Psalm 78:56-72 - A Shepherd for Israel

Repeat Psalm 78:35 until you can say it without looking.  Thank God for the Scriptures and ask Him to teach you from them today.

We pick up today in verses 56-58 with Asaph’s continuing list of Israel’s sins.  Look through these verses and identify some of the things which angered God.  Compare verse 58 with Leviticus 26:30.  God has made it very clear to Israel how He feels about idol worship.  See also Exodus 20:3-4.

Make a list, from verses 59-64, of God’s actions toward Israel as a result of His anger.  God had turned His back on Israel because of their idol worship.  Compare these verses to the account told in I Samuel 4:1-11.

Now compare verse 65 with Psalm 44:23.  These verses, together, read like an answer to prayer.  God has punished His people and now, once again, has forgiven them and come to their rescue.  Read verse 66 and I Samuel 5:6. 

We can see in verses 67-68 that the Lord has now rejected the son of Joseph (the tribe of Ephraim) in favor of the tribe of Judah.  Remember from verse 10 (2 studies ago) that Ephraim had disobeyed God by allowing some of the Canaanites to live among them in the Promised Land.  These Canaanites taught their idol worship to Israel.  Now, God has moved His favor to the tribe of Judah (the kingly line from which descended King David and our Lord Jesus Christ).  We also see in verse 68 ‘Mount Zion’, a reference both to Jerusalem, where King David lived, and Christ’s Heavenly eternal city.  The Psalm presents a clear parallel between King David and Jesus Christ.

The remaining verses in this Psalm continue the idea of God choosing David to shepherd His people.  We see in Genesis 37:2, Joseph tending his father’s sheep before God takes him to Egypt where he will eventually save His people from death by famine.  Then, in I Samuel 16:1, God instructs Samuel to anoint David as King over His people when David, also, was but a boy watching over his father’s sheep.  This is another representation of Jesus, the Great Shepherd, who watches over His flock (as foretold in Micah 5:2 and fulfilled in John 10:11).  Write John 10:11 in your journal.

Think about how your relationship with God has been recently.  Have you disobeyed His laws?  Are you guilty of being disloyal to God, faithless, and unreliable?  Have you angered Him by making other things more important than He is?

Responding to God:  Confess to God those sins He has revealed to you today and pray for renewed commitment to walk in God’s ways.  Thank Him for sending Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, to lead and protect us.

Meditate on Micah 5:2-5.  Record in your journal ways that God has spoken to you today.
 

Further Research:  If you would like to know more about King David being anointed King of Israel, read I Samuel 15-16.