Title. - Maschil of Asaph. This is rightly entitled an instructive Psalm. It is not a mere recapitulation of important events in Israelitish history, but is intended to be viewed as a parable setting forth the conduct and experience of believers in all ages. It is a singular proof of the obtuseness of mind of many professor that they will object to sermons and expositions upon the historical parts of Scripture, as if they contained no instruction ill spiritual matters: were such persons truly enlightened by the Spirit of God, they would perceive that all Scripture is profitable, and would blush at their own Jolly in undervaluing any portion of the inspired volume.

Division. - The unity is well maintained throughout, but, for the sake of the reader's convenience, we may note that Psalm 78:1-8 may be viewed as a preface, setting forth the Psalmist's object in the epic which he is composing. From 9-41 the theme is Israel in the wilderness; then intervenes an account of the Lord's preceding goodness towards his people in bringing them out of Egypt by plagues and wonders, Psalm 78:42-52. The history of the tribes is resumed at Psalm 78:53, and continued to Psalm 78:66, where we reach the time of the removal of the ark to Zion, and the transference of the leadership of Israel from Ephraim to Judah, which is rehearsed in song from Psalm 78:67-72.

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 78:1. - The duty of attending to God's word. Modes of neglecting the duty; ways of fulfilment; reasons for obedience; evils of inattention.

Psalm 78:2 (first clause). - Preach on the "Parable of the Prodigal Nation," as given in the whole Psalm. - C. A. Davies, of Chesterfield.

Psalm 78:2, Psalm 78:3. -

I. Truths are none the worse for being old: "sayings of old." "Old wood," says Lord Bacon, "is best to burn; old books are best to read; and old friends are best to trust"

II. Truths are none the worse for being concealed under metaphors: "I will open," etc., "in a parable; dark sayings."

1. They lead to more research.

2. They become eventually better known.

III. Truths are none the worse for being often repeated.

1. They are more tested.

2. They are better testified. - G. R.

Psalm 78:3. - The connection between what we have "heard," and what we have personally "known" in religion.

Psalm 78:4. - A good resolution, and a blessed result. - C. D.

Psalm 78:4. -

I. What is to be made known? "The praises of the Lord;" "his strength and his wonderful works."

II. To whom are they to be made known? "To the generations to come."

III. By whom? Parents - one generation to another.

IV. How made known?

1. By hiding nothing.

2. By declaring everything God has done. - G. R.

Psalm 78:5. - Scriptural tradition, or the heirloom of the gospel.

Psalm 78:5-8. - Family religion.

I. The fathers' knowledge the children's heritage - Psalm 78:5, Psalm 78:6.

II. The fathers' fall the children's preservation reverses 7, 8. - C. D.

Psalm 78:5-8. -

I. Truth once started can never be arrested - Psalm 78:5, Psalm 78:6.

II. Truth received binds the soul to God - Psalm 78:7.

III. Truth rejected lights beacons for others - Psalm 78:8. - C. D.

Psalm 78:6. - Care for the rising generation and for future posterity.

Psalm 78:7. - Practical philosophy.

I. Fix your hope wisely.

II. Store the memory richly.

III. So shall you guide the actions obediently.

Psalm 78:7, Psalm 78:8. - On the deceitfulness of the heart, in disregarding providential dispensations in general. - John Jamieson's "Sermons on the Heart," I.430.

Psalm 78:8. - Stubbornness not steadfastness, or the difference between a natural vice and a gracious quality.

Psalm 78:8. - The false heart (middle clause), with its left hand, "Stubbornness in the wrong" (first clause), and its right hand, "Fickleness in the right" (last clause). - C. D.

Psalm 78:9. - Who were they? What had they? What did they? When did they do it?

Psalm 78:9, Psalm 78:67. - The backsliding of prominent believers.

I. The Lord's soldiers: who they were; belonged to God's chosen people; were distinguished by grace. Genesis 48:17-20. Strong by God's blessing. Deuteronomy 33:17. Honourable place among their brethren. Favoured with the tabernacle at Shiloh - Psalm 78:60.

II. Their equipment: armour defensive and offensive; like that of others who triumphed.

III. Their behaviour in battle: to turn back was traitorous, cowardly, dangerous, disastrous, dishonourable.

IV. Their punishment - Psalm 78:57. Deprived of their special honour. Revelation 3:11 - C. D.

Psalm 78:10, Psalm 78:11. - The gradations of sin: neglecting, rejecting, forgetting God. - C.D.

Psalm 78:12-16. - God revealed in his deeds. The wonder-working God - Psalm 78:12-16. The avenging God - Psalm 78:12. The interposing God - Psalm 78:13. The guiding God - Psalm 78:14. The Father-God - Psalm 78:14-16. - C. D.

Psalm 78:12-17. - Obstinacy of unbelief. It makes head against God's majesty - Psalm 78:17; his gracious providence - Psalm 78:14-16; his interposing care - Psalm 78:13; his avenging justice - Psalm 78:12; his distinguishing grace - Psalm 78:12-16. - C. D.

Psalm 78:12-17. - Prodigies cannot convert the soul. Luke 16:31. - C. D.

Psalm 78:14. - The adaptations of God: a beautiful theme. - C. D.

Psalm 78:14. -

I.Direction.

II.Protection.

III. Refreshment. - R. P. Buddicom.

Psalm 78:14. - The Lord guides his people by being,

I. Their shade in prosperity, cooling and calming.

II. Their light in adversity, cheering and warming.

Psalm 78:15, Psalm 78:16. - Divine supplies seasonable, plentiful, of the best, marvellous.

Psalm 78:16. - Streams from the Rock Christ Jesus.

I. Their source.

II. Their variety.

III. Their abundance. - B. Davies, of Greenwich.

Psalm 78:17. - Sin in its progress feeds upon divine mercies to aid its advance, as also every other surrounding circumstance.

Psalm 78:17-21. -

I. They tempted God's patience; Psalm 78:17.

II. They tempted God's wisdom; Psalm 78:18.

III. They tempted God's power; Psalm 78:19, Psalm 78:20.

IV. They tempted God's wrath; Psalm 78:21. - E. G. Gange, of Bristol.

Psalm 78:18. - "Meat for their lust." In what respects temporal mercies may be so sought, and so become.

Psalm 78:18-21. - The progress of evil.

I. They are drawn away by their lust; Psalm 78:18.

II. Lust having conceived bringeth forth sin: Psalm 78:19-20.

III. Sin being finished bringeth forth death: Psalm 78:21. "Their carcases fell." - C.D.

Psalm 78:19. - Unbelief a slander of God.

Psalm 78:21, Psalm 78:22. - Evil consequences of unbelief.

I. The sin itself: they doubted the ultimate certainty, completeness, and reality of God's salvation from Egypt.

II. The aggravation of it: the object of it was God; they who entertained it were God's people: The aids to faith were overlooked: "though."

III. What it led them to; inward sin - Psalm 78:18; outward sin - Psalm 78:19, etc.

IV. What it brought upon them; Psalm 78:21. Fiery serpents, etc. - G. D.

Psalm 78:22. - Unbelief the mother of sorrows.

Psalm 78:25. - Different kinds of food. Beasts' food, Luke 15:16. Sinners' food, Hosea 4:8. Formalists' food, Hosea 12:1. Saints' food, Jeremiah 15:16; John 6:53-57. Angels' food. Christ's food, John 4:34. - C. D.

Psalm 78:29-31. - Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. - C. D.

Psalm 78:34-37. - The hypocrite's feet, Psalm 78:34. The hypocrite's memory, Psalm 78:35. The hypocrite's tongue, Psalm 78:36. The hypocrite's heart, Psalm 78:37. Or, the hypocrite's cloak and the hypocrite's heart. - C. D.

Psalm 78:36. - Flattery of God.

I. A common sin.

II. A hateful sin.

III. A dangerous sin. - B. D.

Psalm 78:38 (last clause) and Psalm 78:50 (first clause). - God's anger as exercised against his people and against his foes. - C. D.

Psalm 78:39 and Psalm 78:35. - God's memory of his people and their memory of God.

Psalm 78:42. - The day of days.

I. The enemy encountered on that day.

II. The conflict endured.

III. The deliverance accomplished.

IV. The joy experienced. - B. D.

Psalm 78:45. - The power of little things when commissioned to plague us.

Psalm 78:47 (last clause). - Sometimes it will not shoot. Sometimes it will. And when it does it misses the mark.

Psalm 78:52. -

I. God has a people in the world.

II. He brings them away from others.

III. He brings them into fellowship with himself.

IV. He brings them into fellowship with each other.

V. He guides them to their rest.

Psalm 78:55. - Divine supplantings. He supplants the fallen angels in heaven. One nation of earth by another (see all history). The thoughts and affections of the heart in regeneration, &c. - Isaiah 55:13. - C. D.

Psalm 78:56, Psalm 78:57. - On the deceitfulness of the heart, with respect to the performance of duty. - J. Jamieson. I.

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

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.

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.

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

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 stedfast with God.

Psalm 78:1

"Give ear, O my people, to my law." The inspired bard calls on his countrymen to give heed to his patriotic teaching. We naturally expect God's chosen nation to be first in hearkening to his voice. When God gives his truth a tongue, and sends forth his messengers trained to declare his word with power, it is the least we can do to give them our ears and the earnest obedience of our hearts. Shall God speak, and his children refuse to hear? His teaching has the force of law, let us yield both ear and heart to it. "Incline your ears to the words of my mouth." Give earnest attention, bow your stiff necks, lean forward to catch every syllable. We are at this day, as readers of the sacred records, bound to study them deeply, exploring their meaning, and labouring to practise their teaching. As the officer of an army commences his drill by calling for "Attention," even so every trained soldier of Christ is called upon to give ear to his words. Men lend their ears to music, how much more then should they listen to the harmonies of the gospel; they sit enthralled in the presence of an orator, how much rather should they yield to the eloquence of heaven.

Psalm 78:2

"I will open my mouth in a parable." Analogies are not only to be imagined, but are intended by God to be traced between the story of Israel and the lives of believers. Israel was ordained to be a type; the tribes and their marchings are living allegories traced by the hand of an all-wise providence. Unspiritual persons may sneer about fancies and mysticisms, but Paul spake well when he said "which things are an allegory," and Asaph in the present case spake to the point when he called his narrative "a parable." That such was his meaning is clear from the quotation, "All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." - Matthew 13:34, Matthew 13:35. "I will utter dark sayings of old;" - enigmas of antiquity, riddles of yore. The mind of the poet-prophet was so full of ancient lore that he poured it forth in a copious stream of song, while beneath the gushing flood lay pearls and gems of spiritual truth, capable of enriching those who could dive into the depths and bring them up. The letter of this song is precious, but the inner sense is beyond all price. Whereas Psalm 78:1 called for attention, the second justifies the demand by hinting that the outer sense conceals an inner and hidden meaning, which only the thoughtful will be able to perceive.

Psalm 78:3

"Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us." Tradition was of the utmost service to the people of God in the olden time, before the more sure word of prophecy had become complete and generally accessible. The receipt of truth from the lips of others laid the instructed believer under solemn obligation to pass on the truth to the next generation. Truth, endeared to us by its fond associations with godly parents and venerable friends, deserves of us our best exertions to preserve and propagate it. Our fathers told us, we heard them, and we know personally what they taught; it remains for us in our turn to hand it on. Blessed be God we have now the less mutable testimony of written revelation, but this by no means lessens our obligation to instruct our children in divine truth by word of mouth: rather, with such a gracious help, we ought to teach them far more fully the things of God. Dr. Doddridge owed much to the Dutch tiles and his mother's explanations of the Bible narratives. The more of parental teaching the better; ministers and Sabbath-school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for mothers' tears and fathers' prayers.

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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.

12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

21 Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

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42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:

44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

Psalm 78:42

"They remembered not his hand." Yet it must have been difficult to forget it. Such displays of divine power as those which smote Egypt with astonishment, it must have needed some more than usual effort to blot from the tablets of memory. It is probably meant that they practically, rather than actually, forgot. He who forgets the natural returns of gratitude, may justly be charged with not remembering the obligation. "Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy." The day itself was erased from their calendar, so far as any due result from it or return for it. Strange is the faculty of memory in its oblivions as well as its records. Sin perverts man's powers, makes them forceful only in wrong directions, and practically dead for righteous ends.

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54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies.

57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers' they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

59 When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed

among men;

61 And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

62 He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

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67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim

68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

71 From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

Psalm 78:67

"Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph." God had honoured Ephraim, for to that tribe belonged Joshua the great conqueror, and Gideon the great judge, and within its borders was Shiloh the place of the ark and the sanctuary; but now the Lord would change all this and set up other rulers. He would no longer leave matters to the leadership of Ephraim, since that tribe had been tried and found wanting. "And chose not the tribe of Ephraim." Sin had been found in them, folly and instability, and therefore they were set aside as unfit to lead.

Psalm 78:68

"But chose the tribe of Judah." To give the nation another trial this tribe was elected to supremacy. This was according to Jacob's dying prophecy. Our Lord sprang out of Judah and he it is whom his brethren shall praise. "The Mount Zion which he loved." The tabernacle and ark were removed to Zion during the reign of David; no honour was left to the wayward Ephraimites. Hard by this mountain the Father of the Faithful had offered up his only son, and there in future days the great gatherings of his chosen seed would be, and therefore Zion is said to be lovely unto God.

Psalm 78:69

"And he built his sanctuary like high palaces." The tabernacle was placed on high, literally and spiritually it was as a mountain of beauty. True religion was exalted in the land. For sanctity it was a temple, for majesty it was a palace. "Like the earth which he hath established for ever." Stability as well as stateliness were seen in the temple, and so also in the church of God. The prophet saw both in vision.

Psalm 78:70

"He chose David also his servant." It was an election of a sovereignly gracious kind, and it operated practically by making the chosen man a willing servant of the Lord. He was not chosen because he was a servant, but in order that he might be so. David always esteemed it to be a high honour that he was both elect of God, and a servant of God. "And took him from the sheepfolds." A shepherd of sheep he had been, and this was a fit school for a shepherd of men. Lowliness of occupation will debar no man from such honours as the Lord's election confers, the Lord seeth not as man seeth. He delights to bless those who are of low estate.

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