Psalm 78:57-67

57 but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.

59 When God heard this, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel,

60 so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had placed among men,

61 and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand.

62 He gave His people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance.

63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.

64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.

65 Then the LORD awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

66 And He smote His enemies in the hinder parts, and laid upon them a perpetual reproach.

67 Moreover He refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,

Psalm 78:57-67 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.