Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

• As leaders of the singers- “The chief officer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi …a descen- dant of Asaph, whose family served as singers at God’s Temple.” (Neh. 11:22) • As leaders of instruments- “Then came Zechariah…a descendant of Asaph.” (Neh. 12:35,36)

II MIRACLES IN EGYPT - Tragedy of Forgetting- 9-16

“The warriors of Ephraim, though fully armed, turned their backs and fled when the day of battle came. They did not keep God’s covenant, and they refused to live by his law. The forgot what he had done– the wonderful miracles he had shown them, the miracles he did for their ancestors in Egypt, on the plain of Zoan.”(9-11) Ephraim was the largest and most powerful tribe at the time of the conquest of Canaan but by David’s day they had lost that distinction. The first had become last and Judah, the last, had become the leader of all the tribes. Delitzsch says that the plains of Zoan is where Ramses II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, had set up a statue in honor of Baalim, the fertility god of Egypt 1 . It was close to this place that Israel had crossed the Red Sea but the nation had sadly forgotten God’s miraculous victory over Egypt. “For he divided the sea before them and led them through! The water stood up like walls beside them! In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire. He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them plenty of water, as from a gushing spring. He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!” (13-16) These verses summarize the deliverance from Egypt and the wilderness wanderings that Asaph later recounts in more detail. Jesus was the rock that followed them giving them the water of life in a desert land: “For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. 10:3) “Yet they kept on with their sin, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They willfully tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved. They even spoke against God himself, saying, ‘God can’t give us food in the desert. Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can’t give his people bread and meat.’ When the Lord heard them, he was angry. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel, for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.” (17-22) One of the explicit commands of the Lord was: “Do not test the Lord your God…” (Deut. 6:16) It means to verbalize your unbelief by questioning God’s ability to provide for your needs. That is the stu- dent testing the teacher. They used the miracle of the provision of water as an introduction for their lack of trust in God to provide food. “But he commanded the skies to open–he opened the doors of heaven–and rained down manna for them to eat. He gave them bread from heaven. They ate the food of angels! God gave them all they could hold.” (23-25) Immediately after leaving Egypt the Lord responded to the complaints of his people against Moses by sending manna from heaven for them to eat. “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you.” (Ex. 16:4) Jesus said that he is the ‘bread of heaven’ that we are to eat daily: “I am the true bread from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever and not die as your ancestors did, even though they ate the manna.” (Jn. 6:58) “He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power. He rained down meat as thick as dust–birds as plentiful as the sands along the seashore! He caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents. The people ate their fill. He gave them what they wanted. But before they finished eating this food they had craved, while the meat was yet in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he killed their strongest men; he struck down the finest of Is- rael’s young men. But in spite of this, the people kept on sinning. III MANNA AND MEAT - Testing God in the Wilderness- 17-33

191