Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Psalm 78

Sermon text today is Psalm 78. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Psalm 78.

Give ear to my law. Incline your ears to the word of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come, the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born that they may arise and declare them to their children that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments and may not be like their fathers.

A stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation that did not set its heart right and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God. They refused to walk in his law and forgot his works and his wonders that he had shown them. Marvelous things he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime also he led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink in abundance like the depths. He also brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. But they sinned even more against him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.

And they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy. Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rocks so that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide meat for his people?” Therefore, the Lord heard this and was furious. So a fire was kindled against Jacob. And anger also came up against Israel because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation.

Yet he had commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat and given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food. He sent them food to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he brought in the south wind. He also rained meat on them like the dust, feathered fowl, like the sand of the seas. And he let them fall in the midst of their camp all around their dwellings.

So they ate and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire. They were not deprived of their craving. But while the food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came against them and slew the stoutest of them and struck down the choice men of Israel. In spite of this, they still sinned and did not believe in his wondrous works. Therefore, their days he consumed in futility and their years in fear.

When he slew them, then they sought him and they returned and sought earnestly for God. Then they remembered that God was their rock and the Most High God their redeemer. Nevertheless, they flattered him with their mouth. They lied to him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful in his covenant. But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.

Yes, many a time he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath, for he remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. How often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power. The day when he redeemed them from the enemy, when he worked his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan, turned their rivers into blood, their streams that they could not drink.

He sent swarms of flies among them which devoured them and frogs which destroyed them. He also gave their crops to the caterpillar and their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost. He also gave up their cattle to the hail and their flocks to fiery lightning. He cast on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble by sending angels of destruction among them.

He made a path for his anger. He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague and destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham. But he made his own people go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them on safely, so that they did not fear. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies, and he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand had acquired.

He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep his testimonies, but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers. They turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their carved images.

When God heard this, he was furious, and greatly abhorred Israel so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had placed among men and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy’s hands. He also gave his people over to the sword and was furious with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men and their maidens were not given in marriage. Their priests fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation.

Then the Lord awoke from sleep like a mighty man who shouts because of wine. And he beat back his enemies. He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover, he rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth, which he has established forever. He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.

From following the ewes that had young. He brought him to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

Let’s pray. Father, we do give you thanks for the text of your scriptures and we thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater David has come and is shepherding us and guiding us with his hands and feeding us with his word. Help us Father, to eat and drink of this word joyfully today. May your spirit minister this word to us, Lord God, that indeed we might be these men who faithfully tell their children of your mighty works and your law and your testimony and your covenant. In so doing, equip them for the battle that they must fight in their own time. Help us, Lord God, to be a faithful church, not a deceitful bow. To that end, we pray that your Holy Spirit would illumine this text for understanding and change us and transform us by the power of your word and spirit in Christ’s name we ask it.

Amen.

Nursery people that are required in nursery can be dismissed as well as the younger children.

This is a wonderful psalm as if any of them weren’t, of course, but a psalm that is very important to covenant households. We have here this very important command given in the introductory section to fathers to understand the nature of this psalm to teach the content of this psalm and of God’s history to the children, that they might be faithful.

It’s a maskil, and this word means a contemplation on particular events that are laid out that are somewhat enigmatic. All of them are like this. This one explicitly tells us in the introduction that he’s going to utter things in parables, enigmatic sayings. We’re going to contemplate something here and what it is: history being contemplated to a particular purpose or end—Providence of God.

We may have a lot of contemplation this week as we most of us end up at family camp. I don’t know yet. Who knows what the weather will happen, but if it is rainy, that means it’s a contemplative camp. And that’s not a bad thing. We’ll have lots to contemplate as Dr. Leithart brings us messages from 1 and 2 Samuel, which this psalm touches on, by the way, as we’ll see in a couple of minutes.

This is a day that begins then a week of contemplation of our own history. And it’s a historic day as well for us. This is the last Lord’s Day worship service in his providence that we’ll be conducting at this particular location. Next week, nearly all of us will be at family camps. We won’t have worship services here, but we’ll have them at Rockaway Beach at the camp there. And then two weeks from today will be our first Sunday at the building formerly owned by Trinity Lutheran Church.

Please remember 11:30. 11:30. 11:30—we start worship at 11:30 at the new facility. John will be starting his Bible class, Sunday morning Bible class at 10:30, but the actual worship service will be at 11:30 beginning in two weeks from today at the corner of 12th and John Quincy Adams.

So we have a little of our own history that we’re always in the midst of, but right now in the context of the history of Reformation Covenant Church, this is somewhat of a historic day for us as we transition out of temporary dwelling place into a permanent one.

So I want to make really just seven basic observations on this text as we contemplate history. Obviously, it is primarily a psalm about history, an interpretation of it.

You know, I don’t know who it was—John Maynard Keynes, I suppose. I think my world history students are required to know this. I don’t remember even now. It was way back in September or October. But you know, one guy says that history is just one darn thing after another. Of course, he didn’t use the word darn. That’s his interpretation of history.

There are other interpretations of course, but when we look at history, we look, of course, at God’s story, his story. And so this psalm really is about correctly interpreting history and drawing out very important lessons from particular historical moments here, a historical moment really in the context of Israel of great significance.

So we want to begin by saying that verses 1–9 form an introduction. It’s a long psalm. We’re going to try to help you understand the basic flow of it. And the first nine verses form an introduction. And this introduction is meant to cause us to meditate on the history that’s recorded in the rest of the psalm. Not just that, but that’s a pointer to all of God’s wondrous works and historical actions for his people.

The introduction draws us and compels fathers to instruct their children in the works of God. So it’s meant to cause us to meditate on recorded history, in part particularly on the history of this psalm.

Now the first thing we notice from this is, once again, this is our fourth really in what’s become a series on the training of covenant children. And the first thing we again want to observe is the nature of who they are.

In verses 1–9 we read, “Give ear my people to my law incline your ears to the word of my mouth.” Listen carefully. Think about what’s going to happen here. It’s not going to be open and on the surface. What he’s going to be talking about is why is it that David is now king and that the tribe of Judah has replaced the tribe of Ephraim in the historical movement of God’s people.

This psalm is probably written—J. Alexander believes it was written early in David’s reign and in part is written to explain to help God’s people understand what’s happened as God has moved his people into the promised land and now established them there, but transition the people of God from the preeminence of Ephraim as a tribe to now the preeminence of Judah and specifically David. So attend carefully. It’s not on the surface. You got to dig a little bit. You got to do some plowing to understand what’s happening.

“I’ll open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children.” And that’s interesting because it doesn’t say we won’t hide them from our children. It seems we can deduce here a corporate responsibility as well as an individual responsibility in terms of the instruction of the covenant children of the church.

Parents are obviously here. Fathers, you know, if you walk away from this psalm—Psalm 78—without a renewed commitment to teach your children the things of God’s word and his historical actions in reference to his people, you know, there’s no hope for you because that’s what this psalm directly calls you to do: to not hide them from the children.

“Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob, appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children.”

We have to layer in here what Richard instructed us on several weeks ago. This is us. This is our history. We are engrafted into this history. It’s our history. And when he says he commanded our fathers—the fathers—to instruct their children, he commands you to instruct your children in these very things.

And what does he tell us? He told us that they’re to show the generation to come the praises of the Lord, his strength and his wonderful works, the establishment of a testimony and appointing of a law. So his wondrous works, his law, and in the context of the praises of the Lord. And he has commanded us today that we should make these things known to our children.

So to a particular purpose: “that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”

Now we’ll talk more about these specifics in verses 7 and 8. The contrast between the threefold chord of faith that the children of the covenant are called to come to as we teach them, as opposed to the threefold apostasy of Ephraim described in verse 8. But these first nine verses are really an introduction to the rest of the psalm.

Verse 8 says that “they may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart right, whose spirit was not faithful to God. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle.”

So we have this introduction to a psalm that’s going to record historical actions. And what we see one more time, and as we’ve seen it for the last month, is God looks at our children differently maybe than we do normally, certainly than we do in the flesh, and differently than many of us were trained to look at our children before we embrace the fullness of the whole word of God, helping us to come to an understanding of what Christian children are, what covenant children are.

You know, I was struck. I was listening to gospel songs this week. They’re wonderful songs. Many of us can sing along with those gospel songs about finding, seeing the light and coming to conversion and all that stuff going on. But again, this psalter is not like that. This psalter assumes the transmission of the faith from one generation to the other.

Now, there’s a warning here to the heart. This psalm is going to contain a warning to covenant children that after two strikes, you’re out. Ephraim had two strikes, one in the wilderness and one in Canaan, and they demonstrated their rebellion against him and they were replaced. They were out. So there’s a warning. We don’t want to unduly rely upon our placement by the sovereign hand of God into covenant households.

We do not want to miss that. We want to train up our children assuming that we’re supposed to teach them the praises of God, his wondrous works, his law and his testimony, his deliverance of us, us fathers and our children out of Egypt and out of the greater Egypt. That’s how he wants us to train our covenant children—not to wait until they’re, you know, of the age of accountability and hope for a conversion experience.

Most of the covenant children in the context of these psalms aren’t going to have a covenant conversion experience. Children are addressed differently. The psalms don’t have any of those “I saw the light” songs in them. And the psalms are the inspired hymn book of the church at this particular point in time in the old covenant in the period of being in the land and the establishment of the temple.

So understand one more time this incentive to us. One: this tremendous privilege that our children should understand being placed by the sovereignty of God in the context of covenant homes and the great privilege you fathers have of having children there that God says you can expect that, based upon what he’s done and putting them in your home and then the application of the covenant sign, you can expect them to grow up faithful.

Now, they may not. There’s warnings here, but that’s a tremendous privilege that God lays out to us. And along with it comes a tremendous responsibility. Fathers, if we hear these first seven or eight verses and say, “Yeah, this is what God commands me to do.” We’ve talked about the law. We’ve talked about the worship of God and his gifts to our children. And we’re layering in a little more stuff now in terms of what fathers are supposed to do in training their children.

And the emphasis here—it’s not the only thing said, but the emphasis is on training our children in biblical history, history in what God has done in history and interpreting that history correctly in relationship to his covenant and to his law. Our children should know Bible history and they should understand how to interpret Bible history according to the covenant and the law and God’s grace and then be able to use that as a framework by which to interpret our history.

What has God doing to us? What has he done to this country? What has he done to this state, this nation, what has he done to our family? What’s he done to this church? History is the focal point here.

And this psalm is a warning to our hearts, but it is also great warmth to our hearts. As Kerr said in his commentary on it, the psalm is filled with warnings about covenant children going bad, but it’s also filled with these wonderful—over and over again—the mercy and grace of God to sinning and rebellious people. It warms our heart when we read of those wonderful compassionate works of God as well as warning our heart in terms that those judgments do indeed come to rebellious people.

So, first of all we note one more time that God wants us to train up our children in the context of the Christian faith seeing them as part of the generation that will indeed then teach the next generation these things that we’re required to in the context of this psalm.

Secondly, the balance of this psalm pictures a historical movement from Ephraim to Judah/David, from Sinai to Zion. If you look—I’ll have to do some looking around in this psalm—look at verse 67 and following toward the end of the psalm, of course. What we read in verse 67 is, “He rejects the tent of Joseph. He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like the heights.”

And then he establishes David. There’s a transition that this psalm describes—it says there’s some historical things that have happened. You were delivered from Egypt. You were delivered from Egypt. You were doing things in the wilderness for a while. And then God brought you into the promised land. So there’s a movement here from Sinai to the establishment of the theocratic republic in the context of the promised land in Canaan.

And there’s a movement from Ephraim having preeminence at the beginning of the psalm—pictured as beginning in the deliverance from Egypt and the wilderness activities that go on—and that being replaced by the line of Judah, the tribe of Judah. David comes from Judah. So there’s this transition that’s happened. As I said, David probably is fairly newly installed as king. Why? Why is it Judah and not Ephraim?

Ephraim was dominant for a big part of our history. Why the change? This explains history to the covenant children to explain what happened. And it explains it by looking at two periods of time: what happens in the wilderness and Ephraim’s sin there and then what happens in the promised land and Ephraim’s—as representative of all of Israel—their sin there. And so the need for replacement by David.

There’s also a movement geographically here that he abandoned Shiloh. Shiloh is in the area, in the territory of Ephraim, and God choosing now Mount Zion which is in the territory of Judah. So there’s a geographical transition as well as a tribal transition tracking history and its movement and maturation. There’s this movement from Shiloh to Zion.

Now we’re going to hear about Shiloh this week. The reference to the historical events that happen here in Psalm 78 in terms of Shiloh has to do with the sin of Eli and his sons, and what happens there. We can spend a couple of minutes looking at that now. I guess would probably be a good thing to do. Just a few verses before what we just read. Verse 56, we’ll start reading.

“Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, did not keep his testimonies, turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.”

Now that’s a bow reference. And earlier—Ephraim being armed and carrying bows, didn’t enter into battle. So the psalm has this kind of beginning statement in verse 9 and now a bracketing statement at the end of the deceitful bow. So Ephraim’s sin is being bracketed here by references to these bow references. So Ephraim is really representative of all of Israel, but the predominance of the tribe here.

“Verse 58, they provoked him to anger with their high places, moved him to jealousy with their carved images. We’ll talk about that in just a minute. When God heard this, he was furious, greatly abhorred Israel. He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy’s hands.”

For those of us who’ve been reading 1 Samuel and who’ve got the first few chapters—you know what this is about? This is about God. Ichabod, right? We’ve talked about that before, the birth of the son to one of Eli’s son’s wives, now widowed because Eli and his sons are killed—his sons in battle—and then Eli falls over dead. And the wife then bears a child named Ichabod. The glory has departed.

God leaves the tent, the tabernacle of the ark of the covenant at Shiloh, and he’s taken into captivity, so to speak, with the Philistines. But of course, you know what the rest of the story is—that he does battle with Dagon in his house and knocks him over twice and they know then that we got to get this guy out of here. God is dangerous to be close to, but that’s what it’s talking about here.

He forsakes the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had placed among men. The ark of the covenant leaves. He delivered his strength into captivity to the Philistines. His glory into the enemy’s hands. Ichabod—the glory had departed from the people of God.

“He also gave his people over to the sword. Was furious with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men. Their maidens were not given in marriage. That’s a direct reference to the same period of time when the Philistines defeat the Israelites in battle. Their priests fell by the sword. Eli the priest. And Eli’s two sons, the priests, the unfaithful priests fall. And the two sons fall by means of the sword in battle.”

So you see, he’s taking a historical event. He doesn’t have to talk about Eli or name his sons. He can name Shiloh and the departure of the glory. And they know what’s happening. And our children who are in junior high or high school age hopefully know enough of the Bible to understand these markers, these references back to what’s happening. And we’ll hear more about this week as Peter Leithart brings us more teaching from the book of 1 Samuel.

“Their widows made no lamentation. Direct reference back to the widows of Eli’s sons. Then the Lord awoke from sleep like a mighty man who shouts because of wine. He beats back his enemies. He defeats the Philistines where he’s at in the context of them and he puts them to perpetual reproach. And then we come to verse 67. He rejects the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim but chose the tribe of Judah.”

So there’s this historical movement that’s being described here and a transition from one tribe to another tribe. A transition of geography and the movement of history moving ahead from the wilderness into the context of the establishment of God’s people in Canaan itself. So there’s an attempt to interpret the history and this psalm basically does that. And if we’d outline it, we’d say that the deceitfulness of Ephraim, as I said before, happens in terms both of the wilderness and then it’s described in the context of the land of Canaan.

The third observation then is that Ephraim—now one point here in Judges 1—Ephraim is portrayed as not being anxious to drive out the Canaanites. And some people think that these early references to Ephraim in Psalm 78 may have to do with that. It seems more likely because the whole psalm involves all the historical actions of God in the wilderness, then the conquering of the land and their placement in the land. The whole psalm kind of treats Ephraim as representative for all of Israel and demonstrates the predominance of Ephraim in the context of the people of Israel and probably shouldn’t be tied to one particular historical event such as the conquest.

But in any event, Ephraim here sins in the wilderness and again in Canaan.

Now, the wilderness sin is they crave food. God has done gracious things for them and their response to his deliverance from Egypt is to say, “Well, we’re thirsty now. Where’s the water? And we’re hungry now. Where’s the drink? Where’s the food we’re going to eat?”

So God’s people pictured by Ephraim. Their sin in the wilderness is a desiring food. Now, that really is idolatry. The New Testament, we read about people whose gods are their bellies, or the belly is their god. And you know, you have to understand, of course, that to correctly interpret that piece of historical information in terms of the grumbling about food, we remember that’s how the whole thing started in terms of our sin.

It begins in the garden with not liking the food that God gives us and wanting a different food that the serpent gives us. Not contenting ourselves with all the rest of the garden, but wanting the one thing that God has withheld for a period of time. So Ephraim’s sin here is explicitly stated in the context of Psalm 78 to be grumbling about food. But the implicit message is that she really is idolatrous. She’s worshiping the creature rather than the creator. She’s worshiping the serpent again just like Adam and Eve did by exchanging the food of God and grumbling about his food and wanting better food.

And so Ephraim’s sin is that. Now in terms of immediate application of this sermon, this is not difficult to draw out. I don’t know about your children—my children manifest the Adamic nature fairly early in their lives and they do it the same way that Adam did it. They do it the same way that Ephraim did it. They do it the same way that I too often in my life have done it with grumbling about food.

Going to the dinner table. I don’t want this. I want this. Ooh, this doesn’t taste very good. Oh, couldn’t we have this to drink instead of this? Now, God wants us to enjoy food. And I’m not taking a, you know, pharisaical puritanical attitude about we shouldn’t ever enjoy food. We’re commanded—when we go to camp this week, I believe we’re commanded every Lord’s day—to bring food that is the desire of our heart.

God tells us to use his holy money, his tithe in part to buy whatsoever our heart desires in terms of food and in terms of drink—strong drink. The Bible says tasty food. That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s what you’re supposed to do on the Lord’s day. So God wants us to enjoy food. But God wants also for us to be disciplined to take whatever he and his providence provides us on a daily basis and say, “Praise God. Thank God for this food.” And not grumble or dispute.

Little kids understand that too. It seems like a little deal when you’re not happy with the food that God through mom and dad has provided. But God equates this as the sin of Ephraim in the wilderness. This is the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. This is the sin of a damaged fallen man to grumble against God’s providence in terms specifically of the table that he provides.

Fathers, you know, to my shame, I have not always imaged this for my children. And I don’t know about your household, but let’s covenant before God. You know, we raise our hands in worship here to involve our bodies to say this isn’t an intellectual exercise. This is supposed to change who we are. And if you come up today with an offering to God or with your tithe, you know, think about your own attitude about food and grumbling and disputing about it. Think about that God’s great judgments come upon Ephraim because of food grumbling. Think about the relationship to Adam and Eve. And think about the fact that at the height of our worship service, Jesus feeds us with the food of heaven. This is all we need right here.

Now, in the providence of God, he’s given me time to think about this a little this last week. I had a little situation going on with my health and I couldn’t eat hardly anything. I ate virtually nothing for I think three days. Got to drink clear liquids and then the next couple of days I had—last couple of days I could eat moderately—and you know I wasn’t always thankful for that in these last five days.

You know, at the end of that time this degree of discipline begins to build in and the spirit starts to do his work and transforms you and you repent. You think, “Wow, this is pretty good. I can control this thing. I don’t have to eat. I have to eat for a long time.” So I’m glad that we have good food at camp. But immediate application of this sermon is to understand, interpret history correctly. History is about our response to the providence of God and God calling us not to grumble or dispute. And we can see it popping up more often than not at the table.

Now in Canaan, it’s a little different matter. We just read what their sin in the promised land was. It says that they provoke God with their high places and idolatry. So there it’s explicitly a statement of their idolatry in Canaan. But it seems like we can bring into that an implication of food as well. Why? Because in the context of Canaan, the movement is now Ephraim at Shiloh and the transition from Shiloh to Zion, which brings in Eli and his sons.

And his two sons didn’t control their appetites. They weren’t content with the portion of the priestly food that God had provided. As holy and great as that was, they, you know, you know the story. They go in there when the pot’s receiving, they take out with big hooks and stuff the choicest portions, the stuff that was supposed to go to God. So they again sin—representative of the people of Israel.

The climax of his judgments is him killing the priests and doing a new thing in the nation by exalting Samuel now, not of the priestly line, to judge in the context of Israel. So they have food sin going on. So explicitly it’s idolatry in the promised land, but implicitly it’s still food. It’s those guys not controlling their lusts and appetites.

So what we have here, interpreting history correctly, is that if you want God to judge you and to set you aside in spite of your great privilege as covenant children, just keep complaining about food. Just keep being idolatrous by rejecting the providence of God in terms of food. The transition here is because of the sin of Ephraim in both—two strikes and they’re out. They sin in the wilderness. God is gracious. He leads them into the promised land anyway. And then they sin in the promised land and they’re out. Two strikes and they’re out—two demonstrations of what they did wrong, both involving idolatry and food.

Four. God’s great goodness is contrasted in this psalm with Ephraim’s extraordinary evil. We have a contrast. Now, I’ve got a seven-part outline here, and I didn’t plan it this way, but you know, if we want to look at this fourth point as the center of this chiastic structure and look at it for emphasis, that’s fine with me. We want to see at the center of this narrative—it’s really not heightening for us Israel’s sin as much as it is God’s goodness, God’s grace in spite of Ephraim’s waywardness, in spite of our grumbling and disputing.

You grumbled and disputed this last week about something in your life. I’m sure of it. And God did not strike you dead. That’s the thing to remember: that God delivers us in spite of ourselves.

And so at the center of this outline—Providence of God—we’ve got this statement about God’s great goodness in contrast to Ephraim’s awful wickedness. God moves heaven and earth for his people. You know, that Doug H. likes that Carol King stuff. “I felt the earth move under my feet. Felt the stars come falling down,” or rolling, whatever it is. Well, you know, Ephraim could feel the earth move as God delivers them.

Why? Well, look at these early verses again. Let’s see. Let me find a specific reference. In verse 12, “Marvelous things he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through and he made the waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime also he led them with the cloud and all the night with the light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness.”

Same Hebrew word. He split the sea and he split the rocks. Earthquake time. Big event time. The earth moved under Ephraim’s feet as God leads Ephraim out of Egypt. The earth moves. And I say heaven and earth. That may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, but first of all, understand of course that the bipolarity of the universe that God creates is one of land and sea.

And God’s people are a land people, a heavenly people, and the sea are the gentile nations. If you don’t understand that, that’s okay. But you know that when he creates the world, you go outside, you’re either on land or sea. So as he splits the sea and the land for his people, that’s a comprehensive treatment of the created order, all of the earth. And I think we could see in terms of the heavenly people, the heavens as well.

But we don’t need to even make that analogy because the middle of these two splittings is he gives them guidance in the daytime by leading them with the cloud and at night with a pillar of fire. The cloud is a heaven symbol and fire is a sun symbol of light. So he’s causing the earth to move. He’s splitting sea and earth, sea and rock. And in the middle he’s guiding them with heavenly things coming to them.

God moves, and it is not an exaggeration. You cannot exaggerate what God does for his people. In fact, this illustration comes short. God moves heaven and earth on behalf of his people. That’s you. You’re his people. God moves heaven and earth for you.

Now, that Carol King song, you know, it’s about the bride and the groom comes and she feels the earth move “when ever you’re around.” And when God comes to be with us, we’re supposed to remember these things. We’re supposed to remember at the communion table that the Lord Jesus moved heaven and earth through his atoning work and his resurrection for us. We’re supposed to feel the earth move when he comes to us today, remembering that everything in the created order moves in terms of our deliverance, our guidance, and our provision.

Praise God for that. You see, he wants us to remember these things and not to walk away, not to doubt his goodness, not to doubt that he hasn’t given us all of his goodness in the clear broth that I could eat, you know, one day and nothing else. In that clear broth, I should feel earth and heaven being moved by God for me and providing for me whatever he provides today for me. You know, this is a wondrous thing what’s happening here. These verses are just wondrous when you think of them this way.

God moves heaven and earth for us.

We look at verses 44–51 and, you know, James B. Jordan in his brief analysis of Psalm 78—what happens here is God’s going to recite a series of plagues that happened in Egypt. He talks about the fields of Zoan twice: right at the beginning when he’s going to talk about the wilderness stuff and here when he’s going to talk about Canaan. And he’s going to reference in both sections—both of the wilderness and Canaan and Ephraim’s sin—he’s going to reference his deliverance from Egypt moving heaven and earth here and here.

In this section at the last half of the psalm he’s going to talk about these seven plagues. But whoa, there were ten plagues, right? But he seems to articulate—commentators say six or seven here. And I like the number seven, and it seems like there’s a fullness to that number. And Jim Jordan thinks you can actually correlate these verses to the seven days of creation.

Verse 44, “he turned their rivers into blood and their streams that they could not drink. The spirit on the first day, the spirit is hovering over the face of the waters. So we can see a reference to that in verse 44.

“Swarms of flies among them which devoured them and frogs which destroyed them. The heavens bring forth these judgments of God upon the people. And in the second day of creation, the heavens are the emphasis with the creation of the firmament.

“And then in verse 46, he gave their crops to the caterpillar and their labor to the locust. You know, I suppose on the third day, the basic food of life, the provision of the grain crops and the fruit crops is provided on the third day of creation. So the third judgment here seems to be related to that judgment.

“Verse 47, he destroys their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost. Their vines, this is good food. This is kingly ruling sort of food. In the fourth day of creation, the stars are created, the signs of authority and rule. And so he destroys Egypt in her substance crops, but also in her kingly ruling crops of the vines, etc.

“Verse 48, he also gave their cattle to the hail and their flocks to fiery lightning. Now cattle are actually sixth day, but the fifth day is the day where the animal creation begins to be created. So God attacks in this fifth plague that’s recited the animal host of Egypt here. And then on the sixth day, there’s a plague on their persons themselves, boils, etc. is talked about.

“He cast on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble by sending angels of destruction among them. He made a path for his anger. He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague. And some commentators see this as separate from the destruction of the firstborn, which follows next. So this is the plague sort of references in the context of the ten plagues on the person of the Egyptians.

“And then finally, the seventh day, the day of future, moving from the day of man on day six to the day of the future in terms of the Sabbath, he destroys all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham.”

So we can sort of see—you know, there’s a retelling, a recasting of the plagues here, not necessarily in chronological order, but in a theological order that stresses something. And it seems like what might be being stressed by this sevenfold depiction is this creation work. So it’s decreation and recreation. So God, for the sake of his people, tears apart the whole world, the whole creation of those who would oppress his people.

So God moving heaven and earth, God decreating and recreating the world on behalf of his people is pointed out here.

One other thing—I may forget this later in the sermon, but verse 51, notice very importantly that it says, “he destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham.” What is that? Well, my world history kids know what that is. They know that Egypt was founded by Mizraim, a descendant of Ham. That after the flood, you know, it’s Ham’s line that goes out there and forms Egypt. So what does that give us? It doesn’t give us the Egyptians as some kind of foreign different thing from us. Everybody are God’s children. They’re either apostate or they’re obedient.

And so that’s important because this picture—we’re talking about the replacement of Ephraim by Judah and the movement to the establishment of the Davidic monarchy and David, the type of the new Christ, the movement of Adam to the second Adam. That’s talked about, of course, in the story of Samuel, which we’ll get a lot of this week. That whole transition thing that’s going on here, too. Ham is being finally destroyed, decreated. One of the sons, you know, who came through the whole flood and all that stuff. The people of God are who the Egyptians are. And the Ephraimites become the Egyptians again when their hearts aren’t faithful in terms of the covenant and the law and the praises of God.

So God moves heaven and earth for his people. His great goodness is pictured for us here.

Secondly, God unties, guides, and provides for his people in the wilderness. A sorry attempt at some degree of alliteration, but the basic movement here in verses 13–15 is he delivers his people. You know, he splits the sea so they come through, they’re delivered. They’re untied from their bondage to Egypt. He also guides them by that fire and cloud. And then he makes provision by splitting the earth and water coming out. So we’ve got this threefold message again of God’s great goodness to us.

It—for what is he doing this decreation, recreation? To what end is he moving heaven and earth when he comes to be with us? He’s doing it to deliver us, to guide and direct us, and to provide for us on the ways he’s guiding and directing for us in the fullness of our lives.

The Lord God is moving heaven and earth in terms of his deliverance of us, his guidance of us, and his provision for us.

Then he brings them into Canaan, and he leads them in verses 52–55. Let’s look at that real quickly. Right after these seven plagues are described. First, he leads the men in verse 52. “He made his own people go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them on safely so that they did not fear.”

Secondly, he kills their enemies on the way in: “But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.”

Third, in this form of what he’s doing in terms of the promised land now, he brings them into Canaan in verse 54. “He brought them to his holy border, this mountain which his right hand had acquired.”

Now we have a repetition of killing enemies, but now it’s not on the way to the promised land in verse 55, but “he drives out the nations before them. Book of Joshua rather, he’s driving out the nations before them as they go in. And then finally, he settles them: “He allots them an inheritance by survey. Made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.”

So again, we have these ideas of people…