Psalms 78:2

On the words parableand darksayingsor enigmassee note on Psalms 49:4. The Psalmist has no mere narrative of facts to recount, but a history full of significance for those who can penetrate its hidden meaning. It is a -parable" not for Israel only, but for every individual in the Christian Church. dark sayings of old Lessons drawn from the history of ancient times, from the Exodus, when Israel was -born" as a nation, onward. Cp. Psalms 77:5.

This verse is freely quoted by St Matthew (Matthew 13:34-35), in a form which does not agree exactly either with the Heb. or with the LXX, with reference to our Lord's teaching in parables. "All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; and without a parable spake he nothing unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,

I will open my mouth in parables;

I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world."

The words of the Psalmist are not a direct prophecy of the Messiah's method of teaching; but just as Christ as perfect Man summed up in Himself and fulfilled the manifold experiences of the people of God, so as the perfect Teacher He adopted the methods of the teachers of the old dispensation, and -fulfilled" them by carrying them to their highest perfection. As the Psalmist used the facts of Israel's history to convey the lesson which he desired to teach, so Christ used the phenomena of Nature and the experiences of Life. Cp. Introd. pp. lxxix ff.