Psalm 78:44-54

44 and had turned their rivers into blood and their floods, that they could not drink.

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

46 He gave also their fruits unto the caterpillar and their works unto the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their wild fig trees with stones.

48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts of fire.

49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them.

50 He made a way to his anger; he did not spare their soul from death but gave their life over to the pestilence

51 and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham:

52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 And he brought them into the borders of his holiness, into this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

Psalm 78:44-54 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.