Psalms 78:1-72 - Homilies By S. Conway

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 they had been greatly exalted of God, and by his presence amongst them were so still, let them take warning by Ephraim's sin, that they fall not in like manner.

II. ITS CONTENTS .

1 . After an exordium ( Psalms 78:1-4 ), in which he asks attention, and tells the manner of his speech, its source, and its intent;

2 . He begins his history, telling of the covenant, and wherefore God had appointed it, and what a failure on Israel's part it had been ( Psalms 78:5-8 ).

3 . Then he gives the details of his story. He charges Ephraim as being most in fault; how they broke the covenant, refused God's Law, and forgot his works—the wonders of the Exodus and of the wilderness, the pillar of fire, and the water out of the rock; how they tempted God in spite of all, and taunted him with their unbelief as to his power to provide them bread.

4 . Then the psalm recites how God was wroth with them, and gave them the flesh they lusted after, but the plague along with it, letting them eat of the fruit of their own ways ( Psalms 78:31 ).

5 . Next he tells of their miserable repentance ( Psalms 78:34-36 ), and how oft, nevertheless, God forgave them ( Psalms 78:38 , Psalms 78:39 ).

6 . Then from Psalms 78:42-58 there is a further recital of God ' s favour, and their ingratitude and disobedience. Then from Psalms 78:59-67 is told the final rejection of Ephraim, and from thence onward the choosing of Judah and of David, and the justification of that choice ( Psalms 78:72 ). But—

III. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF ALL THIS FOR US TODAY ?

1 . The fearful strength of the evil heart of unbelief. Religious privilege cannot restrain it; miracles cannot convince it; nor mercies persuade it; nor awful judgments permanently change it.

2 . Inquire whence deliverance from such evil heart may come.