Ch 78 / 150~6 min
TehillimChapter 78
The Shepherd of Israel, Hidden in History
The feeding of Israel in the wilderness with bread from heaven is cited in Yochanan 6 as a type of Yeshua, the true Bread of Heaven who gives life to the world.
- Lessons From Israel's History
A sweeping history lesson — Elohim's faithfulness despite Israel's forgetfulness. Don't repeat the pattern.
- 1Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
- 2I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,Fulfilled · Mattityahu 13:35
- 3which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
- 4We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of YHWH, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.
- 5For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
- 6that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,
- 7that they might set their hope in Elohim, and not forget Elohim’s deeds, but keep his mitzvot,
- 8and might not be as their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with Elohim.
- 9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
- 10They didn’t keep Elohim’s covenant, and refused to walk in his law.
- 11They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.
- 12He did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
- 13He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.
- 14In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
- 15He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
- 16He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
- 17Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Elyon in the desert.
- 18They tempted Elohim in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
- 19Yes, they spoke against Elohim. They said, “Can Elohim prepare a table in the wilderness?
- 20Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”
- 21Therefore YHWH heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,
- 22because they didn’t believe in Elohim, and didn’t trust in his salvation.
- 23Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.
- 24He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.Fulfilled · Yochanan 6:31
- 25Man ate the bread of malakim. He sent them food to the full.
- 26He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
- 27He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas.
- 28He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their habitations.
- 29So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
- 30They didn’t turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,
- 31when the anger of Elohim went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel.
- 32For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
- 33Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
- 34When he killed them, then they enquired after him. They returned and sought Elohim earnestly.
- 35They remembered that Elohim was their rock, the Elyon Elohim, their redeemer.
- 36But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
- 37For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
- 38But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
- 39He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
- Elohim's Mercy Despite Rebellion
Even in rebellion, Elohim showed compassion again and again. His mercy outlasts every failure.
- 40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
- 41They turned again and tempted Elohim, and provoked the Kodesh One of Israel.
- 42They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
- 43how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
- 44he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
- 45He sent amongst them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
- 46He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labour to the locust.
- 47He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.
- 48He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
- 49He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of malakim of evil.
- 50He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
- 51and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
- 52But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
- 53He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
- 54He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
- 55He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- 56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Elyon Elohim, and didn’t keep his testimonies,
- 57but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow.
- 58For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
- 59When Elohim heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel,
- 60so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed amongst men,
- 61and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.
- 62He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
- 63Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
- 64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
- Elohim Chose David His Servant
Elohim chose David, the shepherd, to lead His people. Elohim's choices often surprise the world.
- 65Then Adonai awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
- 66He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
- 67Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
- 68But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
- 69He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
- 70He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
- 71from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
- 72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.