Daily Devotional 8/12/22

In Psalm 78, Asaph announced his intentions to teach the next generation about the wonders God had done among his people by recounting the history of Israel’s disobedience and God’s repeated mercy to them. It seems that Asaph did not plan to offer a straight accounting of history:

O my people, listen to my instructions.
Open your ears to what I am saying,
for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
stories we have heard and known,
stories our ancestors handed down to us. (78:1-3)
Asaph invited his listeners to hear him speak in parables and hidden lessons, yet the seventy-two verses of the psalm don’t seem like a typical parable—they seem to run very parallel to Israel’s history. But there is a hidden meaning to the nation’s travails, a hidden purpose in her story that is only partially revealed by Asaph’s teaching. Deep knowledge of the ways of God means more than knowing the facts of history. It means also grasping the unfolding patterns to see what God is doing.
Matthew wrote that Jesus’ teaching was the fulfillment of Psalm 78:

Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet:

“I will speak to you in parables.
I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34-35)
Jesus solves the riddle and answers the question left unanswered in Asaph’s psalm. He is the answer to Israel’s repeated disobedience, for his work will give them hearts that want to obey. He is the culmination of Israel’s history, for it has all led to his coming. He is the fulfillment of God’s good intentions toward his people. He is the hidden secret, and he shares that secret with us as he reveals himself to us.

You are revealing to me the hidden lessons of Israel’s history as I see that you are where the story was leading all along.