The Psalms Challenge

[Jayne]

This is what happens when each generation is not taught....

Quote

The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
    turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God's covenant,
    but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They FORGOT  his works
    and the wonders that he had shown them.

Quote

17 Yet they SINNED STILL MORE  against him,
    rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their heart
    by demanding the food they craved.

When we forget the mighty acts of God, the payment Jesus made on the cross, the scriptures, and God's work in  our life....

…..we will sin still more against him.

[Jayne]

DAY 98 - PSALM 78:21-31   [Book 3]

Asaph say we should remember.....so he begins writing about what should be remembered....

Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
    a fire was kindled against Jacob;
    his anger rose against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
    and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
    and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and he rained down on them manna to eat
    and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate of the bread of the angels;
    he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
    and by his power he led out the south wind;
27 he rained meat on them like dust,
    winged birds like the sand of the seas;
28 he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved.
30 But before they had satisfied their craving,
    while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
    and he killed the strongest of them
    and laid low the young men of Israel.

 

 

[Jayne]

Quote

Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
    a fire was kindled against Jacob;
    his anger rose against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
    and did not trust his saving power.

When God heard their cries of testing him - in unbelief - asking God to "prove" himself, God grew very angry - justly so.  His anger, Asaph says, is over unbelief and a lack of trust in him.

Do we lack trust in God?  We do.  Think really hard about it.  You will recall times where you feared, faltered, tried it you own way, or forsook pray and Bible reading and gathering with other believers to help you.  We do lack trust sometimes.  And it hurts God and if gone on long enough - angers him.

Quote

23 Yet he commanded the skies above
    and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and he rained down on them manna to eat
    and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate of the bread of the angels;
    he sent them food in abundance.

Yet God fed them anyway.  He had a plan for them.  Jesus Christ would be born of this nation and he would saved mankind.  Sometimes it may seem that God is making provisions for unbelievers that is unfair to believers.  God is sovereign and in control.  His plans are his plans.  We should not question that.

Quote

29 And they ate and were well filled,
    for he gave them what they craved.
30 But before they had satisfied their craving,
    while the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
    and he killed the strongest of them
    and laid low the young men of Israel.

God gave them what they craved.  They never craved a relationship with him.  They craved anything and everything else.

This reminds me of Romans 1:21-25.  Lest we think this doesn't happen to people today - including us - here it is...….

^"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."

[Jayne]

DAY 99 - PSALM 78:32-43 [Book 3]

...In spite of all this, they still sinned;
    despite his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he made their days vanish like a breath,
    and their years in terror.
34 When he killed them, they sought him;
    they repented and sought God earnestly.
35 They remembered that God was their rock,
    the Most High God their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouths;
    they lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
    they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
    atoned for their iniquity
    and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
    and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a wind that passes and comes not again.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested God again and again
    and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power
    or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 when he performed his signs in Egypt
    and his marvels in the fields of Zoan….

 

[Jayne]

This passage hallmarks for me the difference between mankind and Almighty God.  It's a very rich passage in very rich psalm.

 

[Jayne]

DAY 100 - PSALM 78:44-55 [Book 3]

The previous passage says that the people never remembered anything God had done for them.  So Asaph recalls...…….

44 He turned their rivers to blood,
    so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
    and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the destroying locust
    and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail
    and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
    wrath, indignation, and distress,
    a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
    he did not spare them from death,
    but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
    the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep
    and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
    but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy land,
    to the mountain which his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them;
    he apportioned them for a possession
    and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Jayne

[Jayne]

DAY 101 - PSALM 78:56-66   [Book 3]

Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
    and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
    they twisted like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
    they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,
    and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
    the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his power to captivity,
    his glory to the hand of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
    and vented his wrath on his heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
    and their young women had no marriage song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
    and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
    he put them to everlasting shame.

[Jayne]

Quote

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
    he put them to everlasting shame.

Even when God disciplined and chastised and punished his own people - he did not allow his own enemies to flourish.  

God "put his adversaries" to everlasting shame.  God is sovereign and can hold all things in his heart, mind, and power at one time.

[Jayne]

DAY 102 - PSALM 78:67-72 [Book 3]

End of Psalm 78

67 He rejected the tent of Joseph;
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
    like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He chose David his servant
    and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the nursing ewes he brought him
    to shepherd Jacob his people,
    Israel his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he shepherded them
    and guided them with his skillful hand.

[Jayne]

DAY 103 - PSALM 79  [Book 3]

How Long, O Lord?

A Psalm of Asaph.

 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
    they have defiled your holy temple;
    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants
    to the birds of the heavens for food,
    the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water
    all around Jerusalem,
    and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
    mocked and derided by those around us.

5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
    Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations
    that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
    that do not call upon your name!
7 For they have devoured Jacob
    and laid waste his habitation.

8 Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation,
    for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
    for your name's sake!
10 Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
    be known among the nations before our eyes!

11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
    according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
12 Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
    the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    will give thanks to you forever;
    from generation to generation we will recount your praise.