HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

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  a Gk Syr: Heb My music

  b Syr Jerome: Heb my spirit searches

  77.1–20 A prayer for help that develops into a hymn as the psalmist recalls God’s wondrous acts. To the leader. See note on 4.1–8. According to Jeduthun, i.e., in the style of one of David’s musicians (1 Chr 9.16; 16.38). Asaph. See note on 50.1–23.

  77.1–10 The prayer for help.

  77.1–3 A cry to God.

  77.2, 6 In the night is often the time of prayer. My hand is stretched out, in prayer.

  77.3 Selah. See note on 3.2.

  77.4–10 A complaint against God that centers in questions about God’s love and faithfulness.

  77.11–20 The song of praise.

  77.11–15 As a way of gaining confidence that God has not forgotten to be gracious (v. 9) but will give help in the present distress, the one praying recalls the wonderful redemptive acts of God for the people in the past.

  77.16–20 A recollection of the powerful appearance of God at the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites in their escape from Egypt.

  77.16 The waters and the very deep may be the primeval waters of chaos at the creation as well as the waters of the Red Sea.

  77.17 Your arrows, i.e., lightning bolts.

  77.19 Your way…through the sea, in leading the Israelites across the Red Sea. Your footprints were unseen refers to the appearance and work of God that is without visible proof, in the present as well as in the past.

  77.20 Moses and Aaron, the leaders of Israel during the exodus and the journey through the wilderness. See the book of Exodus.

  PSALM 78

  God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude

  A Maskil of Asaph.

  1Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

  incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

  2I will open my mouth in a parable;

  I will utter dark sayings from of old,

  3things that we have heard and known,

  that our ancestors have told us.

  4We will not hide them from their children;

  we will tell to the coming generation

  the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,

  and the wonders that he has done.

  5He established a decree in Jacob,

  and appointed a law in Israel,

  which he commanded our ancestors

  to teach to their children;

  6that the next generation might know them,

  the children yet unborn,

  and rise up and tell them to their children,

  7so that they should set their hope in God,

  and not forget the works of God,

  but keep his commandments;

  8and that they should not be like their ancestors,

  a stubborn and rebellious generation,

  a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

  whose spirit was not faithful to God.

  9The Ephraimites, armed witha the bow,

  turned back on the day of battle.

  10They did not keep God’s covenant,

  but refused to walk according to his law.

  11They forgot what he had done,

  and the miracles that he had shown them.

  12In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels

  in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

  13He divided the sea and let them pass through it,

  and made the waters stand like a heap.

  14In the daytime he led them with a cloud,

  and all night long with a fiery light.

  15He split rocks open in the wilderness,

  and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

  16He made streams come out of the rock,

  and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

  17Yet they sinned still more against him,

  rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

  18They tested God in their heart

  by demanding the food they craved.

  19They spoke against God, saying,

  “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

  20Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out

  and torrents overflowed,

  can he also give bread,

  or provide meat for his people?”

  21Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of rage;

  a fire was kindled against Jacob,

  his anger mounted against Israel,

  22because they had no faith in God,

  and did not trust his saving power.

  23Yet he commanded the skies above,

  and opened the doors of heaven;

  24he rained down on them manna to eat,

  and gave them the grain of heaven.

  25Mortals ate of the bread of angels;

  he sent them food in abundance.

  26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,

  and by his power he led out the south wind;

  27he rained flesh upon them like dust,

  winged birds like the sand of the seas;

  28he let them fall within their camp,

  all around their dwellings.

  29And they ate and were well filled,

  for he gave them what they craved.

  30But before they had satisfied their craving,

  while the food was still in their mouths,

  31the anger of God rose against them

  and he killed the strongest of them,

  and laid low the flower of Israel.

  32In spite of all this they still sinned;

  they did not believe in his wonders.

  33So he made their days vanish like a breath,

  and their years in terror.

  34When he killed them, they sought for him;

  they repented and sought God earnestly.

  35They remembered that God was their rock,

  the Most High God their redeemer.

  36But they flattered him with their mouths;

  they lied to him with their tongues.

  37Their heart was not steadfast toward him;

  they were not true to his covenant.

  38Yet he, being compassionate,

  forgave their iniquity,

  and did not destroy them;

  often he restrained his anger,

  and did not stir up all his wrath.

  39He remembered that they were but flesh,

  a wind that passes and does not come again.

  40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

  and grieved him in the desert!

  41They tested God again and again,

  and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

  42They did not keep in mind his power,

  or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;

  43when he displayed his signs in Egypt,

  and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.

  44He turned their rivers to blood,

  so that they could not drink of their streams.

  45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,

  and frogs, which destroyed them.

  46He gave their crops to the caterpillar,

  and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

  47He destroyed their vines with hail,

  and their sycamores with frost.

  48He gave over their cattle to the hail,

  and their flocks to thunderbolts.

  49He let loose on them his fierce anger,

  wrath, indignation, and distress,

  a company of destroying angels.

  50He made a path for his anger;

  he did not spare them from death,

  but gave their lives over to the plague.

  51He struck all the firstborn in Egypt,

  the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.

  52Then he led out his people like sheep,

  and guided them in the wilde
rness like a flock.

  53He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;

  but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

  54And he brought them to his holy hill,

  to the mountain that his right hand had won.

  55He drove out nations before them;

  he apportioned them for a possession

  and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

  56Yet they tested the Most High God,

  and rebelled against him.

  They did not observe his decrees,

  57but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors;

  they twisted like a treacherous bow.

  58For they provoked him to anger with their high places;

  they moved him to jealousy with their idols.

  59When God heard, he was full of wrath,

  and he utterly rejected Israel.

  60He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,

  the tent where he dwelt among mortals,

  61and delivered his power to captivity,

  his glory to the hand of the foe.

  62He gave his people to the sword,

  and vented his wrath on his heritage.

  63Fire devoured their young men,

  and their girls had no marriage song.

  64Their priests fell by the sword,

  and their widows made no lamentation.

  65Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

  like a warrior shouting because of wine.

  66He put his adversaries to rout;

  he put them to everlasting disgrace.

  67He rejected the tent of Joseph,

  he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

  68but he chose the tribe of Judah,

  Mount Zion, which he loves.

  69He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,

  like the earth, which he has founded forever.

  70He chose his servant David,

  and took him from the sheepfolds;

  71from tending the nursing ewes he brought him

  to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

  of Israel, his inheritance.

  72With upright heart he tended them,

  and guided them with skillful hand.

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  a Heb armed with shooting

  78.1–72 A historical psalm (cf. Pss 105; 106; 136) recounting the story of God’s care of Israel and the people’s response of continuing sin and faithlessness. The account goes only down to the time of David (vv. 70–71). It may be compared with Deut 32. The recital is meant to be instructive. Maskil. See note on 32.1–11. Asaph. See note on 50.1–23.

  78.1–8 Passing on God’s instruction (vv. 1–5) so that each generation may learn to trust in God and not forget the divine teaching (vv. 6–8).

  78.1 The speaker of this verse is probably some priest or teacher of wisdom.

  78.2 Parable, a poem or song that is didactic in character. Dark sayings, lit. “riddles.” The story is seen as having mysterious or enigmatic dimensions, possibly the puzzle of why Israel rebelled against God, who cared for them.

  78.5 Decree, i.e., covenant. See the term covenant in parallel with law in v. 10 as decree is in parallel with it here.

  78.8 Cf. the Deuteronomic law for punishing a “stubborn and rebellious” son in Deut 21.18–21.

  78.9–16 The people forgot all that the Lord had done for them in the deliverance from Egypt and in guiding them through the wilderness.

  78.9 It is unclear what incident is referred to here.

  78.12 Marvels in the land of Egypt, the plagues. Zoan, a city in the Nile Delta, probably the “supply city” called Rameses in Ex 1.11.

  78.13 The crossing of the Red Sea. Heap. Cf. Ex 15.8.

  78.14–16 God’s leading and care of the Israelites in the wilderness. Cf. Ex 17.1–6; Num 20.2–13.

  78.17–31 The people continued to rebel in the wilderness despite God’s provision (Ex 16–17). So God came in wrath against them.

  78.18 Tested God. See Ex 17.7.

  78.19 Spread a table. Cf. 23.5.

  78.24 Quoted in Jn 6.31. Manna, God’s provision of food in the wilderness, possibly a natural substance from the tamarisk tree released by the actions of certain insects and hardening at night (see Num 11.7–9).

  78.26–31 See Num 11.31–35.

  78.32–55 The continued sin of the people is met by divine anger, but anger tempered with compassion, so that the Lord does not destroy them despite the degree to which they test God.

  78.33–34 Probably the death of the wilderness generation (Num 14.22–24; Deut 1.34–36; 2.14–15).

  78.42–51 A recounting of the plagues as a powerful manifestation of God’s redemptive care of Israel, which the people continually forgot (Ex 7–12).

  78.43 Zoan. See note on 78.12.

  78.51 Ham, a son of Noah and traditionally viewed as the ancestor of the Egyptians according to Gen 10.6.

  78.52–55 The journey from Egypt into Canaan as a divine leading.

  78.54 Holy hill, mountain, probably the land of Canaan.

  78.56–66 The people’s sin and God’s consequent anger in the time of settlement in Canaan, the period of the judges.

  78.56 Decrees, the commandments and statutes that made up the requirements of the covenant. See note on 78.5.

  78.58 High places, sites of idolatrous worship.

  78.60 Dwelling at Shiloh, the tent shrine at the central sanctuary of Israel during the period of the judges (Josh 18.1; 1 Sam 1.9). Its destruction is mentioned by Jeremiah in Jer 7.12–15; 26.6.

  78.61 His power and his glory are references to the ark of the covenant, taken by the Philistines at the battle of Ebenezer (1 Sam 4.1–7.1). The Philistine conquest was an act of judgment upon Israel by the Lord.

  78.65–66 The defeat of the Philistines through the victories of Saul and David. The imagery is of God as a mighty warrior roused for battle and stimulated by wine.

  78.67–72 God’s choice of Zion as the place of divine dwelling and of David as king. The psalm sees the culmination of the story of Israel in the Lord’s rejection of the northern tribes (Ephraim) in favor of Judah as the locus of worship and human leadership.

  PSALM 79

  Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

  A Psalm of Asaph.

  1O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

  they have defiled your holy temple;

  they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

  2They have given the bodies of your servants

  to the birds of the air for food,

  the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.

  3They have poured out their blood like water

  all around Jerusalem,

  and there was no one to bury them.

  4We have become a taunt to our neighbors,

  mocked and derided by those around us.

  5How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?

  Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?

  6Pour out your anger on the nations

  that do not know you,

  and on the kingdoms

  that do not call on your name.

  7For they have devoured Jacob

  and laid waste his habitation.

  8Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;

  let your compassion come speedily to meet us,

  for we are brought very low.

  9Help us, O God of our salvation,

  for the glory of your name;

  deliver us, and forgive our sins,

  for your name’s sake.

  10Why should the nations say,

  “Where is their God?”

  Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants

  be known among the nations before our eyes.

  11Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;

  according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.

  12Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighborsr />
  the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!

  13Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,

  will give thanks to you forever;

  from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

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  79.1–13 A prayer by the community for help because Jerusalem and the temple have been destroyed, probably the Babylonian destruction in 587 BCE. The frequent use of your in reference to God indicates that the community sees the destruction as in some sense an attack on God and expects a divine response as a defense of God’s own reputation. Asaph. See note on 50.1–23.

  79.1–5 A complaint to God because of the destruction of Jerusalem and its people.

  79.1 Your inheritance. See Deut 32.8–9. Judah’s loss is God’s loss as well.

  79.2–3 Mass executions are reported after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, though not in Jerusalem itself (2 Kings 25.18–21). No one to bury them. See Deut 21.23; 28.26; Jer 7.33; 8.2.

  79.4 The specific character of the taunt is seen in the question in v. 10.

  79.5 How long? See note on 6.3.

  79.6–12 Petitions for deliverance of the people and destruction of the enemies.

  79.10 “Where is their God?” is the typical taunt of the enemy (cf. 42.3, 10; 115.2; Joel 2.17; Mic 7.10).

  79.12 Sevenfold designates completeness of retaliation (Gen 4.15, 24; Lev 26.21, 24, 28). Taunted you. See note on 79.10.

  79.13 An expression of confidence or vow as the community anticipates its praise of and thanksgiving to the Lord.

  PSALM 80

  Prayer for Israel’s Restoration

  To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

  2Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,

  you who lead Joseph like a flock!

  You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth

  2before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.

  Stir up your might,

  and come to save us!

  3Restore us, O God;

  let your face shine, that we may be saved.

  4O LORD God of hosts,

  how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

  5You have fed them with the bread of tears,

  and given them tears to drink in full measure.

  6You make us the scorna of

  our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.