Psalms 78:4 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Psalms 78:4
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
to secrete · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common plural
children
מִבְּנֵיהֶ֗םmi.be.nei.Hem
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
shewing
מְֽ֭סַפְּרִיםMe.sa.pe.rim
H5608
properly · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
generation
לְד֥וֹרle.Dor
H1755
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
come
אַחֲר֗וֹן'a.cha.Ron
H314
hinder · adjective, masculine singular absolute
praises
תְּהִלּ֣וֹתte.hi.Lot
H8416
laudation · noun, common feminine plural construct
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
strength
וֶעֱזוּז֥וֹve.'e.zu.Zo
H5807
forcibleness · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
works
וְ֝נִפְלְאוֹתָ֗יוve.nif.le.'o.Tav
H6381
properly · conjunction + verb, niphal active participle, feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
done
עָשָֽׂה'a.Sah
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 11:19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest…
Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from t…
Joel 1:3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
Psalms 145:4-6 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
Deuteronomy 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by th…
Psalms 71:17-18 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
Psalms 10:1-5 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Joshua 4:6-7 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 78:1-8
These verses, which contain the preface to this history, show that the psalm answers the title; it is indeed Maschil - a psalm to give instruction; if we receive not the instruction it gives, it is our own fault. Here,
I. The psalmist demands attention to what he wrote (Psa 78:1): Give ear, O my people! to my law. Some make these the psalmist's words. David, as a king, or Asaph, in his name, as his secretary of state, or scribe to the sweet singer of Israel, here calls upon the people, as his people committed to his charge, to give ear to his law. He calls his instructions his law or edict; such was their commanding force in themselves. Every good truth, received in the light and love of it,…
We will not hide them from their children,.... The children of the Jewish fathers, but faithfully publish and declare them, as Christ and his apostles did; or the children of God and Christ, their spiritual seed and offspring:
showing to the generation to come; and so in all successive ages, by the ministration of the word, and the Spirit attending it; see Psalm 22:30,
the praises of the Lord; what he has done in predestination, redemption, and effectual calling, which is to the praise of the glory of his grace, Ephesians 1:6, and so all other truths of the Gospel, which are to the praise of Father, Son, and Spirit, and engage men to show it forth:
and his strength displayed; in Christ, t…
Psalm 78:1-6
1. Hearken, O my people! to my law: [307] incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old time: 3. What we have heard and known, and our fathers have related to us. 4. We will not conceal from their children in the generation to come, recounting the praises of Jehovah, and his power, and the wonderful works which he has done. 5. He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel: for he commanded our fathers to make them known to their children: 6. That the generation to come might know them, and that the children to be born should arise and declare them to their children.
1. Give ear, O my…
The Church Fathers
"They have not been hidden from their sons in another generation." This is our generation wherein there hath been given to us regeneration. "Telling forth the praises of the Lord and His powers, and His wonderful works which He hath done." The order of the words is, "and our fathers have told unto us, telling forth the praises of the Lord." The Lord is praised, in order that He may be loved. For what object can be loved more to our health? "And He hath raised up a testimony in Jacob, and hath set a law in Jacob." This is the beginning whereof hath been spoken above, "I will declare propositions from the beginning." So then the beginning is the Old Testament, the end is the New. For fear doth prevail in the law? "But the end of the law is Christ for righteousness to every one believing;" at whose bestowing "love is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which hath been given to us:" and love made perfect doth cast out fear, inasmuch as now without the Law the righteousness of God hath been made manifest. But inasmuch as He hath a testimony by the Law and the Prophets, therefore, "He hath raised up a testimony in Jacob." For even that Tabernacle which was set up with a work so remarkable and full of such wondrous meanings, is named the Tabernacle of Testimony, wherein was the veil over the Ark of the Law, like the veil over the face of the Minister of the Law; because in that dispensation there were "parables and propositions." For those things which were being preached and were coining to pass were hidden in veiled meanings, and were not seen in unveiled manifestations. But "when thou shall have passed over unto Christ," saith the Apostle, "the veil shall be taken away." For "all the promises of God in Him are yea, Amen." Whosoever therefore doth cleave to Christ, hath the whole of the good which even in the letters of the Law he perceiveth not: but whosoever is an alien from Christ, doth neither perceive, nor hath. "He hath set a law in Israel." After his usual custom he is making a repetition. For "He hath raised up a testimony," is the same as, "He hath set a law," and "in Jacob," is the same as "in Israel." For as these are two names of one man, so law and testimony are two names of one thing. Is there any difference, saith some one, between "hath raised up" and "hath set"? Yea indeed, the same difference as there is between "Jacob" and…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Commandments · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Parents · Their duty to their children is: To tell them of the miraculous works of God — Their duty to their children is: To tell them of the miraculous works of God
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The poet begins very similarly to the poet of Ps 49. He comes forward among the people as a preacher, and demands for his tra a willing, attentive hearing. תּורה is the word for every human doctrine or instruction, especially for the prophetic discourse which sets forth and propagates the substance of the divine teaching. Asaph is a prophet, hence Psa 78:2 is quoted in Mat 13:34. as ῥηθὲν διὰ τοῦ προφήτου.
(Note: The reading διὰ Ἠσαΐ́ου τοῦ προφήτου is, although erroneous, nevertheless ancient; since even the Clementine Homilies introduce this passage as the language of Isaiah.)
He here recounts to the people their history מנּי־קדם, from that Egyptaeo-Sinaitic age of yore to which…
This story of what God has done should be told from generation to generation (see Deut 6:20-25; Prov 4:1-4).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 78:4
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
We will not hide them from their children. Our negligent silence shall not deprive our own and our father's offspring of the precious truth of God, it would be shameful indeed if we did so. Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord. We will look forward to future generations, and endeavour to provide for their godly education. It is the duty of the church of God to maintain, in fullest vigour, every agency intended for the religious education of the young; to them we must look for the church of the future, and as w…
