I found this Psalm difficult to write out, not so much because it was long with 72 verses but because it shows us how deeply emotionally involved God is in the relationship with His people.
MAIN POINT: Believing in a good God Who can and will take care of you is of paramount importance.
God has made a way for you to believe. Jesus is shepherding your heart through His sacrifice of His life for you. The anger of God is not greater than His merciful plan to Shepherd your heart into a believing heart. He has made a way for me to overcome my unbelief.
I saw Jesus in the first seven verses because we are told that Asaph or God through Asaph will teach:
in parables v.1
teach hidden lessons v. 2
teach and welcome children vv.4-5
But then we see that each generation must not become like the generations described in verse 8, and it is from here that we start a real downer. That is not to say that it isn’t like Jesus. He said the generation of His time was also like the one described by Asaph in verse 8.
“Then they will not be like their ancestors--stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.”
Asaph goes into a whole history of such disobedient behaviour in verses 9-20, and then we start to read of God’s reaction:
“When the Lord heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel,”
And this sentiment continues through the Psalm with moments of mercy and grace. Though His fury and anger are also motivated by His mercy.
“Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all.”
God is not just angry but He is grieved, too; it hurts God when we don’t trust Him. We are being foolish. We are missing out. We are misrepresenting Him. We are lying about Him to ourselves and to the world around us and to the heavenly powers of good and evil.
“Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart”
Compare verses 38-49 and see when God held back and when God let His judgement fall on the disobedient.
Words like anger, rejected, fury, hostility, rebellion, testing, provoked, wrath, abandoned, and grieved appear around 20 times in this chapter to describe God’s feelings about His people. And what is the main reason for God’s feelings of anger and grief? Disbelief. Your and my disbelief touches God deeply. Please brothers and sisters understand, belief in God’s ability to save is paramount.
Listen to Jesus:
“Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you?”
Matthew 17:17
“Why do you have so little faith?”
“And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.”
‘Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”’
Doesn’t Jesus sound like the same person (God) that Asaph is writing about in Psalm 78?
And so what does God do for unbelieving, faithless hearts? He provides a shepherd. In Psalm 77 and 78 Asaph ends the Psalm with God’s provision of a shepherd, and it is not to focus on Moses, Aaron or David (prophet, priest, king) but to point to Jesus who is the ultimate good shepherd provided by God to help us with our unbelieving hearts.
‘Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.’
We might be afraid of an angry God and we might think He is trying to boss us around and that He doesn’t care about our feelings. But Jesus isn’t that way. His frustration and His reason for sending us Moses, Aaron and David was so He could serve us and change us for our good.
9 ‘Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.
10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.’
Jesus came to give His life for you, His shepherding is to give us the rich and satisfying life He made us for, and how does he accomplish that but by giving His life?
He gave His life so you could believe that He will take care of you.
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