Psalm 78 was written by Asaph, one of the prominent priests appointed by King David to minister in the tabernacle (1 Chron. 25:1-31). Asaph also played the cymbals when the Ark of the Covenant was being moved from Obed-edom to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 15:16-19; cf. 2 Sam. 6:1-23; 1 Sam. 4:1-6:21). This psalm of Asaph “reviews the turbulent adolescence of Israel from its time of slavery in Egypt to the enthronement of David. Like the parting song of Moses (Dt. 32) it is meant to search the conscience; it is history that must not repeat itself.”1 Yahweh is the faithful one in spite of the faithlessness of the Israelites.
Asaph alludes to many great events from Israelite history in Psalm 78 but these lines from the third stanza are striking:
[The Lord] divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
Then He led them with the cloud by day
And all the night with a light of fire.
He split the rocks in the wilderness
And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
He brought forth streams also from the rock
And caused waters to run down like rivers. (Psalm 78:13-16).2The Red Sea crossing is one of those grand moments which displays the salvation of God in the Old Testament. The Israelites were sojourning from Egypt to their promise land when they became cornered in between the sea and the pursuing army of Pharaoh. Had not Yahweh entered on the scene, His people would have been utterly decimated. Moses tells us that God used “the pillar of fire and cloud” to put the Egyptian army in “darkness” and “confusion” (Exod. 14:20 and 24). Yahweh even disabled their chariots and by the time the Egyptians started to say, “Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians,” it was too late (Exod. 14:25). Tons of water came crashing down.
The things Yahweh used to destroy the enemy were also used to preserve His people. He led them through the desert with “the pillar of fire and cloud” (Psa. 78:14; cf. Exod. 13:21-22; Num. 14:13-14; Neh. 9:12). In a dry and thirsty land, the Lord gave them water to drink (Psa. 78:15-16 cf. Exod. 15:22-27; 17:1-7).
The Israelites, nevertheless, were unfaithful to their God. Even a cursory readthrough of Exodus 14-17 illustrates the unfaithfulness of the people in their complaints and questions about God’s goodness. In Psalm 78, Asaph uses Ephraim, the half of the tribe of Joseph, as the representation of Israelite unfaithfulness. The psalmist declares,
The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk in His law;
They forgot His deeds
And His miracles that He had shown them.
He wrought wonders before their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan (Psa. 78:9-12).
Asaph depicts the Ephraimites as people driven by fear (turned their backs in battle), disobedience (failed to keep the covenant), rebellion (refused to walk in God’s law), and absentminded (forgetting God’s deeds and miracles). From Asaph’s standpoint these characteristics of Ephraim represented the apostasy that constantly plagued the Israelite community as a whole.
Regardless of all the gloom and doom, Asaph envisaged better things to come with the enthronement of David. The priest was convinced that God chose David to lead the people in right direction. He declares,
[The Lord] also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loved.
And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.
He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands (Psalm 78:67-72).
David was undoubtedly the quintessential king of Israel for he was a man after God’s heart (1 Sam. 13:14). He wrote most of the psalms in the Bible, and even organized the Levites to carry out all the duties involved in leading the people in the worship of the God in the tabernacle, which carried over into the worship in the temple (1 Chron. 6:31-53). David’s rule according to Asaph’s reckoning “fulfilled God’s expectations, and, hence, he is a role model for all the godly of Israel. David proven himself wise by being a man who was upright…in the midst of a stubborn people. Unlike bellicose and idolatrous Ephraim, David guided the national, political, and religious interest of Israel with ‘understanding.’”3
What we wind up getting from Psalm 78 is a wonderful portrait of divine grace in the Old Testament. God is faithful in preserving His people in spite of their unfaithfulness.
Christians can also see all the goodness Asaph saw with the enthronement of David as a pattern which would be ultimately realized in Jesus Christ. The New Testament writer Luke presents Jesus as the one whom God appointed to reign forever upon the throne of David over all the world, based upon statements made by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:30-31), the priest Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79), Peter (Acts 2:22-36), Paul (Acts 13:26-41) and James (Acts 15:13-21).
What Asaph had to say from Psalm 78 is most apropos during this Lenten season. Do we not sin like Ephraim, turning our backs in fear while spiritual warfare wages on, failing to live according to what the Good Book says, rebelliously defying what God has clearly instructed us to do, and forgetting every blessing that God pours out upon us from heaven above? It so easy for us to stay from God’s cloud in the day and pillar of fire at night leading the way to the promise land on account our own fear, disobedience, rebelliousness, and forgetfulness. These sorts of sins keep us from fulfilling God’s vocation for us being the salt and light to the world.
But, just as God raised up David to set things right in Israel, God has also sent Jesus Christ to reign upon the Davidic throne to set things right in the world. It is in Christ we can find salvation from our sin and reconnect to our God. It is Christ who saves us from our sin.
Darkness has a hold upon this world. Fallen people lie, cheat, hate, violate, and murder one another. It is unspeaking to think that devices have been invented with sole purpose to produce mass bloodshed and carnage. There are even kids who kill other kids. The people whom God created have gone astray. Christ has come to shepherd them in the way they should go.
— WGN
Notes:
- Derek Kinder, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms 73-150, 14b, ed. D.J. Wiseman (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1973), 280
- All Scripture cited from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), unless noted.
- Willem A. VanGemeren, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, 5, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991), 514
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