God’s Children Have an Eternal Inheritance – Psalm 78:26-55

In Psalm 78:4-8, the Lord urges parents to teach their children His Word and testimonies. They need to know that God loves them, wants to help them, and that He is all powerful. They need to be taught of His grace and forgiveness. Otherwise, they will be ill-prepared to overcome the evil that is in the world. We should teach our children about God because we love them.

“He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens, and by His power He brought in the south wind. He also rained meat on them like the dust, feathered fowl like the sand of the seas. And He let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.” Psalm 78:26-28

In Numbers 11:31, east and south winds from the Lord brought quail from the sea and left them on Israel’s campground. These birds were spread as wide as a day’s journey on all sides of the camp. Israel was three feet deep in quail. They obtained meat without money. [1]

“So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire. They were not deprived of their craving, but while their food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came against them, and slew the stoutest of them, and struck down the choice men of Israel.” Psalm 78:29-31

In Numbers 11:4-6, the mixed multitude [that is the Egyptians] among them craved for meat. Next, the Israelites began to weep. They all wanted meat. They complained about the manna.

In Numbers 11:18-20, the Lord was displeased with them because they questioned why He brought them out of Egypt. Thus, He told them that they would eat meat for an entire month until it was detestable to them. Then, in Numbers 11:31-33, the Lord brought the quail, “but while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.”

Israel’s lust for luscious delights yielded death. In Philippians 3:18-19, Paul wept for those “whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.”

“In spite of this they still sinned and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear.” Psalm 78:32-33

God did miracles for Israel. He rescued them from whips of taskmasters. He transformed a sea into a path to freedom for them, but a destroyer of Pharoah and his army. The Lord fed and hydrated the nation of Israel (2-3 million people) in a wilderness.

Israel’s lack of faith in God yielded futility and fear. According to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary, “Futility is the state of being useless, pointless, or incapable of producing any meaningful result, often characterized by a sense of hopelessness.”

In Hebrews 3:12, Paul wrote, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”

“When He slew them, then they sought Him, and they returned and sought earnestly for God. Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.” Psalm 78:34-35

Spiritually speaking, we need God to help us “die to self” so that we live for Him. In John 12:24, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Water baptism is symbolic of dying to one’s old self and of resurrecting from the dead to a new life in Christ. Only Jesus, our Rock and Redeemer, can create us anew to be like Him.

“Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongue.” Psalm 78:36

When a person is genuinely converted by God from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and filled with His Spirit, they experience love for God and love for people. Otherwise, as Jesus said in Matthew 15:8, we will honor God with our lips but have hearts far from Him.

Martin Luther once famously said: “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” Faith is receptivity. It receives Christ and all that He has done for us. Christ has to fill-in what sin took away from us, namely, our faith in God, as well as our love for Him.

God knew the secret intention of Israel was to break their word once their crisis subsided. They did not return to God with their whole heart, but as the Lord says in Jeremiah 3:10, “Only in pretense” or superficially. [3]

“Their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant.” Psalm 78:37

Typically, a marriage covenant include a vow, such as, “I, [name], take you, [name], to be my wedded [wife/husband], to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”

Trials and temptations test the authenticity of our love for God. Do we really love God or do only turn to Him when we need His help?

In Romans 5:3-5, Paul wrote, “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” We glory in our sufferings when we receive them as an opportunity to grow in Christlikeness. During our sufferings, the Holy Spirit fills us with God’s love.

In 1 Peter 1:6-8, Peter wrote that our temporary trials come to prove the genuineness of our faith. Our faith is of greater worth than gold. Our faith results in praise, glory and honor to Jesus Christ. The Lord fills with us an glorious joy as we trust in Him during difficulties.

Many of the Church’s well-known hymns were produced by composers who experienced trials.

Prophets and apostles composed books of the Bible while in captivity.

“But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again.” Psalm 78:38-39

God could have totally destroyed the Israelites for their constant disrespect and betrayal of Him.

At times, God considered Israel’s time with Him in the wilderness as a honeymoon. In Jeremiah 2:2, God said to Israel, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.” But then, at other times, Israel expressed anger with God and betrayed His trust.

God did not give to Israel all the wrath that they deserved. Their commitment to Him was shallow. If He demanded too much of them, they would turn from Him. So, God forgave them and had compassion on them.

In the Gospels, Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Jesus often confronted the Pharisees about their hypocrisy. However, when Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, Jesus lovingly explained to him the way of salvation. Jesus spoke the most well-known verse in the Bible (John 3:16) to Nicodemus. Jesus had compassion on Nicodemus.

“How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” Psalm 78:40-41

Can you imagine walking up to the most powerful person on earth and provoking him to anger? Would you demand that he prove himself to you? It would not be wise or prudent to do so.

Israel tended to mistreat God. In a similar fashion, in Revelation 18:7, an end times empire will boast against God, saying, “I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow. I will never mourn.” In Revelation 18:8, the Lord says, “In one day her plagues will overtake her.... She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

“They did not remember His power. The day when He redeemed them from the enemy.” Psalm 78:42

We should read our Bibles daily and attend worship services where God’s Word is preached to keep us mindful of the miracles. We should teach our children about the mighty acts of God, especially about what Jesus did for our redemption on the cross.

The words of the Bible are more than words in a history book. The Bible’s words are eyewitness testimonies of the great things God did. And God has not changed. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” God still does miracles.

“They did not remember, the day when He redeemed them from the enemy. When He worked His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan. He turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink. He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He also gave their crops to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He also gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to fiery lightning. He cast on them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending angels of destruction among them. He made a path for His anger. He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague, and destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham. But He made His own people go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them on safely, so that they did not fear. But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.” Psalm 78:43-53

God delivered Israel from the Pharoah with mighty miracles, and the Lord will do mighty miracles in the last days to deliver His people from the antichrist.

In Exodus 7:20, Moses turned the Nile to blood. In Revelation 16:3-4, God will turn the sea and water into blood. In Exodus 10:22, God plague Egypt with darkness for three days. In Revelation 11:9-11, God plagues the earth with three and half days of darkness. In Exodus 8:22-23, the Israelites were divinely protected from plagues. In Revelation 7:3, 9:4, God protects His people from the plagues of the last days.

In Egypt, God plagued evildoers to force them to let His sheep go. As a shepherd separates sheep from goats, God separated His people from those who were not His people.

In Revelation 13:16-17, taking the mark of the beast signifies allegiance to the antichrist. In Revelation 20:15, those whose names are not in the Lamb’s book of life perish.

In Revelation 19:2, God avenges the blood of His servants on the antichrist. In Revelation 19:8, God clothes His peopleis people in bright and clean garments. In Revelation 19:9, they are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. In Revelation 21:2-4, they are with God in His Holy City.

“And He brought them to His holy border, this mountain which His right hand had acquired. He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.” Psalm 78:54-55

God brought Israel into the Promised Land and He brings those who trust in Him to heaven.

In Jeremiah 29:11, God said to the exiles in Babylon, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

In Luke 23:43, Jesus said to the believing thief next to Him on the cross, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”

God says in Revelation 21:7, “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

There is too much at stake for us personally, and for our children to neglect our relationship with God. “Holy Spirit, please pour God’s love into us and into our children. Help us to walk with God, and be with God for all eternity. I ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”



[1] Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid