Psalms 78:29

Psa 78:29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

Ver. 29. So they did eat, and were well filled] But better they had fasted. Many eat that on earth which they must digest in hell; these here were murdering morsels.

He gave them their own desire] They were heard, ad voluntatem, non ad utilitatem. Deus saepe dat iratus quod negat propitius. God’s gifts to a graceless man are giftless gifts; and he had better a great deal be without them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 29. So they did eat, and were well filled. They greedily devoured the birds, even to repletion. The Lord shewed them that he could "provide flesh for his people, "even enough and to spare. He also shewed them that when lust wins its desire it is disappointed, and by the way of satiety arrive at distaste. First the food satiates, then it nauseates.

For he gave them their own desire. They were filled with their own ways. The flesh meat was unhealthy for them, but as they cried for it they had it, and a curse with it. O my God, deny me my most urgent prayers sooner than answer them in displeasure. Better hunger and thirst after righteousness than to be well filled with sin's dainties.

Ver. 29. Note: The prophet in this Psalm institutes, as it were, a conflict between God and man. God contends with blessings, man with sins. God exerts his power for the benefit of undeserving man, Ps 78:12, Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers: man repays the divine power with infidelity, Ps 78:17, And they sinned yet more against him. And farther on, in Ps 78:19, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Secondly, God showers down his bounty to overwhelm ungrateful sinners with his gifts, Ps 78:23, He commanded the clouds from above, &c., and rained down manna upon them. These less than men (homunciones) oppose their gluttony to the liberality of God, and abuse the gifts conferred, Ps 78:29, They did eat, and were well filled. Thirdly, divine justice renews the conflict to scourge at once stupidity out of them, Ps 78:30-31, While their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them. Still obdurate they kick against the goad, Ps 78:33, For all this they sinned still. Fourthly, mercy flies down from heaven, to invite them to peace, Ps 78:38, But he being full of compassion. Men are but emboldened by his compassion, and the more easily relapse into sin, Ps 78:40, How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness? Fifthly, and lastly, when all seems lost, love draws nigh, and performs unheard of wonders, to touch their hardness, and to deliver them from the dangers by which they were pressed, Ps 78:43, How he set his signs in Egypt. To these shafts of his love sinners oppose a forgetfulness of all his benefits, Ps 78:42, They remembered not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. And all this took place before they entered the land of promise. The conflict that happened between the Hebrews and God in the land of promise is related in the next section of the Psalm. Thomas Le Blanc.

Ver. 29-31. Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. C. D.

Psalms 78:30*

Ver. 29-31. Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. C. D.

Ver. 29-31. Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. C. D.

Psalms 78:31*

Ver. 29-31. Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. C. D.

Ver. 29-31. Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. C. D.

Psalms 78:32*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. (Psa 78:29) And they ate and were sated exceedingly, and (thus) their desire he brings to them. The first clause is an amplification of the phrase to the full in Psa 78:25 above. Compare the history in Num. xi. 18-20. Their desire, i.e. the object of it, that which they had longed for.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(29) Desire.—See Num_11:34, margin.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. for he gave them &c.] For he brought them that for which they lusted. Cp. Psa_106:14; Num_11:4; Num_11:34.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were not estranged from their lust,.... By the goodness and liberality of God unto them, they were not brought to repentance for their sin of lusting; nor did they abstain from their fleshly lusts, or deny themselves of them, which the grace of God teaches to do; or else the sense is, what they lusted after, flesh, was not withheld from them, or they restrained from eating it; they were indulged with it for a whole month together; to which agrees what follows:

but while their meat was yet in their mouths; the meat of the quails, while it was between their teeth, ere it was chewed, and before it was swallowed down, while they were rolling this sweet morsel under their tongues, and were gorging themselves with it, destruction came upon them, as follows; just as Belshazzar, while he was feasting with his nobles, in the midst of his mirth and jollity, was slain by the Persians, Dan 5:1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

So they did eat, and were well filled - The word rendered “well” here is intensive. It means that they were abundantly satisfied; that there was no lack; that they had the most ample supply.

For he gave them their own desire - He gave them exactly what they asked. He gave them flesh to eat as they had demanded; and he gave it to them in such quantities that no one could say that he had not enough.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

What they desired both for quality and quantity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Were well filled—Hebrews, were satiated greatly. The language indicates excess, gluttony, and it lasted an entire mouth. The place was called Kibroth-hattaavah—the graves of greediness.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So they did eat, and were well filled; i.e. sated. (comp. Num_11:19, Num_11:20) For he gave them their own desire; or, their own lust that they lusted after (Revised Version).

The heart"s desire gratified.

"He gave them their own desire." Three days" march from Sinai, at the first halting place, where the tabernacle was first pitched after quitting the plain at the foot of that holy mountain, the wandering Arabs of the desert might gaze on the saddest, most shameful waymarks of Israel"s pilgrimage towards the Land of Promise. A row of dreary mounds marked where thousands of plague-stricken corpses had been hastily buried by the terrified survivors. As the silver trumpets again sounded, and the mourning host, with thinned ranks, marched away from the ghastly spot, they named it "Kibroth-hattaavah of lust." Many centuries afterwards the Holy Spirit in this psalm wrote this epitaph.

I THE HISTORY is told in Nu 11, with that terseness and graphic power which belong to Bible narratives. The grand characteristic of those narratives, however, is not their style (though it may well be called miraculous), but this they let us see behind the scenes; they withdraw the veil and show us God"s guiding and controlling hand in miracle, when miracles are needed, not otherwise; but no less in the ordinary course of nature and human affairs. Thus we are taught that when we cannot see behind the scenes, within the veil, the same hand is always there. This terrible episode in Israel"s history is one of the most signal illustrations of that profound mystery the thwarting of God"s gracious designs by man"s sin and unbelief. "Design not that absolute purpose which must stand, let who will gainsay, but, as in nature and providence, so in the spiritual realm, the lines along which God works; the manifest fitness of things; the blessed and useful results which would certainly come about if men were trustfully obedient. In this sense, the design with which God led Israel forth out of Egypt is clear as day. (Isa_43:21) To form a nation, giving them the two main elements of civilization order and ideas: wise, righteous order; true, noble, fruitful ideas. And this, that they might be as they have been, spite of all their sin and failure the religious leaders and teachers of mankind. They were a rough material with little, perhaps, beyond the patriarchal government of their chiefs of tribes and families, and the strict discipline to which their labour in Egypt inured them, to raise them above the "mixed multitude" of fugitives who joined them in their escape from bondage. Severe training was indispensable to mould them first into an army of hardy warriors, then into a nation of industrious, God-fearing, law-abiding free men. But had they bent to the hand that led them, listened to the voice that spoke to them, it would have been a gracious discipline. Their first lesson was the foundation truth of religion absolute dependence on the power and providence of the Almighty Creator, "not far from every one of us" (vers. 14 16, 23, 24). Then, at the foot of Mount Sinai, even the dullest, most unbelieving, ungodly heart was constrained to feel the actual presence of the living God; and national as well as personal life definitely hung on these two principles obedience to God"s Law, and faith in God"s promise. Stained and maimed as is the history of God"s ancient people, through their incurable, insensate unbelief and rebellion, so faithfully confessed in their own Scriptures, it is yet the source, remote but real, of our own religious life today; supplies our most touching and stirring pictures and parables of the Christian"s life journey to the better land. What would it have been could they have risen to the height of God"s purpose, and, like Caleb, "followed the Lord wholly"? Three conclusions seem so plain that I do not well know how any candid mind can avoid them.

1. That such a history so unlike anything else would never have been invented had it not been real.

2. That Hebrew writers would never have penned such a history of national apostasy, folly, and sin (of which this psalm is an epitome and specimen), unless divinely inspired.

3. The fact that what the Bible records as God"s promises have been fulfilled after the lapse of ages, spite of the unbelief and opposition of those to whom they were given, cannot rationally be accounted for except by the fact that they are in truth God"s word, which cannot be broken. (Num_23:19)

II SOME SPECIAL LESSONS FROM THIS PAGE OF ISRAEL"S HISTORY.

1. God is able to give you your own desire. " Some hidden wish, perhaps, so bold, or selfish, or wrong, or out of all ordinary range of likelihood, you dare not breathe in human ear. Yet if God spoke to you as to Solomon, (2Ch_1:7) that is what would leap to your lips. If God does not grant it, it will not be because he cannot. No need of miracle. "With God all things are possible." Beware, therefore, how you pray!

2. God may (and sometimes does) grant our hearts desire, not approving, but in displeasure and punishment: happy for us if it be only for chastisement; not (as in the case of Israel) for destruction. (Psa_106:15) Not arbitrarily. The body cannot be gorged, unbridled lust satiated, and at the same time the soul fed, the spiritual life nourished. Examples: love of wealth; amusement; success; ease. God and idols cannot both dwell in the soul"s sanctuary. Sin brings its own penalty.

3. Therefore God may refuse and withhold our heart"s desire, not in anger, but in mercy and wisdom. The father will not give the stone, serpent, scorpion, (Luk_11:11, Luk_11:12) even if the child asks for it.

4. The heart"s desire is the test of character. What a man loves both shows what he is and moulds him. "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he". (Heb_4:12) The sinful desire, Christ teaches, is sin. (Psa_19:12 1Jn_1:8, 1Jn_1:9)

5. There are desires which we may be sure God will satisfy: the earnest of their own fulfilment. (Psa_145:19 Isa_26:8)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

craved

strongly desired

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.