Salmos 78

¹ «Read (Psa_32:1).Maschil of Asaph.» Give ear, O my people, [to] myThe prophet under the name of a teacher calls the people his, and the doctrine his, as Paul calls the gospel his, of which he was but the preacher, as in (Rom_2:16, Rom_16:25).law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare high sentences of olde.

³ Which we have heard and known, and ourWho were the people of God.fathers have told us.

⁴ Wee will not hide them from their children but to the generation to come we wil shewe the praises of the Lord his power also, & his wonderful woorkes that he hath done:

⁵ For he established aBy the testimony and law, he means your law written, which they were commanded to teach their children, (Deu_6:7).testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

⁶ That theHe shows how the children would be like their father's: that is, in maintaining God's pure religion.generation to come might know [them, even] the children [which] should be born; [who] should arise and declare [them] to their children:

⁷ That they mightHe shows where the use of this doctrine exists: in faith, in the meditation of God's benefits, and in obedience.set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

⁸ And might not be as theirThough these fathers were the seed of Abraham and the chosen people, yet he shows by their rebellion, provocation, falsehood, and hypocrisy, that the children should not follow their examples.fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation [that] set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

⁹ The children ofBy Ephraim he means also the rest of the tribes, because they were most in number: whose punishment declares that they were unfaithful to God, and by their multitude and authority had corrupted all others.Ephraim, [being] armed, [and] carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰ They kept not the couenant of God, but refused to walke in his Lawe,

¹¹ And forgate his Actes, and his wonderfull woorkes that he had shewed them.

¹² Marvellous things did he in the sight of theirHe proves that not only the posterity but also their forefathers were wicked and rebellious to God.fathers, in the land of Egypt, [in] the field of Zoan.

¹³ He deuided the Sea, & led them through: he made also the waters to stand as an heape.

¹⁴ In the day time also hee led them with a cloude, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He claue the rockes in the wildernes, and gaue them drinke as of the great depths.

¹⁶ He brought floods also out of the stonie rocke; so that hee made the waters to descend like the riuers.

¹⁷ And theyTheir wicked malice could be overcome by no benefits, which were great and many.sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart byThen to require more than is necessary, and to separate God's power from his will, is to tempt God.asking meat for their lust.

¹⁹ Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can GodThus when we give place to sin, we are moved to doubt God's power, unless he is always ready to serve our lust.furnish a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he smote the rocke, that the water gushed out, and the streames ouerflowed: can hee giue bread also? or prepare flesh for his people?

²¹ Therefore the Lord heard and was angrie, and the fire was kindled in Iaakob, & also wrath came vpon Israel,

²² Because they believed not in God, andThat is, in his fatherly providence, by which he cares for his, and provides sufficiently.trusted not in his salvation:

²³ Though he had commanded theSo that they had that which was necessary and sufficient: but their lust made them cover that which they knew God had denied them.clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴ And had rained downe MAN vpon them for to eate, and had giuen them of the wheate of heauen.

²⁵ Man did eate the bread of Angels: hee sent them meate ynough.

²⁶ He caused anGod used the wind to show them that all the elements were at his command, and that no distance could restrain his working.east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

²⁷ Hee rained flesh also vpon them as dust, and feathered foule as the sand of the sea.

²⁸ And hee made it fall in the middes of their campe euen round about their habitations.

²⁹ So they did eate and were well filled: for he gaue them their desire.

³⁰ They were not estranged from theirSuch is the nature of concupiscence, that the more it has the more it lusts.lust. But while their meat [was] yet in their mouths,

³¹ The wrath of God came upon them, and slewThough others were not spared, yet chiefly they suffered, who trusted in their strength against God.the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen [men] of Israel.

³² For all this theyThus sin by continuance makes man insensible, so that by no plagues they can be amended.sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

³³ Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily.

³⁴ When heSuch was their hypocrisy, that they sought God out of fear of punishment, though in their heart they did not love him.slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

³⁵ And they remembred that God was their strength, and the most high God their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, and dissembled with him with their tongue.

³⁷ For theirWhatever does not come from the pure fountain of the heart is hypocrisy.heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, [being] full of compassion,Because he would always have some remnant of a Church to praise his Name in earth, he did not permit their sins to overcome his mercy.forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ For he remebred that they were flesh: yea, a winde that passeth and commeth not againe.

⁴⁰ How oft did they prouoke him in the wildernes? and grieue him in the desert?

⁴¹ Yea, theyThat is, they often tempted him.turned back and tempted God, andAs they all do who measure the power of God by their capacity.limited the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² TheyThe forgetfulness of God's benefits is the root of rebellion and all vice.remembered not his hand, [nor] the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

⁴³ Nor him that set his signes in Egypt, and his wonders in the fielde of Zoan,

⁴⁴ And turned their riuers into blood, & their floods, that they could not drinke.

⁴⁵ He sentThis word signifies a confused mixture of flies and venomous worms. Some take it for all sorts of serpents: some for all wild beasts.divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ HeHe does not repeat here all the miracles that God did in Egypt, but certain which might be sufficient to convince the people of malice and ingratitude.gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroied their vines with haile, & their wilde figge trees with the hailestone.

⁴⁸ He gaue their cattell also to the haile, and their flockes to the thunderboltes.

⁴⁹ He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sendingSo called either for the effect, that is, of punishing the wicked: or else because they were wicked spirits, whom God permitted to vex men.evil angels [among them].

⁵⁰ He made a way to his anger: he spared not their soule from death, but gaue their life to the pestilence,

⁵¹ And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; theThe firstborn are so called, as in (Gen_49:3).chief of [their] strength in the tabernacles ofThat is, Egypt: for it was called Mizraim, or Egypt of Mizraim that was the son of Ham.Ham:

⁵² But hee made his people to goe out like sheepe, & led them in the wildernes like a flocke.

⁵³ And he led them on safely, so that theyThat is, they had no opportunity to fear, even as God destroyed their enemies and delivered them falsely.feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he brought them to the border of hisMeaning, Canaan, which God had consecrated to himself and appointed to his people.sanctuary, [even to] this mountain, [which] his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵ He cast out the heathe also before them, and caused them to fall to the lot of his inheritance, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted, and prouoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies,

⁵⁷ But turned back, and dealtNothing more displeases God in the children, than when they continue in that wickedness, which their fathers had begun.unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For theyBy serving God other than he had appointed.provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹ God heard this and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel,

⁶⁰ So that heFor their ingratitude he permitted the Philistines to take the Ark which was the sign of his presence, from among them.forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent [which] he placed among men;

⁶¹ And delivered hisThe Ark is called his power and beauty because by this he defended his people, and beautifully appeared to them.strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

⁶² And hee gaue vp his people to the sworde, and was angrie with his inheritance.

⁶³ The fireThey were suddenly destroyed, (1Sa_4:10).consumed their young men; and their maidens were notThey had no marriage songs: that is, they were not married.given to marriage.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword; and theirEither they were slain before or taken prisoner by their enemies, and so were forbidden.widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, [and] like a mighty man thatBecause they were drunk in their sins, they judged God's patience to be slumbering, as though he were drunk, therefore he answering their beastly judgment, says, he will awake and take sudden vengeance.shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ And smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and put them to a perpetuall shame.

⁶⁷ Moreover he refused the tabernacle ofShowing that he did not spare the Israelites altogether, though he punished their enemies.Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Iudah, and mount Zion which he loued.

⁶⁹ And heBy building the temple, and establishing the kingdom, he declares that the signs of his favour were among them.built his sanctuary like high [palaces], like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰ He chose Dauid also his seruant, and tooke him from the shepefolds.

⁷¹ Euen from behinde the ewes with yong brought he him to feede his people in Iaakob, and his inheritance in Israel.

⁷² SoHe shows where a kings charge stands: that is, to provide faithfully for his people, to guide them by counsel, and defend them by power.he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.