Psalm 78:2-7 NLT

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:6

A testimony in Jocob - This may signify the various ordinances, rites, and ceremonies prescribed by the law; and the word law may mean the moral law, or system of religious instruction, teaching them their duty to God, to their neighbor, and to themselves. These were commanded to the fathers - the patriarchs and primitive Hebrews, that they should make them known to their children, who should make them known to the generation that was to come, whose children should also be instructed that... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:3

Verse 3 3.What we have heard and known. There seems to be some discrepancy between what the Psalmist had stated in the commencement, when he said that he would speak of great and hidden matters, and what he now adds, that his subject is a common one, and such as is transmitted from one age to another by the father to the son. If it was incumbent upon the fathers to recount to their children the things here spoken of, these things ought, of course, to have been familiarly known to all the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:4

Verse 4 4.We will not conceal them from their children in the generation to come. Some take the verb נכחד, nechached, in the nephil conjugation, and translate it, they are not concealed or hidden. But it ought, according to the rules of grammar, to be resolved thus: — We will not conceal them from our posterity, implying, that what we have been taught by our ancestors we should endeavor to transmit to their children. By this means, all pretense of ignorance is removed; for it was the will of... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:5

Verse 5 5.He established a testimony in Jacob. (312) As the reception or approbation of any doctrine by men would not be a sufficient reason for yielding a firm assent to its truth, the prophet proceeds farther, and represents God as the author of what he brings forward. He declares, that the father’s were not led to instruct their children in these truths under the mere impulse of their own minds, but by the commandment of God. Some understand the words, He hath established a testimony in... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:6

Verse 6 6.That the generation to come might know them. In this verse, the Psalmist confirms what he had said concerning the continued transmission of divine truth. It greatly concerns us to know, that the law was given not for one age only; but that the fathers should transmit it to their children, as if it were their rightful inheritance, in order that it might never be lost, but be preserved to the end of the world. This is the reason why Paul, in 1 Timothy 3:15, asserts that “the Church is... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:7

Verse 7 7.That they might set their hope in God. Here the Psalmist points out the use to which the doctrine which he had stated should be applied. In the first place, the fathers, when they find that on the one hand they are instrumental in maintaining the pure worship of God, and that on the other, they are the means of providing for the salvation of their children, should, by such a precious result of their labors, be the more powerfully stirred up to instruct their children. In the second... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:1-8

The introduction calls special attention to the teaching that is about to be put forth, which it declares to be traditional ( Psalms 78:3 ), and, further, to be the sort of instruction which God had especially commanded to be given to his people by their teachers ( Psalms 78:5 , Psalms 78:6 ) for their edification ( Psalms 78:7 , Psalms 78:8 ). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:1-72

The psalm is, as the title also declares, one of "instruction." It seeks to keep the people faithful to David and his house, and to check their tendency to place themselves under the leadership of the tribe of Ephraim, by recalling the whole course of God's dealings with Israel in the past, from the time of the sojourn in Egypt to the establishment of David's kingdom. It also seeks to keep them faithful to God, by showing how all their past calamities and sufferings had arisen out of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:1-72

Whole psalm: Warnings against unbelief. I. ITS PURPOSE . 1 . To warn Ephraim; not to taunt and exult over him, but to warn. This psalm seems to belong to the period of the disruption. Ephraim, with the other northern tribes, had broken away from Judah and from the worship of God, and this psalm seems designed, by its recital of their old sins and the consequences thereof, to warn them against like sin in the future (cf. 2 Chronicles 13:1-22 .). 2 . To warn Judah. If... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:2

I will open my mouth in a parable . The facts of Israelitish history. are the "parable," the inner meaning of which it is for the intelligent to grasp. They are φωνᾶντα συνετοῖσιν . I will utter dark sayings of old (comp. Proverbs 1:6 ). Khidoth ( חידות ) are properly "riddles" (see 14:12 ). Here the idea is that God's dealings with his people had been "riddles," whereto the psalmist would give the clue (comp. Psalms 78:21 , Psalms 78:22 , Psalms 78:33 , Psalms... read more

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:6

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:3

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:4

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:5

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:6

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 78:7

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:1-8

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:1-72

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:1-72

The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 78:2

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