Psalms 78:42

Psa 78:42 They remembered not his hand, [nor] the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

Ver. 42. They remembered not his hand] Forgetfulness is the root of rebellion and of all vice, as the Genevists well note here. Eaten bread is soon forgotten, Nihil citius senescit quam gratia (Seneca).

Nor the day when he delivered them] viz. From Pharaoh, but so soon as they had sucked the honey they despised the flower.

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.

42. (Psa 78:42) They remembered not his hand, the day that he redeemed them from distress (or from the enemy). The psalmist still confounds or identifies the several generations as one aggregate or national person. The younger race remembered not the miraculous favours experienced by their prede cessors. His hand, the exertion of his power, a favourite Mosaic figure. See particularly Exo 7:5; Exo 13:9, Deu 7:8. The last clause admits of two constructions. The day may be in apposition with his hand, and a collateral object to the verb, as in the common version; or it may be an adverbial expression qualifying what precedes. "They remembered not how his power was exerted in the day that he redeemed them from the enemy." The essential meaning is the same in either case.

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

The forgetfulness of God’s benefits is the root of rebellion and all vice.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

42. They remembered not his hand. The sacred writer still continues to upbraid the Israelites; for the simple remembrance of God’s benefits might have restrained them, had they not wilfully and perversely forgotten whatever they had experienced. From this impious forgetfulness proceed waywardness and all rebellion. The hand of God, as is well known, is by the figure metonomy taken for his power. In the deliverance of the chosen tribes from Egypt here celebrated, the hand of God was stretched forth in a new and an unusual manner. And their impiety, against which the prophet now inveighs, was rendered the more detestable, from the fact that they accounted as nothing, or soon forgat, that which no length of time ought to have effaced from their memory. Farther, he recounts certain examples of the power of God, which he calls first signs, and then miracles, (verse 43,) that, by the recital of these, he may again rebuke the shameful stupidity of the people. By both these words he expresses the same thing; but in the second clause of the verse, the word miracles gives additional emphasis, implying that, by such strange and unheard-of events, the Egyptians had at that time been stricken with such terror as ought not to have vanished so speedily from the minds of the Israelites.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(42) The reminiscence of the plagues that follows is not a complete enumeration, and does not proceed in the order of the historic narrative.

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

42. his hand] His power exerted on their behalf. See Exo_3:19, and often. nor the day &c.] Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary (R.V.).

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.

How he had wrought his signs in Egypt,.... The plagues which he brought upon the Egyptians, for refusing to let Israel go:

and his wonders in the field of Zoan, or in the country of Zoan, that is, Tanis, as the Targum renders it; so the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions; see Psa 78:12, an enumeration of these signs and wonders follows; but not of all, nor in the order in which they were: only seven are mentioned, with which compare the seven vials or last plagues, Rev 6:1.

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

They remembered not his hand - His gracious interpositions; the manifestations of his power. They forgot that power had been exercised which showed that he was omnipotent - that there was no limit to his ability to aid them.

Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy - The time when he rescued them. The power then manifested was sufficient to defend and deliver them in any new dangers that could befall them. The margin is, from affliction. The Hebrew will admit of either interpretation. The sense is not materially changed.

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

His hand; the great and glorious works of his hand on their behalf.

Nor the day; nor that remarkable and never to be forgotten day, that self-same day, as it is called, Exo 12:41, which God had fixed four hundred years before, Gen 15:13, in which God delivered them from their greatest enemy, the tyrant Pharaoh.

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

Ver. 42. They remembered not his hand. Yet it must have been difficult to forget it. Such displays of divine power as those which smote Egypt with astonishment, it must have needed some more than usual effort to blot it from the tablets of memory. It is probably meant that they practically, rather than actually, forgot. He who forgets the natural returns of gratitude, may justly be charged with not remembering the obligation.

Nor the days when he delivered them from the enemy. The day itself was erased from their calendar, so far as any due result from it or return for it. Strange is the faculty of memory in its oblivion as well as its records. Sin perverts man's powers, makes them forceful only in wrong directions, and practically dead for righteous ends.

Ver. 42. They remembered not his hand, etc. God hates forgetfulness of his blessings. First, because he has commanded that we should not forget them, De 4:9 8:14. Secondly, because forgetfulness is a sign of contempt. Thirdly, it is the peculiarity of singular carelessness. Fourthly, it springs from unbelief. Fifthly, it is the greatest mark of ingratitude. Thomas Le Blanc.

Ver. 42. They remembered not his hand, etc. The rallying point of faith in time of trial is the primary manifestation of grace. To an Israelite a remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt is the test of active faith. In like manner, to the tried believer now it is the CROSS that furnishes the outlet of deliverance from the misty darkness with which Satan sometimes is permitted to envelope our conscience, when the Lord had not been kept watchfully before our face. Because Israel forgot that first deliverance, they went on frowardly in the way of evil. Because a Christian sometimes stops short of the Cross in his spiritual conflicts, he fails to defeat the enemy and remains unfruitful and unhappy, until by some special intervention of the great Restorer, he is again brought, in spirit, to that place where God first met him, and welcomed him in Jesus in the fulness of forgiveness and of peace. No intermediate experience, how truthful soever in its character, will meet his case. It is at the cross alone that we regain a thorough right mindedness about ourselves as well as about God. If we would glorify him, we must "hold fast the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end, "Heb 3:14. Arthur Pridham.

Ver. 42. They remembered not his hand, etc. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Nihil citius senescit quam gratia. Nothing so soon grows stale as a favour. John Trapp.

Ver. 42. The day of days.

I. The enemy encountered on that day.

II. The conflict endured.

III. The deliverance accomplished.

IV. The joy experienced. B. D.

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

They remembered not his hand; i.e. "his doings" (comp. ver. 11, they "forgat his works"). Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. "The day" intended is probably that of the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. (Exo_15:23) In this the Egyptian signs culminated.

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

Hand - The glorious works of his hand. Enemy - That remarkable day, in which God delivered them from their greatest enemy, Pharaoh.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

The writer speaks of how God had rescued the Israelites.

Zoan

a city in Egypt (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

power

terror

sign

Egypt

miracle

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