For Future Generations – Part 1
Psalms 78 (1-39)
July 12, 2020
We’ve certainly seen in our day an all-out assault on history.
• It is being rewritten
• It is being wiped clean
• It is being ignored
• It is being destroyed
Those who continually attack our history and historical reminders
Do so because they view it as unfavorable or oppressive.
And to be honest, history is filled with terrible and tragic realities
Because history is filled with the exploits of sinful men.
• No one thinks the Civil War was a good thing.
• No one thinks slavery was a good thing.
• No one thinks the Holocaust was a good thing.
History is filled with the exploits, mistakes, and failures of sinful men.
The reason we teach history
Is so that we can learn from the mistakes of others
And not make those same mistakes ourselves.
George Santayana was the first to coin the phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Even in a religious sense,
We certainly must understand the importance of history.
Stephen Nichols was asked in a podcast why Christians should care about church history?
He answered:
To answer this question, let’s quote Spurgeon. Spurgeon made a comment once; he was talking about using commentaries, pastors who sort of relied on just the Holy Spirit to enlighten them about the biblical texts without using commentaries. And he made this statement: “I find it interesting that someone [who] thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit teaches them, thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit teaches others also.” When I first saw that quote, I thought, let’s apply that to church history. Here’s a sort of a riff on Spurgeon’s quote: “I find it interesting that Christians in the twenty-first century think so little of what the Holy Spirit has taught the church for the last twenty centuries.” What we’re saying when we say, “We don’t need church history,” is we’re basically saying, “We don’t really have anything to learn from the last two thousand years of the church.” And I don’t think anybody wants to make that statement. None of us are that arrogant, right? And we recognize how much we need each other to live the Christian life.
Well, let’s just expand that “each other” and add the past. And what we find is these are people, they’re not just dictionary definitions. These were husbands, these were sons, and these were daughters and wives. And these were people who are trying to be faithful disciples of Christ in their context. And they left behind the legacy of their lives. They left behind the legacy of their books, their letters, their confessions and catechisms and creeds. All of these are helpful resources. They never take the place of Scripture; they never supplant Scripture. Scripture alone is our authority, but they certainly can help us understand what it means to be a Christian in our context.
And you know, here’s the other thing: we learn from our mistakes, don’t we? And so sometimes we learn more from our mistakes. And the same is true of church history. We can also learn from church history’s mistakes.
You don’t need church history to get into heaven. All you need is Christ for that. But I think we are unnecessarily cutting ourselves off from help in living the Christian life by ignoring church history. Why is it important? I think it’ll help you in your Christian walk and it will help you be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast-episodes/why-is-church-history-important
Certainly you understand the reality that history is a great teacher;
Even the bad stuff; even the negative stuff.
We learn from all of it.
This concept is the very driving passion behind the 78th Psalm.
If you’ll look with me at the first 8 verses you’ll see exactly what I mean.
READ 1-8
Asaph begins with a call to his contemporaries
To first of all be a student of the history of their nation.
(1-3) “Listen, O my people, to my instruction; 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, And our fathers have told us.”
• You know that the history of Israel was largely passed down orally from one generation to the next.
• Asaph recounts having heard from his father the history of Israel,
• And now is making sure that his contemporaries are well aware of it too.
He is going to speak “in a parable”
• Not in a cryptic sense like our Lord might have
• But rather in a story-telling sense
He is going to “utter dark sayings of old”
• Indicating that he’s not going to leave out the unfavorable parts
• Kings were notorious in ancient times for controlling what history was recorded and inevitably they made themselves look better.
• Asaph won’t do that.
• He’s going to tell the full raw story.
He’s simply going to tell the accurate story of history.
BUT FOR A PURPOSE.
(4) “We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”
Asaph is making sure the current generation knows their history
That they might tell it to the next generation.
It is important that these truths about the history of Israel are not lost.
Specifically, Asaph says “the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”
Asaph wants to tell Israel’s story
Because that is the best way to tell God’s story.
It would be really hard to know how awesome God is,
If we never had the history of Israel.
People today are largely bored with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.
People tend to lightly read or shrug off those Old Testament books
Which contain so much history.
But if you had no access to those stories
Can you see how little you would know about God?
Imagine having never heard
• The story of the great flood or Sodom and Gomorrah
• Or the Exodus or the wilderness wanderings
• Or the conquest or David and Goliath, etc.
To tell the history of Israel is at the same time tell of the greatness of God
And so Asaph is adamant that it be learned and shared.
But that’s not the only reason.
He also wants it taught because God commanded it to be taught.
(5-6) “For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children,”
Perhaps you remember the primary command that came from the mouth of Moses as the children of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land.
TURN TO: DEUTERONOMY 6:1-15
• That was the whole idea.
• Teach your children about God.
• Teach them all about what God has done in your midst.
• Don’t let them forget.
And so Asaph is recording here a song of Israel’s history.
It is an honest and telling story of REBELLION and FAILURE.
But it is a necessary story for every generation to learn.
And Asaph says WHY:
(7-8) “That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.”
Asaph is honest about the generation of their fathers.
• They did not keep God’s commandments.
• They were stubborn and rebellious.
• They did not prepare their heart to follow God.
• Their spirit was not faithful to God.
They were a bad example of true devotion.
But we dare not sweep it under the rug.
• We dare not erase their mistakes.
• We dare not tear down their markers.
• We dare not remove their memory.
Instead we read of their failures, we tell of their mistakes
And we learn from them.
That is Asaph’s purpose in Psalms 78.
And just to make sure you understand where you fit in this.
After all, you are not Israel.
You are Gentiles and so may wonder why Jewish history matters so much.
Paul wrote a letter to a Gentile church, and here is what he said:
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
The history of Israel is still very important even to Gentiles
Because the history of Israel is in many ways the history of God.
• By watching Israel we learn what God loves and what God hates.
• By watching Israel we learn what God rewards and what God punishes.
• By watching Israel we learn what God expects and what grieves God.
Their history is also very important to us.
So if you want just a brief and quick plug here…
READ YOUR OLD TESTAMENT.
• These aren’t just stories that you aren’t supposed to connect with since you aren’t Jewish.
• These are stories about the God who saved you and how He related to His people throughout the centuries.
There is much to learn there.
And tonight we sit under the instruction of Asaph
As he gives us a lesson in the history of Israel
• That we might learn to put our confidence in God,
• To keep His commandments,
• To not be stubborn or rebellious, but to be faithful.
To try to make the Psalm a little easier to follow I’ve sort of lumped it into 6 points
That Asaph is bringing to the forefront about Israel.
No doubt if we were to go and search out each story he references individually we could camp in Psalms 78 almost indefinitely, but just as Asaph sort of retells these stories in parabolic form, we’re going to do the same and pick up on the main points that Asaph seems to be bringing to the table.
#1 THE UNWARRANTED REBELLION OF EPHRAIM
Psalms 78:9-16
Asaph begins here in speaking of “the sons of Ephraim”
You know Ephraim to have been one of Joseph’s sons
(the other being Manasseh).
• Ephraim is a title simply representing Israel.
• Hosea uses it like this most often.
And here Asaph says:
“The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.”
It is somewhat interesting that Asaph is writing about Israel’s history
And the first thing he mentions is an event that can’t be found in the O.T.
It is likely that rather Asaph here is speaking metaphorically.
We might say it like this: “Ephraim had great strength and resources, but they blew it when it counted.”
• They were equipped with skill and strength.
• They were equipped with weapons and bows.
• But when the battle was upon them, they were not help.
In other words Ephraim was a failure.
Israel had opportunities but continually blew it.
Asaph’s historical account jumps right out of the gate with a reminder that
The history of Israel is largely a history of failure.
• It is a history of wasted opportunity.
• It is a history of blown chances.
• It is a history of failure and let down.
And Asaph gives the reason.
(10-11) “They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law; They forgot His deeds And His miracles that He had shown them.”
This is what Asaph meant when he spoke of Ephraim turning back.
When given the opportunity to go forward in faithfulness and obedience
Their track record is just the opposite.
• “They did not keep the covenant of God”
• “[They] refused to walk in His law”
• “They forgot His deeds and His miracles that He had shown them.”
God had equipped them.
God had given them every reason to trust Him.
God had given them every proof needed that they should be ok.
But despite the equipping of God they turned away.
WHAT WAS THIS GREAT REASON THEY HAD FOR TRUSTING GOD?
It was His great salvation at the Red Sea.
(12-16) “He wrought wonders before their fathers In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, And He made the waters stand up like a heap. Then He led them with the cloud by day And all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock And caused waters to run down like rivers.”
We actually read that story just last week.
• Israel was trapped with the sea on one side and Egypt on the other.
• And God worked a miracle like no one had ever seen before.
• He parted the Red Sea.
• He made the ground below hard enough to walk on.
• He saved Israel.
And that is not all.
• He also led them with a “cloud by day and all the night with a light of fire”
And that is not all.
• When they were thirsty in the desert:
• “He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.”
Did you realize that about the water from the rock?
• I don’t know what you visualize when you read that story.
• If perhaps you see something like a water fountain where they all got a drink
and filled up their canteens.
No, God split open a rock and it made a river for them.
It was a river that followed them and flowed beside them.
It wasn’t just water for a day, it was water for an extended period of time.
That is why in the New Testament that river is compared to Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:4 “and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”
• They had continual living water which was a picture of the salvation of God.
• God was giving them the water of life continually.
• Just like we get it from Jesus.
His salvation and provision was remarkable in the wilderness.
SO HEAR ASAPH’S FIRST POINT.
• God saved Israel from the Egyptians by miraculously parting the Red Sea.
• God then led them under a cloud by day and with a light of fire at night.
• God then supernaturally provided living water from a rock for them to never thirst in the wilderness.
He saved them.
He guided them.
He provided for them.
And in return Asaph noted that “they did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law; they forgot His deeds and His miracles that He had shown them.”
Their history was one of: UNWARRANTED REBELLION
What reason did they have to turn on God?
What reason did they have to fail to trust Him?
NONE.
It was surely a black mark in their history books,
But how important it is FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS to learn that.
How important it is FOR US to learn that.
• For us to contemplate the great salvation of God on our behalf.
• For us to contemplate the great guidance of God in our life.
• For us to contemplate the great provision of God through Christ in our life.
And then to ask if any of that warrants our failure to trust Him now?
Or to ask if any of that warrants our stubborn rebellion to His commands?
Certainly we must learn from the mistakes of Israel
So that we do not make the same.
The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim.
#2 THE UNTOLERATED GRUMBLING OF ISRAEL
Psalms 78:17-33
The crowd should rightly be horrified at the rebellion they just heard.
And yet Asaph would respond with, “I’m just getting started.”
(17) “Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.”
Asaph picks back up with the miraculous provision of water.
And then points out how ungrateful Israel was for it.
“Yet they still continued to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.”
Think about THE ABSURDITY of that statement for a moment.
• Here was a massive throng of people wandering in the desert.
• Their only source of life was the fact that God had supernaturally provided a river of life for them drink from.
• And yet their decision, in such a dependent state, is to rebel against the God who is providing for them?
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…
And they didn’t just rebel:
(18) “And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? “Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?”
Here is a people in the desert,
Living only on the supernatural water that God is providing
AND THE FIRST THING THEY DO IS TAUNT HIM.
• “Sure You can give water, but if You were any kind of God at all, You’d give bread or meat.”
• “What’s the matter are You too weak to give food?”
• “Are You the God of water only?”
It is the height of disrespect.
In fact, if you’ll notice it, their grumbling was the VERY LANGUAGE OF SATAN.
Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Now, if you’ll remember,
You know that their hunger was INTENTIONAL on the part of God.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”
• Their momentary hunger was all part of God’s plan.
• He let them get hungry so that He could provide and so that they would come to value His presence over bread.
• He wanted them to see that He could meet their needs so that they would not consume themselves with earthly things, but with spiritual things.
People who don’t think God provides
Spend all their time trying to obtain worldly things,
But people who see God as their provision
Are free to seek spiritual things.
You recognize that too don’t you?
Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Jesus taught the same.
God will provide your needs, you focus on the kingdom.
That was the same lesson God was teaching Israel.
• Only, they hated Him for it and they began to grumble against Him.
• They began to accuse Him of being a bad provider.
THEY WANTED BREAD
Exodus 16:3 “The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
And you’ll remember that God gave them manna.
(Which also pictured Jesus who was “the bread from Heaven”)
THEN THEY WANTED MEAT BECAUSE THEY WERE TIRED OF BREAD.
Numbers 11:4-6 “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”
They were ungrateful.
They tested God.
They taunted God.
The only reason they lived was due to His constant provision
And yet they had the audacity to complain against God anyway.
There is still a lesson for humanity here.
• We know that in God we live and move and exist.
• We know that God is both the giver and sustainer of life.
• We know that it is God who sends rain on the just and the unjust.
And yet we find the chief sin of the world is that:
Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
• Man takes the life God gave him
• Lives it in the body God made for him
• Lives by breathing God’s air and eating the food God’s earth produces
• His body and all its organs are sustained by God’s hand
• His life is preserved by God’s doing
And yet all man can do is complain that God has not done enough.
• Too many bad things happening
• Too much suffering
• Why doesn’t God do this?
• Why doesn’t God to that?
Our world could use a great deal of advice from Job
Job 2:9-10 “Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
All God had done for them up to this point was deliver them
And meet their every need, and yet they still complained.
And as Asaph teaches the history of Israel,
He wants his contemporaries to know that
Their grumbling was NOT TOLERATED.
(21-31) “Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel, Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation. Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven; He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind. When He rained meat upon them like the dust, Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas, Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their dwellings. So they ate and were well filled, And their desire He gave to them. Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths, The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.”
God did not tolerate their ungrateful complaining.
• He gave them their meat, just like they wanted.
• He caused quail to just fall right out of the sky.
• He gave them the desires of their carnal heart.
And then He let them have the full effect
Of their greed and gluttony and grumbling.
Numbers 11:32-33 “The people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers) and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague.”
And you would think
• That such an outburst from God would have gotten the people’s attention.
• That they would have stepped back and said, “Boy, we were jerks weren’t we? We’re sorry God for being so ungrateful.”
But they did not such thing.
(32-33) “In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works. So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror.”
They learned nothing but just kept right on in their selfish greed.
Until God had enough and determined
To kill that entire generation in the wilderness.
Psalms 95:7b-11 “Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
What a sad reality.
That God took no joy in the people He had saved.
• He delivered them and provided for them and cared for their every need
• And yet the whole time He loathed them
• And made Himself a promise that none of them were getting into the land.
And the lesson is clear.
• God expects gratitude.
• God expects you to recognize His great sustenance on your behalf.
Let that sink in for a moment church and learn a lesson from Israel.
They refused to obey Him despite what He had done.
They refused to be grateful despite what He had provided.
Can I read it again?
Romans 1:18-21 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
There is a lesson to be learned there from the history of Israel.
The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim The Untolerated Grumbling of Israel
#3 THE UNEQUALED LOYALTY OF GOD
Psalms 78:34-39
This section almost reads more like an INTERLUDE.
• Asaph sort of takes a break from the history
• Just to make an observation about their entire history in general.
If you want to sum up Israel’s entire interaction with God
We could use words like: hypocritical, deceptive, unfaithful.
If you want to sum up God’s entire interaction with Israel
We could use words like: compassionate, forgiving, patient, understanding.
And this is Asaph’s point halfway through this historical Psalm.
God has not received back from Israel what He gave to them.
If you read the story, Israel is the villain, God is the champion.
But totally beautiful is that despite Israel’s total rebellion,
God never completely forsook them.
They remained every moment of their life totally dependent on God.
And God never failed them despite having plenty of grounds to do so.
Listen to the summary of Israel’s faithfulness.
(34-37) “When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God; And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.”
What a pathetic people.
• The only time they returned to God was when they wanted relief from punishment.
• If God punished them they’d cry “uncle”, but the second He let up on them they’d run right back into rebellion.
Ever read the book of Judges?
It is a drudging and disheartening cycle.
• The children of Israel rebelled against God.
• God raised up the _______ites to oppress Israel.
• The __________ites afflicted Israel for x number of years.
• The children of Israel cried out to God in their affliction.
• God appointed _________as a Judge to deliver Israel.
• Israel was delivered from the hand of the __________ites.
• The children of Israel rebelled against God.
It is painful to read.
But it is their history.
God lamented this through Hosea the prophet.
Hosea 5:11 – 6:6 “Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, Because he was determined to follow man’s command. Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim And like rottenness to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, Or to cure you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver. I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. “Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
That was them.
Tell God whatever you think He wants to hear, but don’t do it.
Contrast them however to God.
(38-39) “But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.”
While Israel is nothing but deceptive, God is nothing but faithful.
• He is compassionate.
• He is forgiving.
• He is patient.
• He is gracious.
• He is understanding.
We would have written Israel off years ago, and yet God sticks with them.
What could Asaph possibly be teaching here?
WE ALL OWE GOD A DEBT OF LOVE, GRATITUDE, AND WORSHIP.
• He is so much more faithful than we are.
• He is so much more loyal than we are.
If you can read the history of Israel and not see
How faithful God is, then you are not reading it correctly.
The children of Israel are the most stubborn, most rebellious, most ungrateful, most hypocritical people to ever exist,
But have the most loyal, most loving, most forgiving, most compassionate, most patient, most understanding God.
And there’s still much more to learn here in Psalms 78
That we’ll have to pick up later, but at the very least tonight
We simply are reminded of how good we have it with our great God.
Learn that God does not deserve your rebellion.
• You will never be able to justify even the smallest act of disobedience.
• You will never be able to justify even the slightest rebellion.
• All God has done deserves your total allegiance.
Learn that there are few things more sickening than an ungrateful people.
• When we lust for more.
• When we complain.
• When we belly ache about our trials.
• When we accuse Him of not loving.
• When we demand He give us what we want.
Can you see what a repulsive attitude that is to Him?
Learn that when put side by side with God, He is the good one, not us.
• He is the faithful one
• He is the patient one
• He is the loving one
• He is the good one
I’m anything but and for that we owe God repentance.
We strip our lives of hypocrisy.
We make vows to God and keep them.
We turn to Him with all our heart and not just our lips.
We honor Him as God and we give thanks.
• These are just a few of the things that Asaph wants to make sure we learn from the history of Israel.
• These are just a few of the things Asaph wants the next generation to know.
Psalms 78:5-8 “For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.”
