Psalm 78:38

 

"Yet He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; He restrained His anger often and did not stir up all His wrath."

(This will be familiar territory for those doing The Bible Recap 😉)

Psalm 78 is a teaching song--kind of like singing the ABCs or the books of the Bible to learn them.  Asaph, the author of this psalm, was from the priestly tribe of Levi.    His particular tribe, the Gershonites,  was charged with the care of curtains, hangings, and ropes for the sanctuary.  Asaph was one of three Levites put in charge by King David to be a minister of music. (1 Chronicles 6:39)  He wrote 12 psalms--50 and 73-83.    In verse 8, the Hebrew people showed the OPPOSITE of chesed--"a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God."  God was so faithful, and they were so not.   Asaph tells the people to tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, His might, and the wonders He has done.  And so he sets much of Israel's history to music to make it easier to remember and teach.  When we get to our verse, it's the same old story, a thousand times told.  The Israelites honor God with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Him.  But God.. He has loyal love for these people who cannot keep the faith to save their lives. 

In the Bible Recap study guide, Tara-Leigh Cobble had us underline every phrase in this psalm that meant "forgot", "did not remember", "did not keep", "did not believe".  It was a great exercise, but in a sad way.  To forget God's faithfulness means you had to have known it.  To not keep or not believe is to look at the stubborn, ardent love, mercy, and grace of God and say "no thanks."  Yet He, being compassionate, atoned for our iniquity.  He remembered that we were but flesh, and did not destroy us; This is a hint at the coming of Jesus Christ.  The word atoned comes from a root word that means "the price of a life" or "ransom".   In Matthew 20:28, Jesus  says He came to pay the ransom, the price for our lives.  He traded His life for ours.  Some of us have known this for years, some are just realizing it.  But now that we know, we can remember or we can forget.  We can hold fast or disregard.  We can believe or not.  I pray we are learning to emulate the faithful, loyal, stubborn, unwavering love of God.