40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the wasteland!
40 How oft did they provoke
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
40 How often in the desert they had spurned him, tried his patience in those wilderness years.
40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!
40 Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 78:40
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.