generation. Let’s not!