Psalm 78:42-52

42 They ¹did not remember his power^[a] or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

43 ²when he performed his ³signs in Egypt and his ⁴marvels in ⁵the fields of Zoan.

44 He ⁶turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.

45 He sent among them swarms of ⁷flies, which devoured them, and ⁸frogs, which destroyed them.

46 He gave their crops to ⁹the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with ¹⁰hail and their sycamores with frost.

48 He gave over their ¹¹cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.

49 He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of ¹²destroying 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 ¹³firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of ¹⁴Ham.

52 Then he led out his people ¹⁵like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

Psalm 78:42-52 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.

Cross References

• 1. 78:42 Judg. 8:34
• 2. 78:43 For ver. 43-51, see Ps. 105:27-36
• 3. 78:43 Ex. 7:3; [Ps. 106:22]; Acts 7:36
• 4. 78:43 Ex. 4:21; 11:9, 10
• 5. 78:43 See ver. 12
• 6. 78:44 See Ex. 7:17-24
• 7. 78:45 See Ex. 8:21-24
• 8. 78:45 See Ex. 8:2-14
• 9. 78:46 See Ex. 10:12-15
• 10. 78:47 See Ex. 9:23-25
• 11. 78:48 See Ex. 9:19-21
• 12. 78:49 Ex. 12:13, 23; [2 Sam. 24:16]
• 13. 78:51 Ex. 12:29; [Ps. 105:36; 135:8; 136:10]
• 14. 78:51 Ps. 105:23, 27; 106:22
• 15. 78:52 See Ps. 77:20

Footnotes

• [a] 78:42 Hebrew 'hand'