Day 176, Psalms 78-81

Psalm 78
Tell the Coming Generation

A MASKIL OF ASAPH.

*A psalm of instruction–of warnings not to repeat Israel’s sins of the past but to remember God’s saving acts and marvelously persistent grace and, remembering, to keep faith with him and his covenant. Here as elsewhere (pervasively in the Old Testament), trust in and loyalty to God on the part of God’s people are covenant matters. They do not spring from abstract principles (such as the formal structure of the God-man relationships) or from general human consciousness (such as feelings of dependence on “God” or a sense of awe in the presence of the “holy”), but they result from remembering God’s mighty saving acts. Correspondingly, unfaithfulness is the more blameworthy because it contemptuously disregards all God’s wonderful acts in his people’s behalf (see Psalm 105-106).

The psalm probably dates from the period of the divided monarchy and may have been composed about the time of the prophet Hosea. The psalm was no doubt a warning to worshipers at Jerusalem not to fall away after the manner of their brothers to the north.

By placing this psalm next to Psalm 77, the editors of the Psalter ranged David alongside Moses (and Aaron) as the Lord’s shepherd over his people who brought the exodus to its (provisionally) climactic fruition by completing the conquest of the promised land–a perspective apparently shared by the author of the psalm.

Give ear, O 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 dark sayings 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 the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law 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.
-78:1-8

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.
Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High int he desert.
They tested God in their heart…
-78:13-18

In spite of all this, they still sinned;
despite his wonders, they did not believe.
So he made their days vanish like a breath,
and their years in terror.
When he killed them, they sought him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.
-78:32-35

Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved for him in the desert!
They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
-78:38-41

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,
-78:52-53

Psalm 79
How Long, O Lord?

A PSALM OF ASAPH.

*Israel’s prayer for God’s forgiveness and help and for his judgement on the nations that have so cruelly destroyed her, showing utter contempt for both the Lord and his people. Like Psalm 74, with which it has many thematic links, it dates from the time of the exile. The poignancy of its appeal is heightened by its juxtaposition to Psalm 77 (recalling God’s saving acts under David), two psalms with which it is significantly linked by the shepherd-sheep figure and other thematic elements. Israel acknowledges that the Lord has used the nations to punish her for her sins, so she pleads for pardon. But she knows too that the nations have acted out of their hostility to and disdain for God and his people, that warrants her plea for God’s judgement on them.

How long, O Lord?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out your anger on the nations
that do no know you,
and on the kingdoms
that do not call upon your name!
-79:5-6

Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
for your name’s sake!
-79:8-9

But we your people sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever,
from generation to generation
we will recount your praise.
-79:13

Psalm 80
Restore Us, O God

TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO LILIES. A TESTIMONY. OF ASAPH, A PSALM.

*Israel’s prayer for restoration when she had been ravaged by a foreign power. It seems likely that “Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh” here represent the northern kingdom. If Jeroboam was indeed given ten tribes (see 1 Kings 11:29-36), leaving only one to Rehoboam–Judah (see 1 Kings 12:20), which was actually two tribes because Simeon was located within Judah–then Benjamin belonged to the northern kingdom.

However, part of Benjamin must always have remained with the southern kingdom since its territory actually bordered on Jerusalem itself, and the southern kingdom continued to control Jerusalem’s environs (see 1 Kings 12:21). This suggests that the disaster suffered was the Assyrian campaign that swept the northern kingdom away (see 2 Kings 17:1-6).

Recent archaeological surveys of the Holy Land have shown that Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside experienced at this time a dramatic increase of population, no doubt the result of massive influx of displaced persons from the north fleeing the Assyrian beast. This could account for the presence of “Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh” at the Jerusalem sanctuary, and for a national prayer for restoration with special focus on these tribes.

Stir up your might
and come to save us!
Restore us, O God;
let your face shine,
that we may be saved!
O Lord God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with
your people’s prayers?
80:2-4

Psalm 81
Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. OF ASAPH.

*A festival song. But it is unclear whether the festival is Passover/Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:14-17) or the Jewish New Year (Leviticus 23:24, Numbers 29:1) or the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34, Numbers 29:12). It may have been used at all three. But more likely it was composed for use at both New Year (the first day of the month, “New Moon”) and the beginning of Tabernacles (the 15th day of the month, full moon).

Whether the psalm is preexilic or postexilic cannot be determined, but it clearly shows the grand significance of Israel’s annual religious festivals. As memorials of God’s saving acts they called Israel to celebration, remembrance and recommitment (see Psalm 95). In this psalm Israel is addressed by a Levite, speaking (prophetically) on behalf of God.

In distress you called,
and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
“But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.”
-81:7-12