Matthew Henry on Psalms 78:40–end
The matter and scope of this paragraph are the same with the former, showing what great mercies God had bestowed upon Israel, how provoking they had been, what judgments he had brought upon them for their sins, and yet how, in judgment, he remembered mercy at last. Let not those that receive mercy from God be thereby emboldened to sin, for the mercies they receive will aggravate their sin and hasten the punishment of it; yet let not those that are under divine rebukes for sin be discouraged from repentance, for their punishments are means of repentance, and shall not prevent the mercy God has yet in store for them. Observe,
I. The sins of Israel in the wilderness again reflected on, because…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Psalms 78:44
And had turned their rivers into blood,.... The river Nile and its seven streams; this was the first of the plagues of Egypt, Exodus 7:20, and was a just retaliation for drowning the infants of the Israelites in their river, Exodus 1:22, a like plague will be inflicted on spiritual Egypt, and with equal justice; see Revelation 11:8,
and their floods, that they could not drink; the rivulets that flowed from the Nile, and every spring or confluence of water; or rather by these rivers and floods are meant the canals and ditches, which, as Jarchi (e) observes, were made by the hands of men, from the banks of the river Nile, to water their fields with.
(e) Comment. on Exodus 7.19. so Kimchi in…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Psalms 78:42-51
Psalm 78:42-51
42. They remembered not his hand in the day that he delivered them from the oppressor: [343] 43. When he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan. 44. When he turned their rivers into blood; and their streams, that they could not drink. 45. He sent among them a mixture [344] which devoured them; and the frog which destroyed them. 46. And he gave their fruit [or produce] to the caterpillar, [345] and their labor to the grasshopper. [346] 47. And he destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig-trees [347] with hail stones. [348] 48. And he gave up their cattle to the hail; and their flocks to thunderbolts. 49. He sent upon them the fierceness of his…
