42 They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy, 43 When He worked His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan; 44 Turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, that they could not drink. 45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, And frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He also gave their crops to the caterpillar, And their labor to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycamore trees with frost. 48 He also gave up their cattle to the hail, And their flocks to fiery lightning. 49 He cast on them the fierceness of His anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, By sending angels of destruction among them. 50 He made a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the plague, 51 And destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, The first of their strength in the tents of Ham. 52 But He made His own people go forth like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock; 53 And He led them on safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 78:42-53
Commentary on Psalm 78:40-55.
(Read Psalm 78:40-55.)
Let not those that receive mercy from God, be thereby made bold to sin, for the mercies they receive will hasten its punishment; yet let not those who are under Divine rebukes for sin, be discouraged from repentance. The Holy One of Israel will do what is most for his own glory, and what is most for their good. Their forgetting former favours, led them to limit God for the future. God made his own people to go forth like sheep; and guided them in the wilderness, as a shepherd his flock, with all care and tenderness. Thus the true Joshua, even Jesus, brings his church out of the wilderness; but no earthly Canaan, no worldly advantages, should make us forget that the church is in the wilderness while in this world, and that there remaineth a far more glorious rest for the people of God.