Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;
And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake (Psalm 79:9).

How often have I prayed this way! The basis of my appeal to God is never my righteousness, nor my faithfulness, nor anything in me. It is always God's Name, His promises, His will. When I begin to consider anything good in me, I recognize that this too is from the Lord. Truly, my every boast is in the Lord!

Lately, I have become more "connected." I have become active on FaceBook, the preeminent social media platform in the world. "Likes" are great, but biting criticism from both friends and strangers is jarring. Saracasm, satire, labeling, and name-calling, which are so socially inappropriate face-to-face come fast and furiously in social media. I am tempted to "un-friend" the whole lot of them, so that I don't lose all respect for my friends or become an angry partisan. I recognize that simply sharing pictures, stories, prayer requests and praises is safe and welcome. But anything political may unleash a firestorm of criticism. And once this firestorm is released, even the good a person may share is discounted or outright rejected. 

I am, thus, reminded again of our sinful natures, which will persist until heaven. I am reminded that my hope is not in humanity, nor my moral advancement; it is simply and completely in the Lord. 

Therefore, friends, let us cry out to the Lord for His mercy and grace. Let us base our appeal on His promises and the greatness of His Name, by which we are called His people through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 78 & 79 reminds me of the book of ester. There is stuff happening but no mention of what God thinks or is doing.

The first part 79, “we have been attacked, and killed.”

Then, “our reputation is being ruined. Strike back your reputation is being tarnished here!”

Then, “hear our cry for. Your reputation is being tarnished!”

Life is full of Ester and psalm 79 moments. Moments when it appears there is stuff happening and there is no action on God’s part. Why have a scripture or story when we don’t get a thought from God.

David had multiple wives, God what do you think about that? Abraham just lied, what do you think about that?

SILENCE AND OMISSIONS

Things happen and in my human way of teaching I want to comment on everything, rather than letting the seemingly passive way of the spirit to do its thing. And that is the purpose. Saturate yourself in scripture, so you lash out for God’s purposes in moments when he seems silent and offer omissions. The world that God is operating is never operated in silence and omission:

Ephesians 6, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

It is during these seemingly silent and omissive times, psalm 73 was written, “…my feet came close to stumbling…I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are not pains in their death… the wicked are always at ease.. When I pondered to understand this it was troublesome in my sight…”

During these times, the seeds you planted from reading and meditating on God’s word will cause something to grow. Even non-Christians, even those that are antagonistic to Christianity, recognize that we tend to shine better under pressure. Psalm 73, “… it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.”

HIS REPUTATION

This psalm, 79, reminds us to consider God’s reputation. This is not just a mindless cry recorded, but an inspired action from the Holy Spirit. ‘Your reputation.. Your reputation”… God cares for his reputation! It was how Moses spoke to God, saying ‘don’t destroy them, people will think you had evil intents!’ (See Exodus 32:12). It was also in consideration of how others would think of Israel, and therefore see God, that Moses pleaded that God himself go with Israel instead of just an angel.

Raise up your Christian flag. Become a target. I want to be more of a liability for God, something that if not taken care of, will tarnish God's reputation – Care for me lord! But be prepared to face the temptation to sin and anger God by not trusting in his salvation, as Israel did wandering around with him (Psalm 78:22).

We are woven in with God, this is God’s work. Israel’s reputation was God's reputation. We have been given all the spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1) all that was prepared for Christ we will partake because we are in him. As God would take care of himself to the glory of his reputation he will work things out for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). For the glory of his reputation he has set all things, we just happen to be in the way of his unending love for himself, or rather the son for the father and father to son, and holy spirit.

Ephesians 3: 8-13

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.

Psalm 78

25 Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance.

Man ate of the bread of angels is structured in an interesting way. There are other such phrases that we can put in this category. Such as “Sing a new song:”

In psalm 96,

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth!

And in psalm 33,

Sing to him a new song

Isaiah 42,

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth,

Revelation 14,

and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

There are several instances where new songs are sung. I do not think the call to “sing a new song” is really saying, come up with songs that have not been sung before, but rather this is saying “sing a song of newness; a song of renewal.” Otherwise the question begs to be asked, how long can a song be sung before it is not new, or even worse, old.

These theme of “sing a song of renewal,” I think, is most evident in Revelation 14, this is a song only the 144,000 could sing which I interpret to be mean the whole host of those saved, only those who have been saved and made new can whole heartedly sing of such events, not even the angels can join us in this song, they may know the words, but they will not be able to sing WITH us, for only those who have been carried over the fire or through the waters can express thoroughly, such as it was with Moses. In Exodus 15 you have the song sang by those who just witnessed God carry them through the sea, and told to sit down, while God made the Egyptians disappear from the face of the earth; anyone can say it but how much vigor would such a group say (v18):

The Lord will reign forever and ever.

In Psalm 78, it is clear that the song is about the times in the wilderness that ‘Jacob’ (the nation of Israel) was unbelieving and continually carried through by God, even so that they shoes did not wear out. They were even fed from the heavens, God provided them with food, manna and meat brought by the winds.  But how does God minister to his people? (Hebrews 1:14) “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

It was the angels that brought in the food, it was the angels that brought bread, this bread was angelic bread or “bread of the angels.” It would be incorrect, explicitly in this example, to say that this is revealing a moment when “Man” ate spiritual food that spiritual beings eat for dinner or breakfast; just as I think that when the bible says “sing a new song” it is not referring to a song that has not been sung.

In the new testament I think you have a similar structure in ‘the tongues of angels.’ 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of the supernatural gifts they were experiencing and relation to the highest calling of love – “the greatest of these is love.”

He speaks of the tongues of men, the language you know. Then he speaks of the tongues of angels, somehow this mysterious saying has concretely been applied to the incomprehensible utterances practiced by ‘speaking in tongues.’ Yet if the phrase can be compared to other such mysteries, especially of the ‘bread of angels,’ something given to man from angels, could this also be pointing to the language, or tongue, given to man, such as what we have witnessed in Acts 2,

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.

The angels delivered such thing, just as the angels have delivered other intangibles, such as making Daniel, tremble, speak, and be strengthened (cf Daniel 10); or atonement with Isaiah’s unclean lips (cf Isaiah 6). It could be said the they delivered the trembling of Angels, the tongue of angels, the strength of angels, or the atonement of angels.

These do not reflect something characteristic of angels or their life, but rather what has been given through them.   

The psalmist encourages the Israelites to tell their next generations "the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done" so that they may also "know them, and in turn would tell their children." "Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their ancestors—a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him." The deeds that the psalmist talks about are the miracles worked in Egypt, the story of salvation from the oppression inflicted by the pharaoh. We have the similar story that is even greater and that cannot be compared with anything - the story of our salvation through Jesus Christ. We must not fail to tell the story to our children so that the legacy of faith may not stop at our generation. We discuss with them. We show it to them in our deeds. We demonstrate its power when it is needed. Our home is the closest mission field.

Psalm 78 is a didadic historical psalm of Asaph, one that retraces the history of Israel from the Exodus to David. Asaph shows that it was primarily a history of Israel's stubborn rebellion and God's persistant and merciful faithfulness. The didactic hinge occurs right at the beginning in verses 7-8 (NASB):

    That they should put their confidence in God
         And not forget the works of God,
         But keep His commandments,
    And not be like their fathers,
         A stubborn and rebellious generation,
         A generation that did not prepare its heart
         And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Consider the highlighted portion of verse 8. It is more literal than the very interpretative rendering by the NIV: "whose hearts were not loyal to God." The NIV rightly expresses the bad condition of Israel's heart ("were not loyal"), but the passive verb suggests that the condition just happened to them rather than they being an active agent in making it so. NASB expresses the active agency ("did not prepare.."). Israel did not take the steps to prepare, or even more literally, "make firm," their hearts. I hope this will encourage all of you to read both widely and deeply, and even to compare different versions and utilize the resources on the web to better understand the presuppositions behind every Bible translation (Link to Lexicon, Link to more literal Hebrew translations).

Why is this important? Israel did not gain the reputation of being "a stubborn and rebellious generation" (verse 8a) just because that was in their nature. It was also because they "did not prepare their hearts." They did not take active steps to make sure that their hearts were fully devoted to God. Some today think that being godly is easy. They say, "Just let go and let God." This is not what the Bible teaches. But I daresay that this false teaching arose out of a misunderstanding of texts just like this one, where people read passivity where diligent activity is in order. Israel became increasingly a generation that was stubborn and rebellious because from one generation to the next, there was little to no effert in actively conditioning their hearts to obey God.

Perhaps the most holy text of Scripture for the Jew was Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

This text clearly explains HOW TO prepare the heart to fully love and obey God, and even HOW TO ensure this for generations to come. Following the great command to fully love God, Moses goes on to explain HOW through four representative imperatives (commands) with respect to God's Law: "Impress them... talk about them... Tie them...Write them..." The Psalmist summarizes this paragraph from Moses in Psalm 119:9 and 11, "How can those who are young keep their way pure? By living according to your word... I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. "

These Scriptures speak of active preparation of the heart by reading, meditating, and sharing the Word of God. If there is any precondition to obedience, this is it. This is what Israel failed to do, and so gained the reputation of being a "stubborn and rebellious generation." Let us all take warning and actively immerse ourselves in His Word.