41 And they turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel. 42 They remember not his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary; 43 How he set his signs in Egypt, And his wonders in the field of Zoan, 44 And turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink. 45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, And their labor unto the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycomore-trees with frost. 48 He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, A band of angels of evil.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 78:41-49
Commentary on Psalm 78:40-55.
(Read Psalm 78:40-55.)
Let not those that receive mercy from God, be thereby made bold to sin, for the mercies they receive will hasten its punishment; yet let not those who are under Divine rebukes for sin, be discouraged from repentance. The Holy One of Israel will do what is most for his own glory, and what is most for their good. Their forgetting former favours, led them to limit God for the future. God made his own people to go forth like sheep; and guided them in the wilderness, as a shepherd his flock, with all care and tenderness. Thus the true Joshua, even Jesus, brings his church out of the wilderness; but no earthly Canaan, no worldly advantages, should make us forget that the church is in the wilderness while in this world, and that there remaineth a far more glorious rest for the people of God.