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Day 136

Psalm 78:39a "He remembered that they were but flesh..."

Day 136 – Psalm 78

“He remembered that they were but flesh…” Psalm 78:39a

THE FOOLISH ARROGANCE OF MAN

The sins of Israel are a demonstration of the foolish arrogance of man. The following examples may be cited.

1. The challenging of God to provide water and food.

2. The rank unbelief even after God has graciously provided.

3. The false expressions of repentance and worship as an attempt to please God by flattery.

These display the arrogance of an erring and sinful nation. The children of Israel believed much more in themselves than they did in God. Hence throughout the wilderness journey and beyond, Israel provoked God to anger time and again.

A GRACIOUS AND UNDERSTANDING GOD

How gracious God was to the children of Israel. He forgave their iniquities because He was a God of genuinely great compassion. But He was more than that as this text shows.

“For He remembered that they were but flesh,
A breath that passes away and does not come again.”
Psalm 78:39

1. “For He remembered”

a) This does not mean that God ever suffers from a lapse of memory.
b) It means two things in particular:
i) God is conscious of the state of man.
ii) He factors in the true being of man when He deals with him.

2. “That they were but flesh”

a) Man was made lower than the angels.
b) Man is not Divine.
c) He is mere flesh… limited, weak and sinful.

3. “A breath that passes away and does not come again”

a) How long can one hold a breath?
b) Man has but one short life and all too soon that life is over… completely!