56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies , 57 But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers ; They turned aside like a treacherous bow . 58 For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images . 59 When God heard , He was filled with wrath And greatly abhorred Israel ; 60 So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh , The tent which He had pitched among men , 61 And gave up His strength to captivity And His glory into the hand of the adversary . 62 He also delivered His people to the sword , And was filled with wrath at His inheritance . 63 Fire devoured His young men , And His virgins had no wedding songs . 64 His priests fell by the sword , And His widows could not weep . 65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep , Like a warrior overcome by wine . 66 He drove His adversaries backward ; He put on them an everlasting reproach . 67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph , And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim , 68 But chose the tribe of Judah , Mount Zion which He loved . 69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights , Like the earth which He has founded forever . 70 He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds e ; 71 From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people , And Israel His inheritance . 72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart , And guided them with his skillful hands .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 78:56-72
Commentary on Psalm 78:56-72
(Read Psalm 78:56-72)
After the Israelites were settled in Canaan, the children were like their fathers. God gave them his testimonies, but they turned back. Presumptuous sins render even Israelites hateful to God's holiness, and exposed to his justice. Those whom the Lord forsakes become an easy prey to the destroyer. And sooner or later, God will disgrace his enemies. He set a good government over his people; a monarch after his own heart. With good reason does the psalmist make this finishing, crowning instance of God's favour to Israel; for David was a type of Christ, the great and good Shepherd, who was humbled first, and then exalted; and of whom it was foretold, that he should be filled with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. On the uprightness of his heart, and the skilfulness of his hands, all his subjects may rely; and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Every trial of human nature hitherto, confirms the testimony of Scripture, that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and nothing but being created anew by the Holy Ghost can cure the ungodliness of any.