The Treacherous Bow and the Jealous God Text: Psalm 78:56-64
Introduction: The Covenant is Not a Talisman
We live in an age that wants a domesticated God, a manageable God, a God who exists to affirm our choices and bless our therapeutic journeys. Modern evangelicals, many of them, are not much better. They want a God of unconditional love, which they have defined as a God of unconditional approval. They want the benefits of the covenant without any of the obligations. They want the inheritance without the faithfulness. But the God of Scripture, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not a cosmic vending machine, and He is certainly not a doting grandfather who simply winks at our infidelities.
Psalm 78 is a long and sober history lesson, written by Asaph to be taught to the subsequent generations. It is a recital of God's mighty acts of salvation on behalf of Israel, and a corresponding recital of Israel's persistent, stubborn, and idolatrous rebellion. This is not history for history's sake. This is covenantal history, which is the only kind of history that ultimately matters. It is meant to instruct us, to warn us, and to drive us to the only one who was ever faithful in the covenant, Jesus the Messiah.
The portion before us today is the climax of this sad history prior to the establishment of the Davidic monarchy. It details the catastrophic consequences of Israel's covenant unfaithfulness during the time of the judges, culminating in the disaster at Shiloh. Israel had come to treat the symbols of God's presence, the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant, as magical talismans. They thought they could drag the Ark into battle like a lucky rabbit's foot and God would be obligated to give them victory, all while their hearts were chasing after every pagan deity on every high hill. They learned, in the most brutal way imaginable, that God will not be mocked. He is a jealous God, and His jealousy for His own glory and for the affections of His people is a consuming fire.
This passage is a stark reminder that covenantal signs without covenantal faithfulness are an abomination. Baptism without repentance, communion without obedience, church membership without submission to Christ, these are all ways of treating God's grace as a cheap thing. And as Israel discovered, when God's people play the harlot, judgment begins at the house of God.
The Text
Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies, But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow. For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images. God heard and was filled with wrath And greatly rejected Israel; So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He caused to dwell among men, And gave up His strength to captivity And His beauty into the hand of the adversary. He also gave over His people to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance. Fire devoured His choice men, And His virgins had no wedding songs. His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.
(Psalm 78:56-64 LSB)
Persistent Rebellion and the Faulty Weapon (vv. 56-57)
The indictment begins with a summary of Israel's spiritual condition.
"Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies, But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow." (Psalm 78:56-57 LSB)
Notice the active nature of their sin. They "tested" God, which is to say they pushed the boundaries of His patience to see what they could get away with. They "rebelled," which is a direct refusal of His authority. And they "did not keep His testimonies," which means they ignored the clear stipulations of the covenant He had made with them. This was not a sin of ignorance; it was high-handed defiance against the "Most High God," El Elyon, the sovereign ruler of all things.
Their sin was also generational. They "acted treacherously like their fathers." Sin has a history. It creates patterns and builds strongholds in families and cultures. The fathers had murmured in the wilderness, and the sons built idols in the promised land. It was the same root of unbelief producing the same bitter fruit of rebellion. This is why the psalm begins with the charge to teach the next generation, to break the cursed cycle.
The central metaphor here is that of a "treacherous bow." Some translations say a "deceitful" or "faulty" bow. A treacherous bow is one that looks fine on the rack. It is strung, it has a nock for the arrow, it appears to be a perfectly serviceable weapon. But when the archer draws it back in the heat of battle, it fails. It might snap, injuring the archer. It might be warped, sending the arrow off in a completely useless direction. It is unreliable when it matters most. This is a perfect picture of covenant infidelity. Israel gave every outward appearance of being God's people. They had the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifices. But when they were tested, when they were called upon to be loyal to their king, they failed. Their hearts were warped. They were aimed at the wrong targets, namely, the idols of the Canaanites. A treacherous bow is useless to the warrior, and a treacherous people is useless in the service of God.
Provoking Divine Jealousy (v. 58)
The psalmist now specifies the nature of their treachery.
"For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images." (Psalm 78:58 LSB)
This is the language of marital infidelity. The covenant between God and Israel was consistently pictured as a marriage. God was the husband, and Israel was His bride. Idolatry, therefore, is not merely breaking a rule; it is spiritual adultery. The "high places" were hilltop shrines dedicated to pagan gods, which the Israelites were commanded to destroy but instead adopted for their own syncretistic worship. The "graven images" were the idols they bowed down to.
These actions "provoked" God and "aroused His jealousy." We must be very clear about the nature of God's jealousy. Human jealousy is often sinful because it is rooted in envy and insecurity. We want what someone else has. But God's jealousy is a righteous and holy attribute. He is not jealous of the idols; He is jealous for His people. A husband's jealousy is a righteous anger when another man tries to steal his wife's affections. It is a measure of his love and his commitment to the covenant. If a husband were not jealous in such a situation, it would mean he didn't actually love his wife. God's jealousy is His holy zeal for the exclusive devotion that is rightly His. He has redeemed His bride, and He will not share her with worthless blocks of wood and stone.
The Fury of a Spurned God (vv. 59-61)
God's holy jealousy is not a passive emotion. It leads to decisive, devastating action.
"God heard and was filled with wrath And greatly rejected Israel; So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He caused to dwell among men, And gave up His strength to captivity And His beauty into the hand of the adversary." (Genesis 78:59-61 LSB)
God "heard" the idolatrous worship, and He was "filled with wrath." This is not a petty temper tantrum. Divine wrath is the settled, holy, and just opposition of God to all that is evil. And the result was that He "greatly rejected Israel." This doesn't mean He cast off His eternal plan, but rather that in that historical moment, He rejected that generation's claim to His blessing and protection.
The tangible expression of this rejection was the abandonment of Shiloh. For centuries, Shiloh had been the center of Israel's worship. It was where the Tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was pitched. It was the place God had chosen to "dwell among men." But when the people defiled His worship, God simply left. He abandoned the sanctuary. This is a terrifying thought. The people thought the physical location and the building guaranteed God's presence. God showed them that He is not tied to real estate. He is tied to His covenant, and when the people break that covenant, He withdraws the manifest tokens of His presence. Jeremiah would later point back to the ruins of Shiloh as a warning to the people of Jerusalem who were trusting in the Temple (Jer. 7:12-14).
The ultimate sign of this abandonment was the capture of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is described here as God's "strength" and His "beauty." It was the symbol of His power and His glorious presence on the mercy seat. In the battle with the Philistines, described in 1 Samuel 4, Israel is routed and the Ark is captured. God gave up His glory into the hand of the enemy to demonstrate that His glory does not consist in a golden box, but in His holy character. He would rather let the symbol of His presence be captured by pagans than allow His own people to treat it like a superstition.
The Unmitigated Disaster (vv. 62-64)
The consequences of God's wrath cascade through the entire nation, touching every part of their common life.
"He also gave over His people to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance. Fire devoured His choice men, And His virgins had no wedding songs. His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep." (Psalm 78:62-64 LSB)
God gave His own inheritance, His chosen people, "over to the sword." The very enemies they were supposed to have driven out became God's instrument of judgment against them. The flower of their youth, their "choice men," were consumed by the "fire" of battle. This had a profound social consequence: "His virgins had no wedding songs." An entire generation of young men was wiped out, meaning there could be no marriages, no new families, no future. The life of the nation was grinding to a halt.
Even the religious leadership was not spared. "His priests fell by the sword." This refers to Hophni and Phinehas, the corrupt sons of Eli the high priest, who died in the same battle where the Ark was lost (1 Samuel 4:11). Their death was a direct judgment on the corruption of the priesthood. The final line is haunting: "And His widows could not weep." This could mean a number of things. Perhaps the shock was so great, the grief so overwhelming, that it went beyond tears. Or perhaps the devastation was so complete that the normal rites of mourning were impossible. The social fabric had been so torn that even the dignity of grief was lost. It was a complete and total societal collapse, orchestrated by the very God they had claimed as their own.
Conclusion: The Faithful Husband and the True Bow
This is a grim and terrible story. It is a story of a faithless bride and the wrath of her holy husband. If this were the end of the story, we would be left in utter despair. For who among us has been faithful? Who among us has not turned aside like a treacherous bow? Who has not erected high places in our hearts to idols of comfort, or security, or approval?
But this is not the end. The psalm goes on to describe how God, after this fierce judgment, "awoke as from sleep" (v. 65) and chose David to be the shepherd of His people. This points us forward. It points us to David's greater Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true and faithful Israel. He is the one who never rebelled, never tested God, and always kept His testimonies.
He is the true bow, perfectly aimed at the Father's will, who hit the mark every time. And on the cross, He absorbed the full measure of God's wrath that we, the treacherous and adulterous people, deserved. He took the sword for us. He endured the abandonment of God so that we might never be abandoned. God gave up His "strength" and "beauty" to captivity and death on the cross, so that we might be brought into His glorious presence forever.
The lesson of Shiloh is that trusting in religious ceremony while our hearts are far from God is a fast track to judgment. The good news of the gospel is that God has provided a faithful husband, Jesus, for a faithless bride, the Church. Our hope is not in our ability to be a reliable bow, but in His perfect faithfulness on our behalf. When we are united to Him by faith, His faithfulness is counted as ours. He is the only reason God's wrath is turned away from us, His inheritance. Therefore, let us cast down our idols, abandon our high places, and cling to Him alone.