Psalms 78:52

How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! -The Israelites in the time of the Judges tempted God by forgetting His judgments in Egypt in Israel's behalf, which are here detailed, as also His love in bringing Israel into Canaan. Verse 40. HOW OFT DID THEY PROVOKE ... AND GRIEVE HIM IN THE DESERT! - (Psalms 95:9: Isaiah 63:10.) "They vexed His Holy Spirit," Ephesians 4:30; Ezekiel 16:43, 'thou hast fretted me.' Verse 41. YEA, THEY TURNED BACK, AND TEMPTED GOD - Hebrew idiom, 'They tempted God anew.' The rebellio...

52._And he made his people to go forth like sheep. _The Psalmist again celebrates God’s fatherly love towards the chosen people, whom, as we have elsewhere remarked, he compares to a flock of sheep. They had no wisdom or power of their own to preserve and defend themselves; but God graciously condescended to perform towards them the office of a shepherd. It is a singular token of the love which he bore towards them, that he did not disdain to humble himself so far as to feed them as his own sheep. What could a multitude who had never been trained up to the art of war do against powerful and warlike enemies? So far from having learned the art of war, the people, as is well known, had been employed, when in Egypt, in mean and servile occupations, as if they had been condemned to toil under the earth in mines or in quarries....

40-55. Let not those that receive mercy from God, be thereby made bold to sin, for the mercies they receive will hasten its punishment; yet let not those who are under Divine rebukes for sin, be discouraged from repentance. The Holy One of Israel will do what is most for his own glory, and what is most for their good. Their forgetting former favours, led them to limit God for the future. God made his own people to go forth like sheep; and guided them in the wilderness, as a shepherd his flock, with all care and tenderness. Thus the true Joshua, even Jesus, brings his church out of the wilderness; but no earthly Canaan, no worldly advantages, should make us forget that the church is in the wilderness while in this world, and that there remaineth a far more glorious rest for the people of God....

BUT MADE HIS OWN PEOPLE TO GO FORTH LIKE SHEEP ... - That is, he was a shepherd to them. He defended them; provided for them; led them - as a shepherd does his flock. See the notes at Psalms 23:1....

EXPOSITION This, the first of the "historical psalms," though assigned by the rationalistic school (De Wette, Ewald, Koster, Hitzig) to a period subsequent to the Captivity, is generally allowed by more sober critics (Hengstenberg, Kay, Wordsworth, Canon Cook, Professor Alexander) to belong to the Davidical age—_i.e._ either to the reign of David or to that of Solomon. The abrupt conclusion when David's time is reached indicates that the writer cannot carry the lessons of history any further. The way in which David is spoken of (Psalms 78:72), and the (apparent) mention of the temple in Psalms 78:69, indicate that Solomon's reign was begun, and make "a few years after the accession of Solomon" the most probable date of the composition. There is thus no reason for rejecting the authors

BUT MADE HIS OWN PEOPLE TO GO FORTH LIKE SHEEP,.... The people of Israel, whom the Lord chose to be his peculiar people above all others; these he caused to go forth out of Egypt, with a mighty hand and stretched out arm; like sheep, weak, timorous, unarmed, harmless, and inoffensive, not a dog daring to move his tongue at them: the power of God was wonderfully displayed in the delivery of his poor, helpless, and oppressed people, well may it be ascribed to him; for it was not their arm, but his, that brought them out: AND GUIDED THEM IN THE WILDERNESS LIKE A FLOCK; by the hands of Moses and Aaron, Psalms 77:20, he also going before them as the Shepherd of the flock, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; he kept them together as a flock from scattering, straying, and being lost; and directed their way in the untrodden wilderness, through all the w

This story of the children of Israel, after they came out of Egypt, is like a looking-glass in which we may, with great sadness, see ourselves reflected. Psalms 78:9. _The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle._ They had every opportunity of serving their God; he had provided them with fit weapons for the war, but they were cowardly, so they «turned back in the day of battle.» Psalms 78:10. _They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them._ Let each one of us ask, «Does the psalmist describe me?» Psalms 78:12. Marvellous t

PSALM 78-83 Psalms 78 A Historical Retrospect _ 1. The call to hear (Psalms 78:1)_ 2. Ephraim's failure (Psalms 78:9) 3. His dealings in power and mercy (Psalms 78:12) 4. The continued provocation (Psalms 78:56) 5. His sovereign grace in choosing David (Psalms 78:65) This historical retrospect needs no further comment. It is God speaking to the hearts of His people through their own history from Egypt to Da

LXXVIII. THE LESSON OF ISRAEL'S HISTORY. The northern tribes have been perverse from the first. Their wickedness has culminated in the schismatical religion of the Samaritans. God, on the contrary, has chosen Zion, the sanctuary of Judah. The Ps. must have been written before John Hyrcanus (134 B.C.) destroyed the Samaritan shrine on Mt. Gerizim (p. 608). PSALMS 78:1. Introduction. PSALMS 78:2. PARABLE: rather poem. DARK SAYINGS: rather enigmas in the history of Israel and Judah which the Psalmist explains. Psalms 78:4. Point with LXX, It was not hid from their children: they told it for the generation that was, etc....

WILDERNESS. Compare Isaiah 63:11....