Psalm 78:56-72

56 But they rebelliously tested the Most High God, for they did not keep His decrees.

57 They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow.

58 They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their carved images.

59 God heard and became furious; He completely rejected Israel.

60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where He resided among men.^[a]

61 He gave up His strength^[b] to captivity and His splendor to the hand of a foe.^[c]

62 He surrendered His people to the sword because He was enraged with His heritage.

63 Fire consumed His chosen young men, and His young women had no wedding songs.^[d]

64 His priests fell by the sword, but the^[e] widows could not lament.^[f]

65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,^[g] like a warrior^[h] from the effects of wine.

66 He beat back His foes; He gave them lasting shame.

67 He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

68 He chose instead the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.

69 He built His sanctuary like the heights,^[i] like the earth that He established forever.

70 He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;

71 He brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over His people Jacob- over Israel, His inheritance.

72 He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.

Psalm 78:56-72 Meaning and Commentary

Maschil of Asaph. Or for "Asaph" {f}; a doctrinal and "instructive" psalm, as the word "Maschil" signifies; see Psalm 32:1, which was delivered to Asaph to be sung; the Targum is, "the understanding of the Holy Spirit by the hands of Asaph." Some think David was the penman of it; but from the latter part of it, in which mention is made of him, and of his government of the people of Israel, it looks as if it was wrote by another, and after his death, though not long after, since the account is carried on no further than his times; and therefore it is probable enough it was written by Asaph, the chief singer, that lived in that age: whoever was the penman of it, it is certain he was a prophet, and so was Asaph, who is called a seer, the same with a prophet, and who is said to prophesy, 2 Chronicles 29:30 and also that he represented Christ; for that the Messiah is the person that is introduced speaking in this psalm is clear from Matthew 13:34 and the whole may be considered as a discourse of his to the Jews of his time; giving them an history of the Israelites from their first coming out of Egypt to the times of David, and in it an account of the various benefits bestowed upon them, of their great ingratitude, and of the divine resentment; the design of which is to admonish and caution them against committing the like sins, lest they should be rejected of God, as their fathers were, and perish: some Jewish writers, as Arama observes, interpret this psalm of the children of Ephraim going out of Egypt before the time appointed.

Footnotes

• [a] Hb adam
• [b] See Ps 132:8 where the ark of the covenant is the ark of His strength.
• [c] 1 Sm 4
• [d] Lit virgins were not praised
• [e] Lit His
• [f] War probably prevented customary funerals.
• [g] Ps 35:23; 59:5; 121:4
• [h] Isa 42:13; 51:9
• [i] Either the heights of heaven or the mountain heights
• [j] 2 Sm 6:21; 7:8; 1 Kg 8:16