Psalm 78--Tell the Coming Generation

Psalm 78
English Standard Version

Tell the Coming Generation
A Maskil of Asaph.
78 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
    incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
    that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

5 He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7     so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their fathers,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
    whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
    turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God's covenant,
    but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot his works
    and the wonders that he had shown them.
12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
    in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
    and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
    and all the night with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
    and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock
    and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
    rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their heart
    by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
    “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out
    and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
    or provide meat for his people?”

21 Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath;
    a fire was kindled against Jacob;
    his anger rose against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
    and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
    and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and he rained down on them manna to eat
    and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate of the bread of the angels;
    he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
    and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained meat on them like dust,
    winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28 he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved.
30 But before they had satisfied their craving,
    while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
    and he killed the strongest of them
    and laid low the young men of Israel.

32 In spite of all this, they still sinned;
    despite his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he made their days vanish like a breath,
    and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they sought him;
    they repented and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
    the Most High God their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
    they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
    they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
    atoned for their iniquity
    and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
    and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a wind that passes and comes not again.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again
    and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power
    or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 when he performed his signs in Egypt
    and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood,
    so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
    and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the destroying locust
    and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail
    and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
    wrath, indignation, and distress,
    a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
    he did not spare them from death,
    but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
    the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep
    and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
    but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain which his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them;
    he apportioned them for a possession
    and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
    and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
    they twisted like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
    they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,
    and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his power to captivity,
    his glory to the hand of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
    and vented his wrath on his heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
    and their young women had no marriage song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
    and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
    he put them to everlasting shame.

​67 He rejected the tent of Joseph;
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
    like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He chose David his servant
    and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes he brought him
    to shepherd Jacob his people,
    Israel his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he shepherded them
    and guided them with his skillful hand.

---

We cannot just assume that the next generation will inherit our faith, understand it, and take it up as their own.  There are things that happen in every generation that are specific to them which the next generation did not experience (we may say we will "Never forget" the attack that happened on 9/11, but there is a whole generation now that wasn't alive yet.  They cannot remember and memorialize something that they didn't see and experience.  It's true they can see videos of it, but it's not the same as living through it.  The same could be said for those who lived through Pearl Harbor or any other major event.  It's true also in the spiritual world when many of us live through events that prove to us that God is real and at work in the world today and is personally at work in our lives, yet we can't pass our experiences on the next generation so they can feel them and experience them, but we can tell them stories of what we felt and experienced and they can get a sense of how real God is to us as we intentionally tell them about who He is and what He has done in our lives.

There were many such memorials set up in the Old Testament where God did something big somewhere and people change the name of the place and set up some king of monument-an altar, a well, or maybe even just a big pile of rocks that would be obvious that they didn't get there by themselves.  It would be obvious to any passerby, including children of the next generation, that this was for a reason and there was some story they needed to hear.  It was up to their parents and the elders to tell these stories to the children whether they asked the question or not.  "Do you know what happened here?  You know, this place used to be called Luz, but now it is called Bethel.  Do you know what Bethel means?  Do you know what our father Jacob saw here?"  Those are just some examples of questions that might be asked.  So many people and places changed names when they received a new identity that it was easy to tell people what happened to cause the change in identity when people and places had an encounter with the LORD.

​These experiences are not only passed on in the stories we tell, but the poetry and songs and other art that we produce.  I think that was Asaph's goal as he was a musician and choir director.  This song was a song that every generation sang, and that every generation heard, and it was an imparting of history from one generation to the next.  He specifically zooms in on the tribe of Ephraim here.  They were chosen to be leaders, but they continually led their people in the wrong direction.  We'll see that again in the future where Ephraim will be the ones to set up idols in the northern kingdom when the nation splits, and they will try to be in charge politically and spiritually (for the spiritual was only a way for them to control the people).  Most of the story here tells of the Exodus, the wandering in the wilderness (talked about in the book of Numbers), the rebellions of the people even though they knew the Law, they did not obey it, and the ways in which the people intentionally sinned against the LORD by worshiping idols and becoming much like the pagan nations that the LORD was using them to judge.

So, why is Asaph making sure to tell this story?  Because he's pretty sure that judgment is coming on the people of the LORD, and he wants them to remember that the LORD is just in His judgment.  He's been more than "longsuffering" with them, and it's time to call them to account soon.  If this story is not told the new generation might say, "We never heard anything about God being displeased with what we were doing.  We're only doing what has always been done.  We never knew any different."  Many times, that is true, but if we tell the truth about LORD and His covenant, then they would know they were engaging in acts of willful rebellion.  This is still true today that many times we must proclaim the Law anew to this generation before they understand their need for the gospel.  They must first see their depravity and brokenness before they understand that they have need of The Great Physician to heal them from the inside out.