Psalm 78:49-59

49 He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying 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 all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.

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

53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54 And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.

55 He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56 Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees,

57 but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.

58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

59 When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.

Psalm 78:49-59 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.