Psalm 78:1-8

Tell the Coming Generation

1 ¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

2 ²I will open my mouth ³in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,

3 things that we have heard and known, that our ⁴fathers have told us.

4 We will not ⁵hide them from their children, but ⁶tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and ⁷the wonders that he has done.

5 He established ⁸a testimony in ⁹Jacob and appointed a law in ¹⁰Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

6 that ¹¹the 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 ¹²the works of God, but ¹³keep his commandments;

8 and that they should not be ¹⁴like their fathers, ¹⁵a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation ¹⁶whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Psalm 78:1-8 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. 78:1 [Isa. 51:4]; See Ps. 49:1; 50:7
• 2. 78:2 Cited Matt. 13:35; See Ps. 49:4
• 3. 78:2 [Num. 21:27]
• 4. 78:3 See Ps. 44:1
• 5. 78:4 Job 15:18
• 6. 78:4 [Ex. 12:26, 27; 13:8, 14; Deut. 11:19; Josh. 4:6, 7; Joel 1:3]
• 7. 78:4 ver. 11, 32
• 8. 78:5 Ps. 19:7; [Ps. 81:5]
• 9. 78:5 Ps. 147:19
• 10. 78:5 Ps. 147:19
• 11. 78:6 ver. 4; Ps. 102:18
• 12. 78:7 Ps. 77:12
• 13. 78:7 Ps. 105:45
• 14. 78:8 2 Kgs. 17:14; 2 Chr. 30:7; Ezek. 20:18
• 15. 78:8 Ex. 32:9; 33:3; Deut. 9:7, 24; 31:27; Jer. 5:23
• 16. 78:8 ver. 37; Job 11:13