Bird's-eye view
This brief section of Psalm 78 serves as a potent, compressed case study of Israel's spiritual disease. The psalmist, Asaph, puts his finger on a specific historical failure, the cowardice of Ephraim, and uses it to illustrate a timeless principle. He shows us a three-step progression into disaster. It begins with a practical, visible failure on the field of battle. This failure is then traced back to its immediate cause: a deliberate disobedience to God's covenant law. But Asaph does not stop there; he digs deeper to uncover the root of that disobedience, which is the sin of forgetting. Ephraim's arrows were useless because their hearts were unfaithful, and their hearts were unfaithful because their minds were forgetful. They had all the necessary military hardware but lacked the spiritual software of covenant remembrance. This passage is a stark warning that external giftedness is no match for internal rot.
The logic is simple and devastating. Courage in the present is fueled by gratitude for God's deliverance in the past. When a people, or an individual, willfully forgets the mighty acts of God on their behalf, they cut themselves off from the source of their strength. Disobedience is the natural result, and cowardice in the face of the enemy is the inevitable fruit. This is not just an Old Testament problem; it is a human problem, and it is a constant temptation for the Church.
Outline
- 1. A Case Study in Covenant Failure (Ps 78:9-11)
- a. The Symptom: Cowardice Despite Capability (Ps 78:9)
- b. The Diagnosis: Covenant Disloyalty (Ps 78:10)
- c. The Root Cause: Willful Amnesia (Ps 78:11)
Context In Psalm 78
Psalm 78 is a maschil, a psalm of instruction. Asaph, the author, is not simply recounting history for its own sake; he is teaching a lesson. The entire psalm is a panoramic review of Israel's history from the Exodus to the reign of David, with a relentless focus on the contrast between God's persistent faithfulness and Israel's persistent faithlessness. The psalm is structured as a call for the younger generation to hear the lessons of the past so that they might not repeat the sins of their fathers (vv. 1-8). The specific mention of Ephraim's failure here is significant. Ephraim was the leading tribe of the northern kingdom, a tribe that had been given great prominence. Their failure represents the failure of Israel's leadership. This specific incident is set within the broader narrative of Israel's grumbling, rebellion, and idolatry in the wilderness and beyond, all of which stemmed from the same root sin: forgetting the God who saved them.
Key Issues
- The Sin of Forgetting (Covenant Amnesia)
- The Link Between Obedience and Courage
- The Futility of External Preparation without Internal Faithfulness
- Corporate Responsibility and Generational Sin
- The Significance of Ephraim
Equipped for Failure
There is a kind of failure that is understandable. A small, poorly armed force is overrun by a mighty army. A man unprepared is caught by surprise. But there is another kind of failure that is deeply shameful, and that is the failure of the one who had every advantage, every tool, every bit of training, and who simply folded when the test came. This is the failure Asaph describes here. It is the failure of the equipped coward, and it is a failure that begins in the heart long before it is revealed on the battlefield.
The world is impressed by equipment, by budgets, by numbers, by talent. God is not. He is interested in faithfulness. This passage reminds us that it is entirely possible to have a quiver full of arrows and a heart full of unbelief. It is possible to have all the external trappings of Christianity, all the right books and podcasts and theological degrees, and yet to turn and run when the battle for truth and righteousness is actually joined. Ephraim's failure is a permanent warning against trusting in the arm of the flesh.
Verse by Verse Commentary
9 The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
The description is pointed. The men of Ephraim were not just any soldiers; they were specialists. They were archers equipped with bows. The Hebrew suggests they were not only armed but also skilled, literally "carriers and shooters of the bow." They had the technology, the training, and the manpower. From a military analyst's perspective, they were ready. They were a formidable force. Yet, for all their apparent strength, they were useless when it mattered. They turned back in the day of battle. This is not a strategic retreat. The language implies a shameful rout, a collapse of morale, a cowardly flight. They had everything they needed to fight except for one thing: a heart to fight. Their failure was not one of resources but of resolve. This is a picture of utter spiritual impotence. All the gear in the world cannot fix a broken spirit.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law;
Here is the reason for the rout. The psalmist immediately connects their physical cowardice to their spiritual corruption. Their failure on the battlefield was a direct consequence of their failure in the court of God. The problem was not with their bows, but with their vows. They did not keep the covenant of God. The covenant is the binding, personal relationship that God established with His people. It is a marriage, and they were adulterers. They were unfaithful. This infidelity was then expressed in active rebellion: they refused to walk in His law. This was not a momentary lapse or an accidental stumble. It was a settled disposition of the heart, a stubborn refusal. To refuse to walk in God's law is to declare independence from God Himself. It is to say, "My will, not Thine, be done." Such a heart cannot possibly stand firm in the day of battle, because it has already surrendered to the enemy within.
11 So they forgot His acts And His wondrous deeds that He had shown them.
Asaph now drills down to the ultimate source of the rebellion. Why did they refuse to walk in His law? Why were they unfaithful to the covenant? Because they forgot His acts. In the Bible, forgetting is not a passive mental lapse; it is an active, willful, moral failure. It is a deliberate setting aside of God's goodness. It is a profound act of ingratitude. They had seen with their own eyes His wondrous deeds. They were the beneficiaries of the most stupendous miracles in human history: the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, water from the rock, manna from heaven. God had given them an ironclad resume, a portfolio of deliverance that should have fueled their faith for a thousand generations. But they chose to forget it. They treated God's salvation as a trivial thing, a thing of the past with no bearing on the present. And when a man forgets what God has done for him, he will soon forget what God requires of him. A bad memory is the mother of disobedience.
Application
We who live under the New Covenant must take this warning to heart, because we are far more equipped than Ephraim ever was. We have the completed Word of God, two thousand years of church history, and technological resources that would stagger the imagination of the ancients. We are, in a spiritual sense, archers equipped with the finest of bows. And yet, when we look at the state of the Western church, do we not see the spirit of Ephraim everywhere? In the day of cultural battle over the definition of marriage, the sanctity of life, and the truth of the gospel, do we not see many turning back?
The diagnosis is the same today as it was then. The cowardice we see in the public square is born from a failure to keep the covenant of God. We have become ashamed of His law and have refused to walk in it, trading the hard demands of discipleship for a soft and comfortable cultural Christianity. And the root cause is the same as well. We have forgotten His acts. We have forgotten the wondrous deed of the cross. We have forgotten the earth-shattering power of the resurrection. We have forgotten the God who tore a sea in two and who raised His Son from the dead.
The antidote to cowardice is not a new strategy, a bigger budget, or a better program. The antidote is remembrance. We must deliberately, constantly, and worshipfully remember the gospel. We must preach it to ourselves and to one another. We must sing it, pray it, and celebrate it at the Lord's Table, which Christ gave us precisely because He knew we were such forgetful creatures. When we truly remember the great things God has done for us in Christ, we will find the courage to do the great things God has commanded of us.