Psa 78:17-31 | KingComments | STEP | The word “yet” ( ) indicates the contrast with the foregoing. God had abundantly proved His might and His provision. “Yet” it had no beneficial effect on the unfaithfulness of God’s people. It is a dramatic observation: “They still continued to sin against Him” (cf. ) and that, even though God had done so much good for them. This shows great ingratitude. They rebelled “against the Most High in the desert”. It was not only ingratitude, but great insolence and audacity. They were in the desert, totally dependent on Him. Instead of humbling themselves before Him they were presumptuous against “the Most High”. By calling God so, Asaph shows the enormous contrast between man and God. “In their heart” they “put” the Most High God “to the test” ( ). They wanted Him to prove that He really cared for them. Then they would believe in Him and obey Him. He had to provide them with “food according to their desire”. After all the evidence God had given of His faithful care, this was not weakness, but rebellion. They had grown to dislike the manna and wanted food according to their own tastes ( ). In picture it means that they disliked Christ and were longing for the food of the world. The manna is a picture of Christ ( ). When He no longer fills the heart, it is the beginning of decline in spiritual life. The people “spoke against God” ( ). They spoke from a rebellious, unbelieving heart. God did “prepare a table in the wilderness” for them all along the wilderness journey. And then they boldly asked if God could “prepare a table in the wilderness”! This is not doubting God, but denying God. This showed the hardness (cf. ) and apostasy of their hearts. With respect to the wonder of the abundance of water He had given to them from the rock, we see the same thing. They knew it: “He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing” ( ). Did that wonder and abundant provision have any effect on their trust in God? Not at all (cf. ). On the contrary, they wondered if He could also give bread and provide meat for His people. Instead of trusting God after the redemption and care He showed, they challenged Him to show His power again. The people’s reaction to past wonders shows that those wonders do not guarantee trust in God when new difficulties come. It is good that we remember wonders. That memory only has a beneficial effect on our faith if we believe and trust Him today in new difficulties. Relying on past experiences is counterproductive if we lack faith in the present difficulties. Experience can strengthen faith, but faith must be present in order to use this experience (cf. ). If we are in difficulties and there is faith, then that faith is in God Who did not spare His own Son. This faith is expressed in the firm confidence that with His Son God will also grant us all things ( ). The LORD has heard all these haughty challenges to His address ( ). The name LORD is not used much in these psalms. That that Name is used here highlights the fact that the sin of the people is a sin against the covenant with the LORD. This deliberate denial of His performance in goodness in the past has aroused His wrath. As if the LORD would not keep His own covenant. It is not possible to be indifferent to this. The fire of His wrath, “was kindled against Jacob”. Jacob is again the name of God’s people seen in their practice ( ). “His anger also mounted against Israel”. Israel is again ( ) the name for God’s people in what they have become through Him. Because they behaved so unworthily of their position, God’s wrath flared up against them ( ). God is slow to anger, but His wrath flares up when there is persistence in sin. He is not mocked ( ). His wrath was manifested by fulfilling their lusts, the fulfillment of which was at the same time a judgment from God on their unbelief ( ). The reason for the flare-up of God’s wrath was that they “did not believe in God” and “did not trust in His salvation” ( ). Instead of trusting the LORD because of the redemption and wonder signs He performed, the Israelites used these same wonder signs as an argument to doubt that God had the power to redeem. Unbelief is a serious sin. From it come all other sins. Not believing in God means rejecting Him as not worth believing in. It is directly related to trusting in Him. They did not trust in His promises to give them His salvation, that is, to bless them with His peace. And this while He had already given them His salvation in the rescue from slavery.

‏ Psalms 78:17-31

The People Put God to the Test

The word “yet” (Psa 78:17) indicates the contrast with the foregoing. God had abundantly proved His might and His provision. “Yet” it had no beneficial effect on the unfaithfulness of God’s people. It is a dramatic observation: “They still continued to sin against Him” (cf. Num 21:4-7) and that, even though God had done so much good for them. This shows great ingratitude.

They rebelled “against the Most High in the desert”. It was not only ingratitude, but great insolence and audacity. They were in the desert, totally dependent on Him. Instead of humbling themselves before Him they were presumptuous against “the Most High”. By calling God so, Asaph shows the enormous contrast between man and God.

“In their heart” they “put” the Most High God “to the test” (Psa 78:18). They wanted Him to prove that He really cared for them. Then they would believe in Him and obey Him. He had to provide them with “food according to their desire”. After all the evidence God had given of His faithful care, this was not weakness, but rebellion.

They had grown to dislike the manna and wanted food according to their own tastes (Num 11:5). In picture it means that they disliked Christ and were longing for the food of the world. The manna is a picture of Christ (Jn 6:30-33). When He no longer fills the heart, it is the beginning of decline in spiritual life.

The people “spoke against God” (Psa 78:19). They spoke from a rebellious, unbelieving heart. God did “prepare a table in the wilderness” for them all along the wilderness journey. And then they boldly asked if God could “prepare a table in the wilderness”! This is not doubting God, but denying God. This showed the hardness (cf. Mk 6:51-52) and apostasy of their hearts.

With respect to the wonder of the abundance of water He had given to them from the rock, we see the same thing. They knew it: “He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, and streams were overflowing” (Psa 78:20). Did that wonder and abundant provision have any effect on their trust in God? Not at all (cf. Jn 2:23-25). On the contrary, they wondered if He could also give bread and provide meat for His people. Instead of trusting God after the redemption and care He showed, they challenged Him to show His power again.

The people’s reaction to past wonders shows that those wonders do not guarantee trust in God when new difficulties come. It is good that we remember wonders. That memory only has a beneficial effect on our faith if we believe and trust Him today in new difficulties.

Relying on past experiences is counterproductive if we lack faith in the present difficulties. Experience can strengthen faith, but faith must be present in order to use this experience (cf. 2Pet 1:6). If we are in difficulties and there is faith, then that faith is in God Who did not spare His own Son. This faith is expressed in the firm confidence that with His Son God will also grant us all things (Rom 8:31-32).

The LORD has heard all these haughty challenges to His address (Psa 78:21). The name LORD is not used much in these psalms. That that Name is used here highlights the fact that the sin of the people is a sin against the covenant with the LORD. This deliberate denial of His performance in goodness in the past has aroused His wrath. As if the LORD would not keep His own covenant. It is not possible to be indifferent to this. The fire of His wrath, “was kindled against Jacob”. Jacob is again the name of God’s people seen in their practice (Psa 78:5).

“His anger also mounted against Israel”. Israel is again (Psa 78:5) the name for God’s people in what they have become through Him. Because they behaved so unworthily of their position, God’s wrath flared up against them (Num 11:1-3). God is slow to anger, but His wrath flares up when there is persistence in sin. He is not mocked (Gal 6:7a). His wrath was manifested by fulfilling their lusts, the fulfillment of which was at the same time a judgment from God on their unbelief (Psa 78:31).

The reason for the flare-up of God’s wrath was that they “did not believe in God” and “did not trust in His salvation” (Psa 78:22). Instead of trusting the LORD because of the redemption and wonder signs He performed, the Israelites used these same wonder signs as an argument to doubt that God had the power to redeem.

Unbelief is a serious sin. From it come all other sins. Not believing in God means rejecting Him as not worth believing in. It is directly related to trusting in Him. They did not trust in His promises to give them His salvation, that is, to bless them with His peace. And this while He had already given them His salvation in the rescue from slavery.

Bread, Meat and Gluttony

Once again Asaph points out, and now in more detail and more impressively, how God provided His people in the wilderness with everything they needed. In beautiful, poetic language he speaks of how God had commanded “the clouds above” and “opened the doors of heaven” (Psa 78:23). All the elements of nature are under His command. He has brought about the whole creation by the utterance of commands (Psa 33:9). When necessary, He intervenes in the natural course of creation and commands the individual elements to do as He pleases (Jos 10:12-13).

Heaven is the storehouse of food for His people. He opened it and “rained down manna upon them to eat” (Psa 78:24). The fact that God rained manna indicates that He gave His people life, blessed them, and did so in abundance. This manna was no ordinary bread either. Asaph calls it “food from heaven”. The manna was of heavenly origin, it was bread from heaven (Psa 105:40; Exo 16:4; Jn 6:31; cf. 1Cor 10:3). By this the Israelites could know that heaven, that God Himself, cared for them. God wanted them to know that they were dependent on Him.

Of this heavenly food “man” ate, that is, all the people (Psa 78:25). There was no lack, for God gave “in abundance”. He never gives meagerly; He does not ‘tip’. When He gives, it is always according to the riches of His grace. When God gives, the believer will always find that His cup will overflow (Psa 23:5b).

The heavenly wheat is called “the bread of angels” and “food”, or “provision”. ‘Bread of angels’ means that this food was given by them to God’s people. ‘Provision’ emphasizes that it was food eaten during a journey. It is a main part of the meal, not a side dish.

The wind is also under His command (Psa 78:26). He makes use of it when He wills and determines from which side the wind must come. To give His people meat, He did not, as with the manna, open the doors of heaven. He used the wind. Here He caused “the east wind to blow in the heavens” and He directed “by His power … the south wind”.

As He did with the manna, “He rained meat upon them” (Psa 78:27). He made meat rain down on them “like dust”. He sent “winged fowl like the sand of the seas”, that is, in such an immense quantity that they could eat themselves to death (Num 11:33). He also determined where the meat in the camp, which Asaph calls “their [literally His] camp”, ended up (Psa 78:28). It fell “in the midst of His camp” and “around His dwellings”. God dwelt with His people.

The thought of His presence among them should have deterred them from following their lusts. There was no question of that, however. It also fell “around His dwellings”, that is, the tabernacle with its various rooms. When He dropped it there, would the people then come to their senses?

But there was no thought of God with them. When they had received what they had desired, they attacked the food and “were filled” (Psa 78:29). There was no thanks to God. With their stomachs full, they looked with covetous eyes at the stock of meat that was still there. Their stomachs were full, but still they were not satisfied, that is, their desire, their lust, was not satisfied (Psa 78:30). They continued to insatiably wallow and chew on the last bit of meat they had been able to stuff into their mouths and had not yet swallowed.

While their food was in their mouths, “the anger of God rose against them” (Psa 78:31; Num 11:33). Sometimes God waits a long time to express His anger. When He admonishes us to be “slow to anger” (Jam 1:19), He is admonishing us to show a feature of Himself. Here God was quick to show His anger because it was a sin of apostasy that revealed a long-standing aversion to His people.

God Himself judged. His death sentence struck “some of their stoutest ones”. The “stoutest ones” are those who have indulged themselves the most, the most voracious. Another category affected by His judgment included “the choice men of Israel”, the most prominent, the most influential, the strongest and most responsible. Literally it says “the young men of Israel”. This is reminiscent of the admonition we receive to “flee from youthful lusts” (2Tim 2:22).