Psalm 76. We have again the linking of Judah and Israel in the acknowledgment of the name of God. In Salem (poetical name of Jerusalem) is said to be His tabernacle or tent, and His dwelling place in Zion (the name given to that part of Jerusalem, which was chosen for the building of the temple). It speaks of God going on with them in grace, when they had so miserably failed, Israel had long neglected Zion; they forsook it when the ten tribes rebelled against Solomon’s willful son. Then the psalm speaks of God’s judgment on the nations who had invaded the land. It may be that same occasion as in Psalm 83, where some of the surrounding nations combine to destroy Israel. They come to the land only to meet the Lord there and receive judgment from His hand. So the nations are called upon to vow and pay unto Jehovah, who ought to be feared, for He shall cut off the spirit of princes and shall be terrible to the kings of the earth, God has now commanded all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day of judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be the judge, and He will judge all who have not fled for refuge now to Him before this day comes. (Acts 17:80, 31.)
Psalm 77. After seeing the confidence expressed in the previous psalms, it at first seems strange to witness the complaints voiced here. But we must remember that when the godly man gets his eye off the Lord, and the marvels of His grace, as a fallen creature he falls under the power of that distrust of Him and complaining is the result. So we have in verse 3: “I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.” Then in verse 10 he realizes that God’s ways are learned in the sanctuary. He must see God as He is known there, and not according to human reasonings of unbelief. Then he recalls how God had redeemed and delivered His people of old, and how at the proper time He could pour out from the clouds that which could turn their enemies in flight. He had also made a pathway through the sea for them, when there was seemingly no way of escape for them.
Psalm 78. The burden of this psalm seems to be that the children of His people might know the wonders of God’s grace and His power in delivering them during all His ways with them, so that the generation to come might know this, and might not be like their fathers, stubborn and rebellious, who did not set their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. Faith would always desire this for their children, for the great enemy of souls would ever stir up a spirit of unbelief in their hearts and turn them away from the Lord who loved them and gave Himself for them. He brings before them their deliverance through the Red Sea, His guiding them by the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night; His giving them the water to drink in the wilderness and providing flesh for them to tat and feeding them with the bread of heaven. This, he calls it, is man eating angels’ food. But for all this there was unbelief in their hearts and they provoked the Most High in the wilderness.
ML 01/29/1961