Psalm 78

Introduction

Psalm 78 Study

Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we’ll be looking at Psalm 78. Now, this is right in the middle of a series of 11 psalms composed by Asaph (אָסָף). And maybe I’m making too much of this, but if you take these 11 psalms and arrange them in order, you have five psalms on one side and five on the other. And this middle psalm is more than twice as long as any of the other ten. So it kind of makes a menorah (מְנוֹרָה) pattern. Again, maybe it’s coincidence, but it would be interesting to go and compare the psalms that match up with one another and see if there’s something we learn from that. I’ll leave that up to you. In the meantime, we want to get into this amazing, rather lengthy psalm — 72 verses — and see what it has to teach us.

Being as long as it is, I’m not going to dwell and spend a lot of time on each verse, of course, but there are a few really fascinating words. And there’s one verse here that I think is one of the most fascinating verses in the entire Hebrew Bible.

Now, this psalm reviews Israel’s history, and it’s not very kind because it shows the many failures in Israel’s history. But in the middle of the psalm, you see this glorious grace of God just shining through. In fact, I think this psalm answers the question: can human sin and rebellion conquer God’s love and grace? Can human sin and rebellion conquer God’s love and grace? ? There are many Christian theologies that would say, “Yeah, we can conquer God’s love and grace.” But I think this psalm will give the lie to that — because if I’m reading this right, our sin and rebellion can never conquer his love and his grace. But let’s see.

Now this is a maskil (מַשְׂכִּיל). And if you recall, there are other maskilim (מַשְׂכִּילִים) in the book of Psalms. And a maskil means it’s a teaching psalm. This is from the word sakal (שָׂכַל), which means to give intelligence, to give insight. So the purpose of the psalm is to teach.

Now you’ll see how I’ve divided this psalm into groups of verses. And every commentary you look at will group them in different ways. So group them how you think is best. This is what I did and it’s probably not the best way but it seemed to work as I went through and was studying this

Psalm 78:1–4

So let’s get right into it. Verses 1–4.

Give ear, oh my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter riddles from of old. Things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) and his might and the wonders that he has done. — Psalm 78:1–4

And the word “teaching” there is the word Torah (תּוֹרָה). “Give ear to my Torah.” The word Torah means instruction. It does not mean law. It means instruction.

“I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter riddles from of old.” Now, this verse — verse two — is actually quoted in Matthew. If you look at Matthew 13:35, Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is asked why he teaches in parables. And he gives an explanation. And the author Matthew says this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” — Matthew 13:35

And this is a quote from Asaph‘s song here. So Asaph is being called a prophet by Matthew himself.

Now what is the difference between a parable — which is mashal (מָשָׁל) in Hebrew — and a riddle — which is a chidah (חִידָה) in Hebrew? A mashal is a parable, a proverb. The book of Proverbs is called Mishlei Shlomo (מִשְׁלֵי שְׁלֹמֹה) — the proverbs or parables of Solomon. There is no difference between a proverb and a parable in Hebrew thought. It’s the same word, mashal. And I think we understand what a mashal is.

But what’s a chidah? What’s a riddle? These are the things that you might call spiritual meat that require chewing. These are enigmatic statements. These are perplexing statements that are not going to reveal themselves on the surface. You will have to chew. You will have to be still. You have to be quiet. You’ll have to ponder and meditate on these. You may have to look up other scriptures as the Holy Spirit will direct you to look at other things. But these are the things that are deep. These are the things that are mystical, if I dare use the word. These are the things that simply do not reveal themselves unless you live with them and work with them over time.

So here Asaph is saying, “I’m going to open my mouth in a parable and I will utter riddles from of old.” We’re going to look at one of those riddles as we go through.

“Things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of Adonai and his might and the wonders that he has done.” So in introducing this psalm, he’s saying we’re going to talk about our people and the things our fathers have passed down to us. But he doesn’t say we’re going to talk about how wonderful our fathers were, how great the generation of the previous Israelites were. We’re going to talk about how great God was.

Now, one of the things to me that proves that the Bible is indeed God’s word is its brutal honesty. Other religious texts pretty much polish the personalities of their heroes and their people. The Bible doesn’t do that. It shows us all the warts — from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses, David. You look at the great men of the scriptures and it tells you their flaws. It does not hide them. It’s so honest. The only perfect one in the scriptures is Yeshua. He’s the sinless one. But God lets us know how his people have rebelled. And that includes you and me as well.

Psalm 78:5–8

So we go on down to verses 5–8.

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed his Torah in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers — a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. — Psalm 78:5–8

Here’s where all the problems come in as we’ll see as we go through this psalm. The children of Israel forgot the works of God and they forgot his Torah. “So that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers — a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.”

And of course, we can pause here and ask ourselves: are we stubborn and rebellious? Is our heart steadfast? Is our spirit faithful to God? It’s a good question to ask.

Psalm 78:9–11

And then in verse nine, we have this kind of mysterious verse that we don’t quite know how to make sense of.

The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his Torah. They forgot his deeds and the wonders that he had shown them. — Psalm 78:9–11

What is this event that the psalm is referring to — when the Ephraimites armed with a bow turned back on the day of battle? There are different guesses, different opinions about this. But this verse seems to be based on a legend. It might very well be true that during the Egyptian captivity, there was a time when the tribe of Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם) rose up, decided — enough of this, we’re going to escape from Egypt, we’re going to get out of here. And they fled Egypt, but they didn’t get very far. And they ended up being recaptured, many of them killed, and it ended in disgrace. They tried to do things their own way, and it just didn’t succeed. That might be what’s being referred to here in these verses. We simply don’t know.

But one of the things we do know is that though Ephraim started out strong — and when you look at the blessings that Jacob gave his son Joseph by blessing his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה), Ephraim started out strong. His name means “fruitful.” But as you follow the history of Ephraim, it is a downward spiral. He does not end well.

Now, you’ll notice here that I have C, then B, then A for these three statements. Why did I put them in reverse order? Because we need to approach them this way. It says “ (c) they turned back on the day of battle”, So you can ask the question: well, why? Well, that’s answered by the next verse. Verse 10: “(b) they did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his Torah”. So that’s why they turned back on the day of battle. But then we can ask why. Why did they refuse to keep God’s covenant and to walk according to his Torah? The answer is in verse 11: “(a) they forgot his deeds and the wonders that he had shown them.”

So you can see it’s forgetting God’s deeds that leads us to not keep his covenant, be faithful, and that in turn leads to failure and defeat.

There’s this wonderful quote by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, and he says this:

“All of our nation’s mistakes can be attributed to our forgetting our past.”

Oh, that is so true. Forgetting is really the cause for so many of our failures. We forget so easily. If we could only remember God’s faithfulness, how good he’s been to us — oh, how much better we would be.

Alilah (עֲלִילָה) — The Word That Goes Up

Now, there’s an interesting word here. As I was reading this in the Hebrew, I came to this word and I’d encountered it before, but it really stood out to me here. It’s the word alilah (עֲלִילָה). Now it’s plural here — alilotav — meaning “his deeds.” But the word “deed” is alilah, and it has two definitions. It can mean wrongdoing — this is a very negative definition. But it can also mean a deed, especially a good deed. The same word means both. How can this be?

Let me give you a few examples. First of all, the very first place this word is used in the Bible is in Deuteronomy 22, verse 14 and then again in verse 17. It’s the case where a husband becomes jealous and accuses his wife. And it says, “And accuses her of alilah — misconduct.” And then again in verse 17, the same thing.

Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable alilot — abominable deeds.”

Psalm 99:8: “Adonai our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them but an avenger of their wrongdoings.” And again the word “wrongdoings” is the word alilah.

But then we come to verses like 1 Chronicles 16:8: “Oh give thanks to Adonai. Call upon his name. Make known his alilot, his deeds among the peoples.”

Psalm 9:11: “Sing praises to Adonai who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds, his alilah.”

And then the previous psalm to this one — Psalm 77, verse 12: “I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.” And there’s the word alilah again.

So how can this word be this wonderful good thing and also be something detestable, something abominable? Well, I think the answer to that lies in the first two letters. When you see the two letters ayin-lamed (עַל), it means “al” — to go up — like an olah (עֹלָה), a sacrifice that is burnt, a whole burnt offering that goes up. When you make an aliyah (עֲלִיָּה) to Israel, you go up to Israel. Or you make an aliyah to go up and read from the Torah in the synagogue. Al means to go up.

So when you think about this, it’s almost as if from our lives there are things that are going up like a smell. And that smell can be very positive, very sweet — or it could be something that’s very foul. Think of a piece of meat. You take that piece of meat and put it on a grill and put a flame to it — boy, does it smell good. It makes your mouth water because you have a burger or a steak right around the corner. But if you take that same piece of meat and just set it on the ground and leave it for a few days, there’s another odor that goes up from it. They both go up from the meat, but one is very attractive and the other is very foul and repulsive.

What are the deeds? What are the things that come out of our lives? Are they good deeds or are they foul smells? Are they a fragrance or an odor? And I think that’s the key to understanding this word.

Psalm 78:12–17

Well, moving on, we come to verse 12.

In the sight of their fathers, he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan (צֹעַן). He divided the sea and let them pass through it and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. — Psalm 78:12–16

Zoan was one of the capitals of Egypt. It was one of the primary places in Egypt, and so it’s kind of a standin for the entire land.

Paul refers to the rock in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and he says:

“And all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Messiah.” — 1 Corinthians 10:4

So there’s a reference here to the Messiah — this rock that is split and the living waters come out.

Verse 17: “Yet they sinned still more against him.” Let that verse shock you. If you’re not shocked by that, you’re reading too fast. God does all these wonderful things — he delivers them through parting the sea, he provides living water from a rock — and they sin still more against him. Then it makes me pause and think: if I stop and really think about how wonderful God has been to me, then I can also stop and think about how so often I’ve been ungracious to him. I’ve lacked gratitude. I’ve been rebellious and selfish and still wanted to do things my way and not wanted to obey him and not taken time for him. And we can look at the Israelites and say, “Oh, how could they behave that way?” And then not realize we’re looking into the mirror and God is saying, “But this is how we are.” So we need to be a little shocked at this. We need probably be a little shocked at ourselves at how much ingratitude we have towards our gracious and good God.

Psalm 78:18–31

Verse 18:

They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?” — Psalm 78:18–20

So he’s given them water, he gives them heavenly bread, he gives them manna (מָן). They say, “Yeah, that’s all okay as far as it goes. But we want something fleshy. We want something different. We want something that’s going to satisfy our own fleshly cravings.”

So what happens? Verse 21:

Therefore, when Adonai heard, he was full of wrath. A fire was kindled against Jacob. His anger rose against Israel because they did not believe in God and did not trust his salvation. — Psalm 78:21–22

And that word “salvation” is of course the word Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). They did not trust his Yeshua.

Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven. And he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the Angels [abirim] (אַבִּירִים). — Psalm 78:23–25

Now this is not your typical word for angels. The Hebrew word here is abirim, which really means “the strong ones.” And of course, it has to be referring to the angels. So I went ahead and left the translation as it is. But I want you to understand that is not the word for angels. The word abirim means “the strong ones.” And the first place this is found in the Bible is in Genesis 49, in a prophecy concerning Joseph:

“Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the Abir (אַבִּיר) — the strong one, the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.” — Genesis 49:24

So the first time this word appears, “the mighty one” is referring to God himself. So he’s giving them the bread of the abirim — of the mighty ones — and this must be the angels. He gives them angel food. Think about that. And yet they griped about it. They complained about it.

Think about all the times — you know, you should sit down and ponder the word and read the word of God and spend some time studying it, but you think, “Oh, that show is coming on that I want to see. I want to check to see what’s on YouTube right now.” And we put the Bible aside — the food of angels, of the mighty one himself. This heavenly food — we set that aside to go eat slop. Now, I’m not saying there’s not a time to watch a YouTube video or to watch a good movie or read a good book. But when we shove God’s word aside and promote these other things above it, that’s just plain wrong.

“He sent them food in abundance. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and by his power he let out the south wind. He rained meat on them like dust — winged birds like the sand of the sea—”

This is when he sent the quail.

 He let them fall in the midst of his camp all around their dwellings. And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.

“But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.”

According to the commentaries and tradition, when God sent the quail, the people were so lusting for flesh that they didn’t even take time to cook it. They were eating it raw — ripping the birds apart and just eating this raw, bloody meat. That’s kind of a gross picture. But something tells me that was indeed the case. Otherwise, why would God send them the quail and then become so angry at them for eating it? And it’s almost like they indulged in complete and total gluttony. And it was just not something that is in line with being the people of God.

Psalm 78:32–37

And it says as we go on in verse 32:

In spite of all this, they still sinned. Despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a hevel (הֶבֶל) — a breath. — Psalm 78:32–33

Hevel is the word used throughout Ecclesiastes talking about vanity — “vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” The word hevel — just an exhalation of breath.

One rabbi put it this way: “he says they ended their days in pointlessness. They just devoted themselves to pointlessness.”

 And how sad that is — because I know of people, I know of lives that have come and gone. And I could easily see the potential they had. But I also saw the continuous chain of wrong decisions they made by pushing God’s word aside, doing what was right in their own eyes. And their lives were kind of pointless. They devoted themselves to hevel — to breath, to nothingness. And so the main value of their lives is to serve as a warning to everyone else. I want my life to be an example to others, but not a bad example—That God says “Now look at this guy Grant—don’t be like that!”— I want to be one where God says, “Be like him” God will use you one way or the other— he’ll use you as an example of how not to live, or he can use you as an example of how to live.

“So he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in terror.”

Verse 34: “When he killed them, they sought him and repented and sought God earnestly.” Isn’t that sad? When he killed them, when they started dying off, then they started repenting.

I think of the Israelites when they came up to the Jordan River the first time and the spies went across. Twelve spies came back and only two of the twelve told the truth. The other ten used the report — the evil report — to stir up fear and rebellion in the people. And they said, “We can’t go across. We’ll all die. Our wives will die. Our children will die. This is a terrible idea. We can’t survive. We can’t win.” So God said, “Okay, you’re all going to die here in the wilderness instead.” And then what did they do? They turned on a dime and these people who were cowards a moment before now said, “Oh, we’ll go up. We’ll do it.” And then they rushed across the Jordan up the mountain and then got wiped out by the enemy there. Their panic turned them from cowards into these brazen people who just operated out of fear of something worse. They were motivated by fear both times. But a godly person who walks according to God’s word walks in courage. They walk in obedience. They never are responding to fear, but they’re simply obeying God as they go through it. We’re an odd species, right? Lemee tell ya.

Psalm 78:38 — The Central Verse

Verse 35: “They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths. They lied to him with their tongues.”

May I suggest that some of what we call praise to God is really flattery — and when we flatter God instead of praising him, our praise becomes a lie. We need to be very cautious about this. Praising God is wonderful. Praising God is good. But if you’re praising him because you want to get something out of him, that’s called flattery. And God hates flattery. Flattery is when you say something nice to a person hoping you can manipulate them and get them to do something for you. God doesn’t go for that, because that is a falsehood. That is a lie. That means your praise wasn’t genuine praise — it was just flattery, pure manipulation. So let’s make sure that our praise is praise and not flattery, and that our requests of God are true, genuine, heartfelt requests and not just whining. Flattery and whining made up a lot of my prayer life for a long time and I want to be done with that. Hope you do too.

“Their heart was not steadfast toward him. They were not faithful to his covenant.”

Now here — this is right in the middle of the psalm. Verse 36 is the middle verse. But look what it introduces us to. “They flattered him with their mouths. They lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him. They were not faithful to his covenant.” Then — I love verse 38. I had to put it in red font so it would jump out:

Yet he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He restrained his anger often and did not stir up his full wrath. — Psalm 78:38

This is almost a direct quote from the thirteen attributes of mercy found back in Exodus 34. And I think this, in the context of this psalm, answers our original question: can human sin and rebellion conquer God’s love and grace? And I think the answer is no.

I’m going to read to you two quotes I came across as I was preparing this study. One is from Alec Motyer, who wrote a wonderful book called Psalms by the Day. And he says this:

“There is a rhythm to history. When redemption is followed by disobedience, this incurs wrath. But wrath does not have the last word.”

I love that. And this is from the Koren Tehillim (תְּהִלִּים). Koren is a Jewish publishing company. So the Koren Tehillim is a volume of the Psalms with some wonderful commentary. And it says this about this psalm:

“Is he — is God — the riddle, or are we? Which of us is the greater mystery? He is inscrutable, granted, but we are even harder to figure out. What does it take to get us to learn our lesson? Can we never be satisfied? Will he forever put up with our persistent backsliding? Our stubborn ingratitude is our mystery. Forgiveness is his.”

It’s almost as if the rabbi here is saying: God’s forgiveness is as stubborn as our ingratitude. And being God, his willfulness and stubbornness is always going to be stronger than ours. He will stubbornly forgive us more than we will stubbornly rebel and be ungrateful. That’s the kind of God we have. What a wonderful savior.

Psalm 78:40–41 — The Chidah: The Wounded Holy One

Verse 39: “He remembered that they were but flesh, a ruach (רוּחַ) — a wind or a spirit that passes and comes not again.”

And now here we come to one of the chidot (חִידוֹת) — one of the riddles, one of the deep things found in the word of God. This unique verse. We’ll start with verse 40:

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. They tested God again and again and tavvu (תָּווּ) the Holy One of Israel. — Psalm 78:40–41

Now, translators are all over the map when it comes to how to translate this word. The best translation I found is the word “wounded” — and it’s the word tavah. You can see it right here. It’s tav-vav-hey. And even the Hebrew lexicons and grammars don’t agree on this word. Some will say this word occurs a couple of times in the Hebrew Bible. But some of them say it occurs only in this one place with this meaning. What they mean by that is that we see a word spelled the same way — tav-vav — used in a couple of other places, but it never means “to wound.” It means “to make a mark.”

Let me give you those passages right now. Ezekiel 9:4:

And Adonai said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and tavah  — mark a mark — on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” — Ezekiel 9:4

So you have a verb and a noun: tav — mark — and tav — a mark. And the word for a mark is just tav (תָּו) — just the first two letters of the verb. These two letters spell the name of the letter tav, which is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And tav means “cross.” That’s what it means. So you could say: mark a mark. Mark a tav. And mark a mark on the foreheads of the men. This is a mark of protection that the angels were to put on the foreheads of these people in Jerusalem.

The other place it’s found is 1 Samuel 21:13:

So David changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and tav — marked, scratched — on the doors of the gate, and let spittle run down his beard. — 1 Samuel 21:13

So in those two cases, we see that this word means to make a mark, to scratch something in.

But that doesn’t work here in Psalm 78:41. “They tested God again and again and marked the Holy One of Israel” — scratched the Holy One of Israel, put a mark on the Holy One of Israel. And this is why some of the lexicons say he was wounded — and this is the only place this word is found where it means “to wound.”

You know, the Holy One of Israel did become flesh and dwell among us. And we marked him. And he carries the marks of what we did to him when we wounded him. He carries the marks in his hands and his feet and his side. And this unique word, found only here meaning “wounded” — this is one of those things you could read over, but if you’re going slowly and sensitively, something says: stop, dig here, chew on this. And you find this enigmatic statement with this perplexing word revealing something about the Messiah himself.

We’ve already seen the Messiah show up in this psalm three times. It talks about the rock from which came the waters — and Paul tells us that rock was Messiah. It tells us about the manna from heaven — and in John 6, Yeshua himself says about how the Father sends bread from heaven and says, “I am the bread of life.” And then we read the psalmist say that they did not trust God’s salvation, his Yeshua — naming him by name. And here we see that they tested God again and again and wounded the Holy One of Israel. That’s an amazing verse.

Well, let’s move along. I hate to do that — I’d love to camp out right here — but I’ll let you ponder this more and meditate on it and do more research.

Psalm 78:42–64

Verse 42:

They did not remember his power on the day when he redeemed them from the foe. When he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan, he turned their rivers to blood so that they could not drink of their streams. — Psalm 78:42–44

This of course is when the Nile was turned to blood.

He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them and frogs which destroyed them. He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts. He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress — a company of destroying angels. — Psalm 78:45–49

Now the word “angel” can mean “messenger.” So these plagues could be seen as messengers — maybe they were angelic beings concealing themselves in the form of these plagues. I don’t know.

“He made a path for his anger.” I love that phrase. He made a path for his anger. What does that mean? That means God’s anger is never out of control. He became angry — but instead of just reacting, he channeled his anger. He controlled its course. He made a path for it. So even his anger would accomplish his precise purpose in the world.

He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham. — Psalm 78:50–51

That’s because the Egyptians were descendants from Noah’s son Ham.

Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them in safety so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. — Psalm 78:52–53

Keep verse 52 in mind: “Then he — God — led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.” The reason I want you to hold on to that verse for a moment is because we’re going to encounter someone at the end of the psalm who does the same thing.

He led them in safety so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 

Verse 54

And he brought them to his holy [land], to the mountain which his right hand had won. He drove out nations before them. He apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. — Psalm 78:54–55

Now the word land is not there, but most your translations will put the land in. And I think that’s fair, but I put it in brackets just so you know. It’s saying he brought them to his holy to the mountain which his right hand had won. And we can imply that he is referring to the holy land. He drove out nations before them. 

“He apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents,”

Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies, but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers. They twisted like a crooked bow. — Psalm 78:56–57

Very odd statement there. Translators kind of struggle with this, but it seems to have the feel that they had a bow that was somehow distorted — when they shot an arrow aimed this way, the arrow would go off that way.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places. They moved him to jealousy with their idols. When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh (שִׁילֹה). — Psalm 78:58–60

Now, Shiloh is where the tabernacle rested for a very long time. It moved to a few different places once the people came to the land of Canaan, but Shiloh kind of became its home. And the outer court, which was curtains, was replaced with stone walls because this became the more or less permanent location for the tabernacle. And you recall Eli (עֵלִי) was the high priest and he had two sons who were very wicked. You can read about those in 1 Samuel chapter 2.

And he forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. — Psalm 78:60–61

Because the Philistines came in, they conquered the Israelite army there, and they stole the Aron HaKodesh (אֲרוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ) — the ark of the covenant. This is probably what he’s referring to as “he delivered his power to captivity.” That would be his ark.

He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage. Fire devoured their young men and their young women had no marriage song. Their priests fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation. — Psalm 78:62–64

Because you recall when Eli the high priest heard that the ark had been captured, he fell over and died, and his two sons with him. And his two sons had wives. But it says their widows made no lamentation. Why? Well, the theory is that the two daughters-in-law of Eli were so grieved by the defeat of Israel and the capturing of the ark — they were so grieved by that — they didn’t have any grief left over to grieve for their two wicked husbands. Sounds like as good a theory as any to me.

Psalm 78:65–72 — David as the Shepherd of Israel

And then we come to the last section of the psalm.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine. — Psalm 78:65

It’s like up to this point God had been asleep. But we know that God neither slumbers nor sleeps. But it can seem that way. He was silent to them because their prayers were just lies — their praise was just flattery. The sons of Eli the priest had become wicked. They would take the sacrifice and eat the best parts themselves. And they were mistreating the people. The whole thing had become a sham. And so God allowed the people to be defeated and he allowed his ark to be stolen. But this is always temporary. God’s not done.

So he awoke as from sleep and he put his adversaries to rout. He put them to everlasting shame. He rejected the tent of Joseph. — Psalm 78:65–67

Now you see, Shiloh — where the tabernacle rested — was in the area of Ephraim. Remember, it’s talking about Ephraim. And so he rejected the tent of Joseph. There was no tribe of Joseph — Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, became two tribes. But Ephraim kept making this downhill regression. And so he rejected the tent of Joseph — in particular the tent of Ephraim.

He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the tribe of Judah instead. Instead of Shiloh, he chooses Mount Zion (צִיּוֹן) in Jerusalem, which he loves. He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth which he has founded forever. He chose David. — Psalm 78:67–70

Ephraim was rejected, but the tribe of Judah (יְהוּדָה) with David at its head — King David.

His servant; he took him from the sheepfolds. From following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people. — Psalm 78:70–71

Now, remember back in verse 52, we go back there just for a second. Back in verse 52, it says, “Then he — this is Adonai — led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.” But now we see this man God has raised up:

He chose David his servant. From following the nursing ewes, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. — Psalm 78:70–72

So we see here that David is doing what God did. God shepherded Israel through the hand of Moses. But now God is shepherding Israel through the hand of David. And whenever we see David, we think of the son of David, Yeshua. Many times Messiah Yeshua is simply referred to as David in the prophets. So God is shepherding his people through David. And we see in a deeper way — another chidah, another riddle — that this reference to David shepherding God’s people is a picture of Messiah, the good shepherd.

There’s so much going on in this psalm and I had to go through it quickly — it is 72 verses after all. But I hope that this study serves simply as a foundation for you to do more study on your own. This is not supposed to be the be-all and end-all in studying Psalm 78. This is simply a foundation giving you some tools and a starting point, some things to consider. So now you can really do the real study yourselves.

So I hope you have a blessed time going back over this psalm, discussing it with friends — it’s always best to discuss when you study. And please email me. Let me know what insights you come up with. I’d love to hear them. And so until next time at Psalm 79, I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם) and may God bless.

Teaching Material

Hebrew Word Studies

Asaph (אָסָף) — “Gatherer”; the Levitical poet and Temple musician who composed Psalm 78 and ten surrounding psalms (Psalms 73–83, plus Psalm 50). In this episode, Asaph is identified by Matthew as a prophet — his words in Psalm 78:2 being fulfilled in Yeshua‘s teaching in parables (Matthew 13:35). Psalm 78 sits at the center of his eleven-psalm collection, more than twice as long as any adjacent psalm — a menorah pattern. — Strong’s H623

Maskil (מַשְׂכִּיל) — “Teaching psalm, psalm of instruction”; the superscription of Psalm 78. From the root sakal (שָׂכַל) — to give insight, to give intelligence. A maskil is designed to teach. The purpose of this entire 72-verse psalm is to instruct — by reviewing Israel’s repeated failures and God’s recurring, undefeated grace. — Strong’s H4905

Mashal (מָשָׁל) — “Parable, proverb, saying”; the first of the two literary forms Asaph announces in verses 1–2. The book of Proverbs is Mishlei Shlomo (מִשְׁלֵי שְׁלֹמֹה) — the mashal-collection of Solomon. There is no distinction between “parable” and “proverb” in Hebrew thought — both are mashal. — Strong’s H4912

Chidah (חִידָה) — “Riddle, enigma, dark saying”; the second literary form announced in verses 1–2. Where a mashal teaches on the surface, a chidah requires prolonged meditation, stillness, and cross-reference to reveal what lies beneath. This teaching identifies two chidot in Psalm 78: the wounded Holy One of verse 41 and the Davidic shepherd of verse 72. — Strong’s H2420

Alilah (עֲלִילָה) — “Deed, act; also wrongdoing, misconduct”; a word with two opposite meanings held together by a shared root. From al (עַל) — “to go up.” Both good deeds and evil acts go up like a smell: a good deed rises like the aroma of meat on a grill; a wicked deed rises like the stench of rot. Used for God’s mighty deeds in Psalm 78:11 and for Israel’s abominations in Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 99:8. — Strong’s H5949

Olah (עֹלָה) — “Whole burnt offering, ascent offering”; from the same root as alilah — al, to go up. The olah is entirely consumed on the altar, going up as a sweet aroma. The shared root with alilah anchors the teaching: our deeds are offerings that ascend — what aroma do they produce? — Strong’s H5930

Aliyah (עֲלִיָּה) — “Ascent, going up”; used today for immigrating to Israel (going up to the land) and for being called up to read from the Torah scroll in the synagogue. From the same al root as olah and alilah — the concept of ascending underlies all three. — Strong’s H5945 · Sefaria: Aliyah

Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation”; appears by name in Psalm 78:22 — “they did not trust his Yeshua.” The psalmist names the Messiah in the context of Israel’s failure to trust God’s salvation in the wilderness. One of three direct appearances of Messiah in this psalm, alongside the rock of living water (verse 15–16) and the bread from heaven (verse 24–25). — Strong’s H3442

Abirim (אַבִּירִים) — “Strong ones, mighty ones”; the word used in Psalm 78:25 for the beings whose bread the Israelites ate in the wilderness — usually translated “angels.” The singular Abir (אַבִּיר) first appears in Genesis 49:24 as a title of God himself: “the mighty one of Jacob.” The manna was the bread of the abirim — food from the realm of the strong ones. — Strong’s H47

Hevel (הֶבֶל) — “Breath, vapor, vanity”; the word used in Psalm 78:33 for the pointless lives of those who forgot God. The same word repeated throughout Ecclesiastes: hevel havalim — “vanity of vanities.” One rabbi summarized: “they devoted themselves to hevel — to nothingness.” The brevity and ultimate emptiness of a life spent apart from God’s word. — Strong’s H1892 · Sefaria: Ecclesiastes 1:2

Tav (תָּו) — The final letter of the Hebrew alphabet; also the word for “mark” or “sign.” At the heart of Psalm 78:41 — “tavvu the Holy One of Israel.” The verb appears in Ezekiel 9:4 meaning “to mark a mark (tav)” on the foreheads of the righteous. In 1 Samuel 21:13 it means “to scratch.” In Psalm 78:41 alone — according to some lexicons — it means “to wound.” As with the blood on the doorposts forming a tav in the Passover teaching, the letter tav means “cross.” The Holy One of Israel was marked, scratched, wounded — and he bears those marks still. — Strong’s H8420 · Hebrew4Christians: Tav

Ruach (רוּחַ) — “Wind, spirit, breath”; in Psalm 78:39 — “he remembered that they were but flesh, a ruach that passes and comes not again.” The same word can be translated wind, spirit, or breath depending on context. Here it conveys the fleeting, insubstantial nature of human life — the tenderness of God’s mercy rooted in his knowledge of what we are. — Strong’s H7307

Menorah (מְנוֹרָה) — “Lampstand”; the seven-branched golden lampstand of the Tabernacle and Temple. Referenced in this teaching as a structural pattern: Asaph‘s 11 psalms, with Psalm 78 at the center being more than twice as long as the others, form a menorah shape — five on one side, five on the other, one tall central lamp. — Strong’s H4501

Zoan (צֹעַן) — An ancient royal city of Egypt (the Greek Tanis); used in Psalm 78:12, 43 as a synecdoche for all of Egypt. The site of Pharaoh’s court where Moses performed the signs and wonders. — Strong’s H6814

Shiloh (שִׁילֹה) — The city in the territory of Ephraim where the Tabernacle rested for much of the period of the Judges; the site of Eli‘s priesthood and the capture of the ark. God’s abandonment of Shiloh in Psalm 78:60 is the low point of the psalm’s narrative — and the turning point toward the rejection of Ephraim and the election of Judah and David. — Strong’s H7887 · Sefaria: 1 Samuel 4

Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם) — “Fruitful”; Joseph’s son elevated to tribe-level status by Jacob. The central negative example of Psalm 78 — strong at the start, declining throughout history, finally rejected when God moves his dwelling from Shiloh (Ephraim’s territory) to Mount Zion in Judah. The downward spiral of Ephraim in this psalm mirrors the downward spiral described throughout. — Strong’s H669

Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness, well-being.” — Strong’s H7965

Scripture References

Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway

• Psalm 78 — The full psalm; Asaph‘s 72-verse review of Israel’s failures and God’s undefeated grace, culminating in the election of David as shepherd-king
• Matthew 13:35 — Matthew quotes Psalm 78:2 as prophetic fulfillment of Yeshua‘s teaching in parables: “I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world” — Asaph called a prophet
• 1 Corinthians 10:4 — “They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Messiah” — Paul identifies the water-giving rock of Psalm 78:15–16 as a picture of Yeshua
• John 6:35 — “I am the bread of life” — Yeshua‘s identification of himself with the manna from heaven of Psalm 78:24–25; the bread of the abirim
• Ezekiel 9:4 — Adonai commands: “Mark a tav on the foreheads” of the righteous — the verb and noun tav used as a protective sign; the same word as “wounded” in Psalm 78:41
• 1 Samuel 21:13 — David scratches marks (tav) on the gate doors while feigning madness — the second of the three occurrences of the tav verb; meaning “to scratch/mark”
• Genesis 49:24 — “By the hands of the Abir of Jacob” — the first occurrence of abirim, used of God himself; the root from which “bread of the abirim” in Psalm 78:25 draws its force
• Exodus 34:6–7 — The thirteen attributes of mercy — the source text that Psalm 78:38 nearly quotes directly: “yet he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy”
• Ecclesiastes 1:2 — “Hevel havalim — vanity of vanities” — the word hevel used in Psalm 78:33 for lives devoted to pointlessness
• 1 Samuel 2:12–17 — The wickedness of Eli‘s sons Hophni and Phinehas; the corruption at Shiloh that preceded the abandonment of the Tabernacle
• 1 Samuel 4:1–18 — The capture of the ark by the Philistines; the death of Eli and his sons; the fulfillment of Psalm 78:60–64

External References & Further Study

• Psalm 78 — Sefaria — Full Hebrew and English text of Psalm 78 with classical rabbinic commentaries
• Alec Motyer, Psalms by the Day  — The devotional commentary quoted in this teaching: “There is a rhythm to history… wrath does not have the last word”
• Koren Tehillim (Psalms) — Koren Publishers — The Jewish Psalms volume quoted in this teaching: “Our stubborn ingratitude is our mystery. Forgiveness is his.”
• Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch — My Jewish Learning — Background on the 19th-century rabbi quoted in this teaching: “All of our nation’s mistakes can be attributed to our forgetting our past”
• Hebrew Letter Tav — Hebrew4Christians — The meaning of the letter tav as “cross” or “mark”; its Paleo-Hebrew cross shape; directly relevant to the tav verb of Psalm 78:41 and Ezekiel 9:4
• Hevel: Vanity in Ecclesiastes — Sefaria — The recurring hevel of Ecclesiastes and its use in Psalm 78:33 for pointless lives spent apart from God
• The Tabernacle at Shiloh — The history of Shiloh as the Tabernacle’s home; the period of the Judges; the capture of the ark and Eli‘s death — the historical context of Psalm 78:60–64
• Torah Today Ministries — Home of Tehillim Talks and all Torah-centered teachings from Beth Tikkun