Psalm 78:26 Komentář

This psalm is historical; it is a narrative of the great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, the great sins wherewith they had provoked him, and the many tokens of his displeasure they had been under for their sins. The psalmist began, in the foregoing psalm, to relate God's wonders of old, for his own encouragement in a difficult time; there he broke off abruptly, but here resumes the subject, for the edification of the church, and enlarges much upon it, showing not only how good God had been to them, which was an earnest of further finishing mercy, but how basely they had conducted themselves towards God, which justified him in correcting them as he did at this time, and forbade all complaints. Here is, I. The preface to this church history, commanding the attention of the present age to it and recommending it to the study of the generations to come (Psa 78:1-8). II. The history itself from Moses to David; it is put into a psalm or song that it might be the better remembered and transmitted to posterity, and that the singing of it might affect them with the things here related, more than they would be with a bare narrative of them. The general scope of this psalm we have (Psa 78:9-11) where notice is taken of the present rebukes they were under (Psa 78:9), the sin which brought them under those rebukes (Psa 78:10), and the mercies of God to them formerly, which aggravated that sin (Psa 78:11). As to the particulars, we are here told, 1. What wonderful works God had wrought for them in bringing them out of Egypt (Psa 78:12-16), providing for them in the wilderness (Psa 78:23-29), plaguing and ruining their enemies (Psa 78:43-53), and at length putting them in possession of the land of promise (Psa 78:54, Psa 78:55). 2. How ungrateful they were to God for his favours to them and how many and great provocations they were guilty of. How they murmured against God and distrusted him (Psa 78:17-20), and did but counterfeit repentance and submission when he punished them (Psa 78:34-37), thus grieving and tempting him (Psa 78:40-42). How they affronted God with their idolatries after they came to Canaan (Psa 78:56-58). 3. How God had justly punished them for their sins (Psa 78:21, Psa 78:22) in the wilderness, making their sin their punishment (Psa 78:29-33), and now, of late, when the ark was taken by the Philistines (Psa 78:59-64). 4. How graciously God had spared them and returned in mercy to them, notwithstanding their provocations. He had forgiven them formerly (Psa 78:38, Psa 78:39), and now, of late, had removed the judgments they had brought upon themselves, and brought them under a happy establishment both in church and state (Psa 78:65-72). As the general scope of this psalm may be of use to us in the singing of it, to put us upon recollecting what God has done for us and for his church formerly, and what we have done against him, so the particulars also may be of use to us, for warning against those sins of unbelief and ingratitude which Israel of old was notoriously guilty of, and the record of which was preserved for our learning. "These things happened unto them for ensamples," Co1 10:11; Heb 4:11. Maschil of Asaph.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 78 Maschil of Asaph. Or for "Asaph" (f); a doctrinal and "instructive" psalm, as the word "Maschil" signifies; see Psa 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, Ch2 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 Mat 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.

He rained flesh also upon them as dust,.... By "flesh" is meant fowl, as the following clause shows; for there is flesh of birds, as well as of other creatures, see Co1 15:39 and the quails which are here meant may be very fitly called flesh, since they are, for their size, a very plump, fat, and fleshy bird: and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea; or "fowl of wing" (h): winged fowls, so the Targum; fowl that flies; and therefore it was the more remarkable that these should be rained and fall, and be taken by the Israelites; and which fell in great numbers, as is signified by these phrases, the dust and the sand of the sea; for there fell enough to feed six hundred thousand men, beside women and children, for a month together; they lay in heaps, two cubits high, on one another, and everyone that gathered them brought in ten homers; see Num 11:19, which is the history referred to; and quails are used to fly together in large bodies; and sometimes, as Pliny (i) relates, will light on ships at sea, and sink them with their numbers. Some think one sort of locusts is meant, which were used for food, and was very delicious food; and the circumstances of bringing them with an east or southeast wind, their falling in heaps, and being gathered in bushels, and spread about to be dried in the sun, seem to favour such a sense; See Gill on Num 11:19; see Gill on Num 11:20; see Gill on Num 11:21; see Gill on Num 11:31; see Gill on Num 11:32. The ancients interpret this mystically of the flesh of Christ, whose flesh is meat indeed, delicious food for faith, as the quails were a rich food; and as they were rained down from heaven, so Christ is the bread of life which came down from heaven, and the bread he gave for the life of the world was his flesh: and as these came up, however the first quails, in the evening, Exo 16:13, so Christ came in the flesh, in the evening or end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; to which may be added, that these creatures sit upon their young, and cherish and protect them, as an hen her chickens (k) with which compare Mat 23:37, but seeing the quails are never called spiritual meat, as the manna is, Co1 10:3, but were given in wrath and judgment, they are rather an emblem of riches, or worldly goods, things given to carnal men; these are of God, as the quails were, and are by some persons enjoyed without care or trouble, as these were; their meat, as it is sometimes said, falls into their mouth, as these quails did into the mouths of the Israelites, as it were; and are in wrath, their blessings are cursed to them, and, while they have a great affluence of worldly things, have leanness in their souls, as the Israelites now had, Psa 106:15, moreover, as these were feathered or winged fowl, so riches have wings, and sometimes flee away, and are very uncertain things to trust to, Pro 23:5. (h) "volucres alatas", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. (i) Hist. l. 10. c. 23. (k) Arist. de Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 8.

Lastly, when both these things have been briefly touched, afterwards he is evidently following out the order of the narrative. "Because they believed not in God, nor hoped in His saving health" [Psalm 78:22]. For when he had told why fire was lighted in Jacob, and anger went up upon Israel, that is to say, "because they believed not in God, nor hoped in His saving health:" immediately subjoining the evident blessings for which they were ungrateful, he says, "and He commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of Heaven" [Psalm 78:23]. "And He rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them bread of Heaven" [Psalm 78:24]. "Bread of angels man did eat: dainties He sent them in abundance" [Psalm 78:25]. He brought over the South Wind from Heaven, and in His virtue He led in the South West Wind [Psalm 78:26]. "And He rained upon them fleshes like dust, and winged fowls like the sand of the sea" [Psalm 78:27]. "And they fell in the midst of their camp, around their tabernacles" [Psalm 78:28]. "And they ate and were filled exceedingly; and their desire He brought to them: they were not deprived of their desire" [Psalm 78:29]. Behold why He had delayed. But what He had delayed let us hear. "Yet the morsel was in their mouths, and the anger of God came down upon them" [Psalm 78:30]. Behold what He had delayed. For before "He delayed:" and afterwards, "fire was lighted in Jacob and anger went up upon Israel." He had delayed therefore in order that He might first do what they had believed that He could not do, and then might bring upon them what they deserved to suffer. For if they placed their hope in God, not only would their desires of the flesh but also those of the spirit have been fulfilled. For he that..."opened the doors of Heaven, and rained upon them manna to eat," that He might fill the unbelieving, is not without power to give to believers Himself the true Bread from Heaven, which the manna did signify: which is indeed the food of Angels, whom being incorruptible the Word of God does incorruptibly feed: the which in order that man might eat, He became flesh, and dwelled in us. [John 1:44] For Himself the Bread by means of the Evangelical clouds is being rained over the whole world, and, the hearts of preachers like heavenly doors, being opened, is being preached not to a murmuring and tempting synagogue, but to a Church believing and putting hope in Him. He is able also to feed the feeble faith of such as tempt not, but believe, with the signs of words uttered by the flesh and speeding through the air, as though it were fowls: not however with such as come from the north, where cold and mist do prevail, that is to say, eloquence which is pleasing to this world, but by bringing over the South Wind from Heaven; whither, except to the earth? In order that they who are feeble in faith, by hearing things earthly may be nourished up to receive things heavenly....

This Psalm, like the seventy-fourth, probably depicts the desolations of the Chaldeans (Jer 52:12-24). It comprises the usual complaint, prayer, and promised thanks for relief. (Psa 79:1-13) (Compare Psa 74:2-7).

Passing over to the giving of the quails, the poet is thinking chiefly of the first occasion mentioned in Ex. 16, which directly preceded the giving of the manna. But the description follows the second: יסּע (He caused to depart, set out) after Num 11:31. "East" and "south" belong together: it was a south-east wind from the Aelanitic Gulf. "To rain down" is a figurative expression for a plentiful giving of dispensing from above. "Its camp, its tents," are those of Israel, Num 11:31, cf. Exo 16:13. The תּעוה, occurring twice, Psa 78:29-30 (of the object of strong desire, as in Psa 21:3), points to Kibroth-hattaavah, the scene of this carnal lusting; הביא is the transitive of the בּוא in Pro 13:12. In Psa 78:30-31 even in the construction the poet closely follows Num 11:33 (cf. also זרוּ with לזרא, aversion, loathing, Num 11:20). The Waw unites what takes place simultaneously; a construction which presents the advantage of being able to give special prominence to the subject. The wrath of God consisted in the breaking out of a sickness which was the result of immoderate indulgence, and to which even the best-nourished and most youthfully vigorous fell a prey. When the poet goes on in Psa 78:32 to say that in spite of these visitations (בּכל־זאת) they went on sinning, he has chiefly before his mind the outbreak of "fat" rebelliousness after the return of the spies, cf. Psa 78:32 with Num 14:11. And Psa 78:33 refers to the judgment of death in the wilderness threatened at that time to all who had come out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward (Num 14:28-34). Their life devoted to death vanished from that time onwards בּהבל, in breath-like instability, and בּבּהלה, in undurable precipitancy; the mode of expression in Psa 31:11; Job 36:1 suggests to the poet an expressive play of words. When now a special judgment suddenly and violently thinned the generation that otherwise was dying off, as in Num 21:6., then they inquired after Him, they again sought His favour, those who were still preserved in the midst of this dying again remembered the God who had proved Himself to be a "Rock" (Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18, Deu 32:37) and to be a "Redeemer" (Gen 48:16) to them. And what next? Psa 78:36-37 (Note: According to the reckoning of the Masora this Psa 78:36 is the middle verse of the 2527 verses of the Psalter (Buxtorf, Tiberias, 1620, p. 133).) tell us what effect they gave to this disposition to return to God. They appeased Him with their mouth, is meant to say: they sought to win Him over to themselves by fair speeches, inasmuch as they thus anthropopathically conceived of God, and with their tongue they played the hypocrite to Him; their heart, however, was not sincere towards Him (עם like את in Psa 78:8), i.e., not directed straight towards Him, and they proved themselves not stedfast (πιστοί, or properly βέβαιοι) in their covenant-relationship to Him.