The Revolving Door of Rebellion and Religion Text: Psalm 78:32-39
Introduction: The Anatomy of a False Repentance
The book of Psalms is the anatomy of all the parts of the soul, as Calvin famously said. And in this great historical psalm, Psalm 78, the psalmist Asaph gives us an inspired autopsy of Israel's spiritual sickness. This is not just a history lesson about a stiff-necked people in the wilderness long ago. No, this is a mirror. The human heart, in its natural, fallen state, is a factory of idols and a fountain of excuses. It is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And this passage before us is a master class in that deceit.
Here we see the grim, cyclical pattern of sin, judgment, and superficial repentance. It is a pattern that is as current as this morning's headlines and as close as your own heart. We see a people who are experts at sinning, and yet, when the consequences arrive, they suddenly become very religious. They are driven to God by terror, not by love. Their repentance is a foxhole conversion, a bargain struck under duress. They seek God earnestly, but it is the earnestness of a drowning man seeking a floating log, not the earnestness of a son seeking his father's face.
This passage is a stark warning against a religion of convenience. It exposes the kind of faith that is only active when the divine hand is heavy upon us. It is a religion of the mouth and the tongue, but not of the heart. As Asaph will show us, it is entirely possible to be close to the covenant in proximity, to have all the external signs and wonders, and yet be utterly estranged from God in your heart. You can be inside the church building and still be in the wilderness. This is a terrible place to be, and it is the place where many in our own day reside. They want the Redeemer, but only as a cosmic rescue service. They want the Rock, but only as a temporary shelter from the storm, not as the foundation upon which to build their entire lives.
So let us attend to the words of the psalmist, and as we do, let us ask the Spirit to search our own hearts. Do we seek God only when He slays us? Is our faithfulness as fleeting as the morning dew? Or is our heart steadfast in His covenant? For God is not mocked. He sees the difference between a terrified appeal and a true surrender.
The Text
In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wondrous deeds.
So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror.
When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and sought earnestly for God;
And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue.
For their heart was not prepared to remain with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
But He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; And He abounded in turning back His anger And did not arouse all His wrath.
Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that goes and does not return.
(Psalm 78:32-39 LSB)
The Stubborn Root of Unbelief (v. 32-33)
The psalmist begins by diagnosing the core problem, which is a persistent, hard-hearted unbelief.
"In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wondrous deeds. So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror." (Psalm 78:32-33)
"In spite of all this." In spite of what? In spite of the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and fire, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock. In spite of a mountain of evidence that would convince any impartial jury, they still sinned. Their sin was not a matter of intellectual doubt. It was a matter of moral rebellion. They did not believe His wondrous deeds. This is the mystery of unbelief. God could perform marvel after marvel, and the fallen heart will still find a reason to complain and rebel. The problem is never a lack of evidence; the problem is a lack of submission.
Because they refused to believe, their lives were consumed by divine judgment. God brought their days to an end in "futility." The Hebrew word is hebel, the same word that echoes through Ecclesiastes. It means vapor, vanity, a puff of smoke. They lived for nothing. Their lives were a meaningless chasing after the wind because they had forsaken the one who gives all things meaning. And their years ended in "sudden terror." This is the fruit of a life lived apart from God. You get futility and terror. You get a meaningless life followed by a terrifying death. This is the wages of sin, paid in full.
Repentance Under Duress (v. 34-35)
Now, when the judgment falls, we see a flurry of religious activity. The fear of God, in a very raw sense, gets their attention.
"When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and sought earnestly for God; And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer." (Psalm 78:34-35 LSB)
Notice the trigger: "When He killed them." It is a stark and brutal phrase. It took the terror of death to get them to even look up. And when they did, they "sought earnestly for God." They were not casual about it. They were desperate. But desperation is not the same thing as devotion. A man pinned under a fallen beam will earnestly call for a rescuer, but that does not mean he wants a relationship with the rescuer afterward. He just wants out from under the beam.
And what did they remember? They remembered that God was their "rock" and their "Redeemer." These are glorious covenant titles. They remembered that God was a place of stability and a source of deliverance. But they remembered these things as facts, as theological data points to be leveraged in a crisis. They remembered what God could do for them. They did not remember Him for who He is. Their memory was self-serving. It was a utilitarian faith, a consumerist religion. They wanted the benefits of the Redeemer without submitting to His Lordship.
The Counterfeit Heart (v. 36-37)
God, who cannot be fooled by outward displays, gives us His divine assessment of their supposed repentance. It was a complete fraud.
"But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not prepared to remain with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant." (Psalm 78:36-37 LSB)
They "deceived Him with their mouth." The word here is flattery. They were trying to sweet-talk God. They were saying all the right things, using all the correct religious vocabulary. But their words were disconnected from their hearts. They "lied to Him with their tongue." Their confession was a performance, an act designed to get God to call off the judgment. They were treating God like a foolish pagan deity who could be manipulated by the right incantations.
Verse 37 gives us the reason why it was all a lie. "For their heart was not prepared to remain with Him." The King James says their heart was "not right with him." Their heart was not steadfast, not loyal. This is the core issue. True repentance is a change of allegiance. It is a turning from sin to God that intends to be permanent. Theirs was a temporary fix. They wanted a truce, not a surrender. And because their hearts were not right, they were not "faithful in His covenant." It is possible to be externally part of the covenant community, to have been baptized, to take the Lord's Supper, to sing the psalms, and yet to be unfaithful in that covenant because your heart is far from God. This is not better than nothing; it is far worse than nothing. It is to be surrounded by the means of grace while remaining graceless.
The Unwavering Compassion of God (v. 38-39)
Now, after this scathing indictment of Israel's hypocrisy, we might expect the final hammer of judgment to fall. But instead, the psalm pivots to the astounding, almost unbelievable, compassion of God.
"But He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; And He abounded in turning back His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that goes and does not return." (Psalm 78:38-39 LSB)
"But He..." This is one of the great hinges of Scripture. On one side, you have man's persistent treachery. On the other, you have God's persistent grace. He is "compassionate." He "atoned for their iniquity." This word for atone is kipper, the word for covering. Even in the wilderness, God was providing a covering for their sin, looking forward to the ultimate atonement that would be made by His Son. He did not destroy them, though they deserved it. He "abounded in turning back His anger." He repeatedly held back. He "did not arouse all His wrath." This is a terrifying thought. The judgments they experienced, the terror and futility, were just a fraction of what they deserved. God, in His mercy, was restraining Himself.
And why? What is the basis for this incredible forbearance? "Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that goes and does not return." God remembers our frame. He knows we are dust. This is not an excuse for our sin, but it is the ground of His compassion. He knows our weakness, our frailty, our mortality. He knows that, left to ourselves, we are as transient and powerless as a puff of wind. This is not sentimentalism. This is covenantal faithfulness. God remembers His promises even when, and especially when, His people forget them. He is faithful even when we are faithless, for He cannot deny Himself.
Conclusion: From False Repentance to True Redemption
So what are we to do with this? This passage is a warning, but it is also full of gospel hope. The warning is this: do not mistake the fear of consequences for true repentance. Do not think you can flatter God with your mouth while your heart remains unchanged. Examine yourself. Is your religion a fire escape, or is it a feast? Do you seek God only when He slays you, or do you seek Him because He is your life?
The hope is this: our salvation does not depend on the steadfastness of our hearts, but on the steadfastness of His. He is the one who is "faithful in His covenant." Our hearts are fickle, like the wind. But He is the Rock. And the compassion He showed to faithless Israel is a shadow of the compassion He has shown to us in Christ. In Christ, God did not just hold back His wrath; He poured out all of it on His own Son. On the cross, Jesus experienced the full, unmitigated, unaroused wrath of God that we deserved.
Because of this, God can now do more than just remember that we are flesh. He can remake us. He gives us a new heart, a heart that is no longer deceitful but is prepared to remain with Him. He writes His law on this new heart, so that we can be truly "faithful in His covenant." The cycle of sin, judgment, and false repentance is broken not by our earnest seeking, but by His gracious finding. He finds us in our futility and terror, and He does not just offer a temporary reprieve. He offers a permanent redemption, a steadfast love, and a compassion that will never, ever fail.