Month: February 2025

Psalm 78:72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

“God chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds (v. 70).” David responded to the Lord’s call upon his life by feeding and guiding the people of the nation of Israel. David is called a “man after God’s own heart.” David was able to do such an effective and powerful job of feeding and guiding because he trusted in the Lord to give him the wisdom, strength and leadership. God did the work through David, for He found a willing instrument.

We, too, can do a good job of feeding and guiding those we are responsible for with humble trust in God instead of prideful trust in self. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding [Proverbs 3:5].” We need God’s help more than we might like to admit, but when we in humble faith ask for help we believe God will grant it.

Psalm 78:56-58 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: But turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

After all that the Lord had miraculously done for His people delivering them in the Exodus and providing for them in the wilderness, yet they still broke the First Commandment of the Covenant over and over. They tempted Him by turning away from the only true God, provoking Him to anger and jealousy by forgetting God, and dealing unfaithfully with the covenant promise.

It is remarkable that saved children of God would act that way, even after rehearsing the Gospel of God’s love and salvation. But we are also incorrigible sinners with embedded unbelief and rebellion seated deep within. We are in desperate and constant need of the gospel of forgiveness and life. Therefore, we remind ourselves regularly of the gospel of grace and continual restoration to God’s favor.

We must admit and confess that we ever provoke God to anger and jealousy by our sin and unbelief. We confess Jesus as Lord and receive forgiveness and life.

Psalm 78:40-42 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

Too often God’s people forget God and what He did for them. They provoke Him with blame for their condition. They grieve Him with unbelief. They turn away from Him to other gods. They limit God in their minds. They do not remember the works of God for their salvation.

The Psalmist is talking about believers here, redeemed children of God, not pagan unbelievers, whom we do not expect to know the Lord. And the Lord is speaking also to us NT believers who “grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” We who are saved saints are still also sinners, who forget God in unbelief and grieve the Spirit with our sinful words and actions. We need constant hearing and reminding of the Gospel of Salvation, for it is easy to provoke God and grieve the Spirit with doubt, pride and unbelief.

These things were written for our learning. Therefore we respond to the Gospel with lives of daily repentance and faith.

Psalm 78:36-37 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

The hypocrite responds to the Lord by flattering and lying with their tongues, while their hearts are far from Him. Their heart was not right with God, nor were they faithful to His covenant. This is the classic hypocrite that Jesus excoriates in the NT.

We, as outwardly religious people, learn to worship and say the right things, but the heart is not in agreement. We are not steadfast in the covenant He made with us by breaking the Commandments to love God and love neighbor. Yet we know how to act pious for show even though the heart is not right.

God loves the heart that is right with Him through a God-wrought faith in Jesus through the Gospel. The tongue will honestly follow a heart that is cleansed, forgiven and right with God. We are not steadfast in His covenant, but Jesus is. Through the shed blood of Christ God makes a New Covenant with us. When we repent of our own works and believe the gospel our tongue matches our heart. We are still lying hypocrites, but the Spirit is in the process of sanctification by bringing our tongue in line with our heart. Daily repentance, confession, faith and remembrance of Baptism prevents hypocrisy.

Psalm 78:34-35 When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

For rebelling and turning away from God, the Lord sent enemies and serpents and all kinds of troubles upon His people. He slew them. When they got into troubles, they repented and called upon the Lord. They sought Him, returned, enquired after God and remembered. The history of Israel is a history of forgetting God, suffering for it, and remembering God again.

God is love, and in His mercy He “kills and makes alive.” Job says, “though He slay me, yet will I serve Him.” Mercifully He puts sin, rebellion, evil, and death to death, and He gives new life. He did this at the cross where He slew Sin, Death, and the power of the Devil in His Son. Then He raised Him up to grace us with forgiveness, life and salvation.

God graciously “slays” us, letting us go through hard times because of sin. Then He resurrects us to new life when we return, repent and remember. Daily repentance and forgiveness is the hallmark of the Christian life. We daily remember our Baptism in which the old man drowns and dies and the new man arises to new life.

Jesus was slain for us and took away all the sin and evil in us. He rose to grant us a new holy life that lives before God in righteousness, innocence and blessedness forever.

Psalm 78:22, 32 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation…For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

It seems amazing to us that God’s saved people would turn so quickly and believe not in God nor trust in his salvation. The Lord had miraculously delivered them in the Exodus, appeared on the mountain, and miraculously provided for them in the desert. Yet they still did not believe or trust, which is a sin. What more could He have done for His people to convince them to trust Him? Because of unbelief they suffered countless troubles.

The human in us says, “I’ll believe God when I see it. I don’t see Him so I don’t believe Him.” We are like Doubting Thomas, not knowing that believing is seeing, for that one is blessed who has not seen Me and yet has believed. The truth is that the unbelief in us does not see. I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Christ or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit calls me by the Gospel. The Spirit, through the Word, reveals God to us and convinces us of His Love. For this work of faith and life worked in us by the Spirit we can only respond with thanks and joy.

Such faith is as close to us as our heart and lips, but we realize that unbelief is also close to us and a part of our lives as sinners. In a sense, we live on the knife edge of faith and unbelief all the time. For this reason we need to hear the Gospel daily and weekly, and, by the presence of the Spirit and the Word, we maintain a life of faith and spiritual sight. We have an amazing God who loves us.

Psalm 78:17-19 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

After God’s miraculous Deliverance, Protection, and Provision for His people in the Exodus and in the wilderness, and after bringing water out of the rock, they sinned yer more against God. They had already complained in unbelief and rebellion, and the Lord provided water, manna, and quail. Still they provoked, tempted, and spoke against God.

The sin in our hearts is so deep that even after we have received abundant grace and blessings we still sin more, want more, and blame God when everything is not right. Our sinful response to God’s salvation is to continue living thankless and selfish lives, complaining instead of thanking. It seems that no matter how kind and merciful God is, our sinful hearts still find things to complain about.

It is basic to our faith to believe that God is good, all the time. As Satan tempted Adam and Eve to disbelieve God’s full goodness, so we are tempted to think that God is not always so good as they say. It is hard to believe in and surrender to a God that we do not believe is perfectly good to us, but easy to entrust ourselves to a God we know to be good. For this reason we need to hear the gospel regularly and often to be believing and content.

Psalm 78:10-11 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shewed rhem.

Instead of responding to God’s great works of salvation with faith and obedient thanksgiving, the people disobeyed God and did not keep His covenant. Instead of remembering God’s work, His people forgot God and lived their own way.

It seems amazing that the delivered people would so soon forget God and His wonderful works of salvation, but it reveals to us just how sinful and depraved we are as sinners. The warning is meant for us that we might daily and weekly remember how rotten and corrupt we are. And we need constant reminders of the amazing grace, the undeserved mercy, and the unconditional love of God given to us in the Gospel of Christ.

The cross is to be always and ever before our eyes that we might remember God and His work of salvation at the cross and live a life of faith.

Psalm 78:4, 7 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done….That they might set, their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

The response of God’s people to the words and works of God (to Law and Gospel) is to “tell everyone what He has done,” and to make sure that succeeding generations hear and know the praises, strength, and works of God. The result will be that they will set their hope in God, remember His wonderful works, and desire to do His will.

For this purpose the Christian Church has established worship services, schools, and classes to show the works of God. Those who are taught will then hope in God, not forget, and keep His commandments. We may never see in this lifetime how important and vital is the work of the church, but one day we will see and rejoice.

Psalm 78:1-3 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: which we have heard and known, which our fathers have told us.

The most vital response we can make to God is to listen to Him and His words. With the help of God’s Spirit we will be able to understand mysteries, which we can’t know by ourselves. We shall hear and respond to the Word of God, which our fathers have handed down to us from Moses. We hear it and know it when we listen.

The fathers gave the words of God and the stories of His miraculous deliverances. We hear them, take them to heart, and apply them to our hearts. We today have the Bible which summarizes and encapsulates the words God wants us to hear, believe, and respond to. Its words and stories are written for our learning to live by and pass on to future generations.