Psalms 78:59

59 God heard, and forsook; and brought to nought Israel greatly. (God saw and heard all of this; and then he abandoned them, and he brought down Israel into nothing.)

Psalms 78:59 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 78:59

When God heard this
Their building high places, and sacrificing on them, their making and worshipping graven images, and the language which such actions spoke; who also heard what they said to their idols, when they paid their devotion to them, acknowledging them to be their gods; he took notice of and observed all this, for nothing could pass his all seeing eye and hearing ear; and who acted as a righteous Judge, first heard, and then proceeded to give and execute the sentence; by which he let them know that he did hear and observe what they said and did:

he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel;
not his remnant among them, according to the election of grace, which he in all ages had; for this would be contrary to his everlasting love, which always continues; to the immutability of his nature, who changes not; to his Word, who says, fury is not in me; and to his oath, who hath sworn that he will not be wroth with his people: he may indeed, and does, abhor their sins, but not their persons; he may seem to them and others, in the dispensations of his providence, to be wroth with them and abhor them; but does not in reality. This is to be understood of the bulk of the people in general, and is to be explained and illustrated by those several instances of his displeasure with them in the times of the judges; when his anger waxed hot against them for their idolatries and other sins, and he delivered them up into the hands of their enemies, ( Judges 3:7 Judges 3:8 Judges 3:12-14 ) ( Judges 4:1 Judges 4:2 ) ( 10:6-8 ) ( 13:1 ) .

Psalms 78:59 In-Context

57 And they turned away themselves, and they kept not covenant; as their fathers, (they) were turned into a shrewd bow. (And they turned themselves away/And they rebelled, and they did not obey the covenant; like their forefathers, they were bent like a crooked bow.)

58 They stirred him into ire in their little hills; and they stirred him to indignation in their graven images. (They stirred him to anger with their high places, or their hill shrines; and they stirred him to indignation with their carved images, or their idols.)

59 God heard, and forsook; and brought to nought Israel greatly. (God saw and heard all of this; and then he abandoned them, and he brought down Israel into nothing.)

60 And he putted away the tabernacle of Shiloh; his tabernacle in which he dwelled among men. (And he deserted his Tabernacle at Shiloh; the Tent in which he lived among his people.)

61 And he betook the virtue of them into captivity; and the fairness of them into the hands of the enemy. (And he delivered the symbol of his strength, that is, the Ark of the Covenant, into captivity; yea, the symbol of his beauty, or of his glory, into the hands of the enemy.)