Sermon Tone Analysis

Read Psalm 78:1-8

A Call to a Legacy of Worship

Story of Joachimsthal, Germany, and the legacy of faith they passed to their children

The Purpose of Psalm 78

“Psalms 73–83 form a Levitical collection, the Asaph psalms….”

(McCann)

This collection starts where Book 3 of the Psalms begins with Psalm 73

In these first 8 verses, Asaph is establishing the purpose of the Psalm

The superscript of the Psalm reads “A Maskil of Asaph”

What is a Maskil?

The term “maskil comes from the Hebrew root sakal, which means “to have insight, to teach.”

So we can understand a maskil as a teaching song.

The "teaching" of Psalm 78, the teaching to which the faithful should "give ear" (Psalm 78:1), is a teaching of hope in the goodness of God and a warning of the consequences of continual disobedience.

A Didactic Psalm

This is known as a “didactic psalm” because it is focused on teaching.

Some scholars have considered it almost like a catechism of sorts.

This makes me wonder about teaching it to our children.

Do you think a child could memorize this?

I wonder....especially as a chant....?

Often in Baptist churches I feel like people recoil from the word “catechism” because they immediately associate it with the Roman Catholic Church

This is, actually, very wrong.

Calvin and Luther believed deeply in using catechism to teach believers - of all ages!

One puritan pastor in England, named Richard Baxter, was one of the most influential leaders of the Nonconformists.

He wrote a very influential book called “The Reformed Pastor,” and in it he talks about systematically working through his congregation, visiting every family and reviewing the catechism with them, helping teach and instruct them in it.

A hundred years after the beginning of the Reformation we can see a Protestant pastor using catechism to teach and shepherd his people.

Maybe we have dismissed it more out of fear than conviction.

Teaching and training new believers (children and adults) takes time and effort.

This psalm is one which was designed and used to teach Israel and her children to stay faithful to God.

And then there’s Asaph.

Who is this guy?

1 Chronicles points towards his role in Israel:

1 Chronicles 25:1

also note 1 Chron 25:6

Asaph was a talented and inspired musician, and he was entrusted with leading all of Israel in worship.

(I kinda like this guy!)

Psalm 78

As we start, be mindful of these terms, at least in the introduction:

Three Important Terms:

Father

Children

Generation

[blank slide]

[Outline borrowed from Preacher’s Commentary with my meta-categories]

Two main categories:

Command to pass on the Faith

The History of Faith

Psalm 78 Overall Outine:

Command to Pass on the Faith

Call to Receive Instruction (Ps 78:1-4)

Divine Basis and Purpose for Instruction (Ps 78:5-8)

The History of Faith

A Warning from Ephraim’s Children (Ps.

78:9-11)

God’s Redemption and Israel’s Rebellion Israel’s Rebellion (Ps.

78:12-20)

God’s Provision and Judgment (Ps 78:21-33)

Israel’s Repentance and God’s Compassion (Ps 78:34-39)

Israel’s Rebellion and God’s Judgment and Mercy (Ps 78:40-55)

Israel’s Rebellion and God’s Wrath (Ps 78:56-64)

God’s Judgment Against His Enemies (Ps 78:65-66)

God’s Sovereignty in Election (Ps 78:67-72)

Psalm 78:1-4

A Call to Receive Instruction

This psalm provides a hermeneutical principle for biblical interpretation.

There is a moral order to history as God reveals Himself in judgment and redemption.

This is what we must learn and pass on to our children.

Let us read the Psalm...

Check this out, look at Psalm 78:2

Then consider Matthew’s allusion to it, basically connecting Jesus’ teaching style with what Asaph is commanding here.

We will not conceal them from our posterity, implying, that what we have been taught by our ancestors we should endeavour to transmit to their children.

By this means, all pretence of ignorance is removed; for it was the will of God that these things should be published from age to age without interruption; so that being transmitted from father to child in each family, they might reach even the last family of man.

Around the fire-side fathers should repeat not only the Bible records, but the deeds of the martyrs and reformers, and moreover the dealings of the Lord with themselves both in providence and grace.

Children should be taught cheerfully by word of mouth by their own mothers and fathers, as well as by the printed pages of what they too often regard as dull, dry task books.

What we can expect throughout the remainder of this psalm is the recitation of these works.

Their purpose is clear: the work of God is for the worship of God.

Confronted by His acts we are to fall down before Him in adoration and praise.

Psalm 78:5-8

Note how often we’re seeing the world children.

It’s obviously a primary concern here.

“The term children can also be used in a figurative sense and does not always refer to those young in years.

It certainly can refer to those young in years, but the reference here to those yet unborn would suggest that it could, at least in part, refer to young people in this context.

If they are not young in years, they are certainly young in the faith of the community and in their understanding of the traditions of Israel.” - Phillip McMillion

This rings as a challenge to the body of believers in regards to passing on our faith, whether it is to physical children or to our spiritual children.

As this psalm unfolds, these positive and negative purposes will be fulfilled.

We will be encouraged by God’s mighty works and warned by the rebellious fathers and those who followed them.

Here then is teaching by historical memory and example

Donald Williams and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Psalms 73–150, vol.

14, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1989), 53.

Psalm 78:9-11

The children of Ephraim,” etc.]

This seems to refer to that shameful defeat which the Philistines gave them in Eli’s time when they carried the ark into captivity, the same thing that mention is made of again, vv.

56–64.

The defeat of the children of Ephraim may be taken notice of the rather because they were eminently a warlike tribe.

There chiefly lay the strength of Joseph’s posterity, of whom such things are said, Gen.

49:23–24.

Psalm 78:12-20

How much food did God supply the Israelites with?

If you calculate a single person’s daily consumption of food per day as 4 lbs, you could say the Israelites (numbering over 2 million [600,000 males - Ex 38:26]) consumed as much as 8 million lbs of food a day (4,000 tons).

Cutting that in half (for rationing), that is still over 2,000 tons of food per day!

That would take roughly 200 dump trucks to haul!

Psalm 78:21-33

on Psalm 78: 22 :

The New Testament, as well as the Old, bears witness to the fact that trust is an essential element in faith.

—> Louis Berkhof, The Assurance of Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: WM.