The big picture
A teacher recounts Israel's past so children will learn trust instead of repeating their ancestors' refusal. Israel, the people bound to God, is also called Jacob after its ancestor. The account moves from Egypt, the land of their earlier oppression, through the wilderness into settled life. Gifts and rescues repeatedly meet unbelief. The ending turns towards Judah, one of the people's tribes, and David, the shepherd chosen to care for them as king.
In this chapter
- Tell the Children What Was Heard Psalms 78:1-8
The teacher calls the people to listen to inherited instruction and difficult accounts from earlier days.
- Armed People Forgot the Rescuer Psalms 78:9-16
Ephraim, a tribe of Israel, is pictured turning back in battle despite carrying bows.
- Food Arrives but Unbelief Persists Psalms 78:17-31
The people continue rebelling in the wilderness and test God by demanding the food they crave.
- Mercy Remembers How Frail They Are Psalms 78:32-39
Even after these events, the people keep sinning and refusing to believe.
- Forgotten Rescue Had Reached Every Need Psalms 78:40-55
The teacher recalls further rebellion and failure to remember rescue from Egypt.
- Settled Life Repeats the Refusal Psalms 78:56-64
The people again test God and abandon his instructions, bending away like an unreliable bow.
- A Shepherd Is Chosen for the People Psalms 78:65-72
God is pictured rising with a warrior's sudden force and putting enemies to lasting shame.
Central truth
The people's repeated failure to remember God's gifts brings judgement, yet mercy continues and the account ends with a chosen shepherd for them.
Scripture beside the summary
Psalms · King James Version · 72Psalms 78:1-8
Tell the Children What Was Heard
The teacher calls the people to listen to inherited instruction and difficult accounts from earlier days. What parents told must not be hidden from children. God's strength and works are to be passed on so another generation can hope in him, remember his deeds, and keep his commands. The purpose includes a warning. Children must not copy ancestors whose stubborn hearts refused God. Teaching therefore means more than preserving names. It hands on an account intended to shape trust and conduct in lives still to come.
In everyday life
A grandmother opens an old evacuation map with her grandchildren and explains both the help received and the mistakes that delayed the family. She refuses to leave out the difficult parts merely to make the past flattering. The children trace the route and ask what happened next. Memory is being handed on with a purpose. The psalm teaches hope and obedience towards God.
Notice
Psalms 78:8 The ancestors are not offered as examples to copy in every respect. Their stubbornness is remembered so the next generation can choose a different response.
Psalms 78:1-8
King James Version1Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4We 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.
5For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
6That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
Psalms 78:9-16
Armed People Forgot the Rescuer
Ephraim, a tribe of Israel, is pictured turning back in battle despite carrying bows. The failure is linked with broken loyalty and forgotten divine works. The account recalls wonders near Zoan, a place in Egypt: sea divided for passage, cloud by day, and fire at night. God also split rocks in the wilderness and gave streams of water. These provisions had met needs no army could solve by itself. Forgetting them meant losing sight of the source of life and guidance even while outward equipment remained.
In everyday life
A trekking club prepares expensive equipment while ignoring the route notes left by the guide who brought them through the last emergency. At the first blocked path, the group falters despite its full packs. The club leader reopens the neglected notes. Possessing tools has not replaced remembered guidance. The psalm recounts God's miraculous rescue and the tribe's broken loyalty.
Notice
Psalms 78:11 Forgetting God's works is named alongside refusing his law. Lost memory and disobedience are connected, rather than treated as unrelated failures.
Psalms 78:9-16
King James Version9The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
14In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
Psalms 78:17-31
Food Arrives but Unbelief Persists
The people continue rebelling in the wilderness and test God by demanding the food they crave. They question whether he can provide bread and meat after seeing water come from rock. Anger follows their refusal to trust. Yet God sends manna from heaven and birds in such abundance that the camp is filled. They eat what they desired, but appetite has not become faith. While the food is still in their mouths, judgement strikes and leading men die. God has given freely. Yet he also judges the refusal to trust him.
In everyday life
The camp coordinator watches a meeting turn every delivered supply into a new claim that no one cares. Volunteers lay out food while the accusations continue unchanged. She records the unmet needs honestly but also names the help already present. Receiving goods has not repaired trust in the room. The psalm includes divine judgement and deaths, which this comparison does not restage.
Notice
Psalms 78:22 The stated reason for anger is lack of trust in God's saving care. Hunger alone is not presented as the offence behind the judgement.
Psalms 78:17-31
King James Version17And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
23Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
26He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
30They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
Psalms 78:32-39
Mercy Remembers How Frail They Are
Even after these events, the people keep sinning and refusing to believe. Their years pass in trouble. Death drives them to seek God and remember him as their rock and rescuer, but their mouths flatter while their hearts remain unreliable. The binding relationship is not kept faithfully. God nevertheless shows compassion, forgives, and repeatedly restrains his anger instead of destroying them all. He remembers that they are mortal flesh, like a passing breath. Mercy answers their frailty. It does not pretend that all their words of return are true.
In everyday life
A rehabilitation worker hears a client promise change after another crisis, then finds the same concealment returning. She names the broken promise clearly but keeps the appointment open, aware of how fragile his condition remains. Patience does not require calling deceit truthful. She continues offering a path towards honest help. The psalm describes God's repeated restraint of deserved anger.
Notice
Psalms 78:39 God remembers that the people are flesh. Their short and fragile life becomes part of the account of mercy, even when their own remembering has failed.
Psalms 78:32-39
King James Version32For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
33Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
35And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
36Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
Psalms 78:40-55
Forgotten Rescue Had Reached Every Need
The teacher recalls further rebellion and failure to remember rescue from Egypt. Rivers became blood; insects, frogs, hail, and destructive weather ruined crops and animals. Plague and death struck, including the firstborn in the land also linked here with Ham, an ancestral name. The account does not hide those deaths. God's people then went out like a flock, while the sea overcame enemies. He led them into the land and gave the tribes an allotted inheritance. Their forgotten past held harsh judgement and lasting care. God led them from bondage towards a home.
In everyday life
The memorial curator closes a display case after arranging records of a community's escape from violent rule. She places accounts of deaths beside records of the people who survived and rebuilt. Visitors are given time to read without a staged imitation of the suffering. The whole record resists selective memory. The psalm recounts divine plagues, rescue, and the gift of land.
Notice
Psalms 78:52 The people are led like sheep after the judgements are recalled. The account pairs immense power with the careful guidance of a vulnerable flock.
Psalms 78:40-55
King James Version40How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
44And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
45He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
48He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Psalms 78:56-64
Settled Life Repeats the Refusal
The people again test God and abandon his instructions, bending away like an unreliable bow. Worship at rival shrines and carved images provokes him. He leaves Shiloh, the town where the sacred tent stood, and allows the sign of his strength and glory into enemy hands. Defeat brings death to the people, including young men and priests. Weddings and ordinary mourning fall silent. Life in the land has not cured the old refusal. The whole people suffer. Their broken faith is linked with the loss, so defeat means more than a lost battle.
In everyday life
The village recordkeeper opens a ledger whose later pages abruptly stop recording weddings and local gatherings. The empty columns follow a period of devastation described in the surviving letters. She leaves the gaps visible rather than filling them with imagined events. Silence itself belongs to the record of loss. The psalm names divine judgement, battlefield deaths, and worship abandoned.
Notice
Psalms 78:64 Even the expected lament of widows is absent. The loss reaches the ordinary practices by which a community grieves, showing how deeply its life has broken.
Psalms 78:56-64
King James Version56Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
57But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.
62He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
63The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
Psalms 78:65-72
A Shepherd Is Chosen for the People
God is pictured rising with a warrior's sudden force and putting enemies to lasting shame. He passes over Joseph's line and Ephraim, names linked with northern tribes, and chooses Judah and Zion, Jerusalem's holy hill. His holy dwelling is made firm. David is taken from tending sheep, including ewes with young, to shepherd the people. The closing words praise both an upright heart and skilled hands. After repeated failure, God chooses a leader. Care of a flock has prepared him for a larger trust.
In everyday life
A farm cooperative asks its most careful flock keeper to lead the shared winter work. Members have watched how he notices a struggling ewe and plans feed before shortages arrive. The new role needs the same honest attention on a larger scale. He brings practical skill as well as good intentions. God chooses David to shepherd an entire people as king.
Notice
Psalms 78:72 Heart and hands are named together at the close. The desired shepherd needs both integrity and skill, rather than treating good motives or competence alone as sufficient.
Psalms 78:65-72
King James Version65Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
70He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Psalms 78:1 begins with “Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.”
Where the chapter turns
Psalms 78:38 forms a natural hinge: “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his…”
The final note
Psalms 78:72 leaves the reader with “So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words Israel, gave, turned, anger, children, fathers help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- manna
- The food God supplied to his people in the wilderness.
- testimonies
- Instructions declared by God for his people to keep.
- graven images
- Carved objects made for worship as gods.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
