“Truth for Truckers” *April 18, 2014* Psalm 78 “The Rebellions of Israel”
Israel’s history of folly and rebellious
backsliding is the theme of this the second longest Psalm of instruction
written by the musician Asaph. There are twenty specific acts of rebellion
during seven individual progressive cycles of rebellion recorded by the
Psalmist spanning a great portion of the history of the nation of Israel, with
emphasis directed upon their forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
After giving a strong introduction in
(v.1-8) which includes this initial call from God: ‘Give ear, O My people, to My law: incline your ears to the Words of
My mouth.’ (v.1) Asaph begins his instruction: ‘I will open
My mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old, ‘Which we have heard
and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their
children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His
strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done. 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: That the
generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who
should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God,
but keep His commandments’ (v.2-7).
Then the rebels are described: ‘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 steadfast with God.’(v.8)
1. First Rebellion (v.9-16)
2. Second Rebellion (v.17-20)
3. Third Rebellion (v.21-29)
4. Fourth Rebellion (v.30-32)
5. Fifth Rebellion (v.33-39)
6. Sixth Rebellion (v.40-55)
7. Seventh Rebellion (v.56-58)
From
(v.59-64) God delivered them over to fierce, devastating and deserved
destruction and almost as immediately as He began this unmistakable
chastisement He ‘Awaked as one out of sleep’ and smote the enemies of
Israel resulting in His eventual choosing of Judah instead of Ephraim and He
chose David who: “Fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and
guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.” (v.72) which was what they
needed, at least for a period of eighty years during the rule of David and his
son Solomon, Israel prospered and experienced a certain level of peace. This
ends the history that Asaph knew and recorded as he was the leader of the music
ministry in the Temple during David’s reign. Israel’s divided kingdom and all
of the chaos that it brought with rebellious and wicked kings was yet future.
No comments:
Post a Comment