And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
Psalm 78 retells Israel's story, and this verse marks the turn: life in the promised land became open offence against God. It names two things — "high places" and "idols", which older translations call "carved images" — and both mean worship that people chose for themselves.
The psalm traces Israel from Egypt, through the desert, and into the land. One commentator points out where the worst collapse falls in that sequence:
Here is a very significant fact, and a word of warning to us. The greatest failure of this nation came when they were in the land. That is a very solemn thing. The greatest failure happened while they held their God-given privileges. They had divine power available to them. They were under the leadership God Himself appointed, in the land flowing with milk and honey.
A "high place" was a shrine on high ground, picked by the worshippers themselves. God had already named the one place where His people were to come.
The LORD would choose His own centre, and His people had to come there with their offerings. The Israelites were to destroy all the high places of the other nations... The time soon came when Israel chose high places for themselves. Some were for idol worship, and some for the worship of the LORD. But all the high places, whatever the motives of those who set them up, were offensive in His sight. They were the expression of the creature's self-will, of hearts not subject to His commandments.
The verse sets the high places beside the idols. One writer asks what drove people up those hills:
Why the high places? It speaks of the proud desire of people to claim a higher position than others in their professed worship. They will not take the lowly place of unworthy but thankful worshippers of God... They may say at first that it is really God they are worshipping. But they almost at once add the "carved images" spoken of in the same verse. This was idolatry, not the worship of God at all. Because of this, God had every right to be moved to jealousy, for they were robbing Him of His glory!
God had forbidden such objects, and they did not stay harmless.
They would no doubt say that these things were there to remind them of God. But God had forbidden such things. Using them always lowered God in their eyes, until the things themselves became the objects of their worship.
Jealousy sounds like a flaw until you see whose jealousy it is and what it protects.
He is jealous because He cannot allow any rival a place in the hearts of those He loves. He must have the whole heart, because He alone is worthy of it, and He alone can fill and satisfy it for ever. And if His people turn away from Him and go after idols of their own making, He must leave them to reap the bitter fruit of their own doing.
The verses just after this one show God leaving Shiloh, where the tabernacle then stood. One writer points out who supplies the explanation for that collapse:
The Spirit of God has given us His commentary on this solemn time in Psalm 78:56-64. From this passage we learn the secret of their low condition and the defeat that followed at the hands of their enemies: their disobedience and idolatry... From 1 Samuel 2:17 we learn that "the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt"; now we learn that the Lord treated idolatrous Israel with contempt.
The loss went further than a battle. The ark, the sign of God's presence, passed into enemy hands.
God had departed from Israel in every visible sign of relationship... Every formal link between them was broken. God might still speak by a prophet, and in fact He did. That rested on grace that was sovereign with Him — a right no one could take from Him, to use whenever He pleased. But the established order of things was at an end. The ark did not return to its place until David's time.
The application is not confined to hilltops and statues.
Anything that supplants Christ in the heart of a Christian is an idol, and ought to be judged and put far from us.
- Place. Israel's worst failure came not in the desert but in the land, surrounded by every God-given privilege.
- Pride. The high places were worship done Israel's own way, on ground they picked instead of the place God named.
- Pretence. Images kept to remind people of God became the things they worshipped, robbing Him of His glory.
- Passion. God's jealousy is love refusing a rival; He claims the whole heart because He alone can satisfy it.
- Price. The cost was Shiloh, the ark and every visible link with God. Yet His sovereign grace still spoke.
God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel
Asaph's long retelling of Israel's story reaches its darkest turn here. God hears what His people have become in the land He gave them, and His answer is wrath and rejection — against the very nation He had brought out of Egypt. (Where the commentators below say "abhorred," the ESV says "utterly rejected.")
One writer sets the word "abhorred" beside an earlier line in Israel's history.
The Spirit of God has given us His commentary on this solemn time in Psalm 78:56-64. From this passage we learn that the secret of their low condition, and the defeat that followed at the hands of their enemies, is found in their disobedience and idolatry. They "did not keep His testimonies." "They provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images." Then comes the solemn statement: "When God heard this, He was angry and greatly abhorred Israel." From 1 Samuel 2:17 we learn that "man abhorred the offering of the Lord"; now we learn that the Lord abhorred idolatrous Israel.
Another commentator asks why it was high places, and finds pride in the answer.
These were places of worship — supposedly the worship of God at first, but contrary to God. Why the high places? It speaks of people's proud desire to claim a higher position than others in their professed worship. They refuse the lowly place of unworthy but thankful worshippers of God. It is just like people today who are proud of the highest steeple they can put up on a so-called "church." They may say at first that it is really God they are worshipping, but they almost at once add the "carved images" spoken of in the same verse. This was idolatry, not the worship of God at all. Because of this God certainly had a right to be moved to jealousy, for they were robbing Him of His glory!
One writer marks where in Israel's history this failure came.
It is a very significant fact, and a word of warning to us, that the greatest failure of this nation came when they were in the land. That is a very solemn thing. Their greatest failure happened when they held all their God-given privileges, when they had divine power available to them, and when they were under God's appointed leadership in the land flowing with milk and honey.
God's anger took visible form. One writer follows what happened to Shiloh and to the ark.
Shiloh is given up, and the tent He had in wonderful loving-kindness pitched among men. He gave His strength — "the ark of His strength" (Psalm 132:8) — into captivity among the Philistines. He gave His beauty, or splendour, which is still the ark seen from another side, into the hand of Israel's oppressor. So God had left Israel in every visible sign of relationship, and "Ichabod" was written on the whole nation, just as the dying wife of Phinehas said. Every properly ordered link was snapped apart. God might still speak by a prophet, and in fact did so, for that depended on a grace that was sovereign with Him. But the established order of things was at an end.
Israel still had the ark and expected it to hold them up.
God will have reality. If Israel thought that the ark, which was the outward pledge of God's presence, could or would support them in their sinful state, they were greatly mistaken. God will be no party to what is not true and real, so He says, "I will let my ark go."
Another writer names what lay behind it: evil among God's people that no one judged.
"If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged by the Lord." Israel — yes, Eli too — failed to give glory to God in this way. So God had to vindicate His own glory, as we have seen, by delivering it into the enemy's hand… Such are the awful results of unjudged evil in the house, and among the people, of God.
The psalm does not end at verse 59. One writer shows what the ruin makes way for.
God has fully tested man — by His testimony, by His mighty works, by His dealings in government, and by His mercy. It was all in vain. Man ruins himself completely and forfeits every claim to blessing on the ground of carrying out his responsibilities. So it is plain that if man is to be blessed, everything must depend on God. Man's complete ruin makes way for God to show His love and power for His people. But if God steps in for a people who have hopelessly ruined themselves, it cannot be on the ground of what they are for God, but wholly because of what God is for the people.
- Heard. God's wrath answers what He heard: high places and carved images in the land He gave them.
- Abhorred. Men had treated the Lord's offering with contempt; now the Lord abhorred idolatrous Israel.
- Forsook. Shiloh given up, the ark in enemy hands, "Ichabod" written over the nation, every visible link snapped.
- Refused. God will have reality. He would not let a symbol prop up a sinful people, so He let the ark go.
- Chose. Man's ruin makes way for grace: blessing rests not on what Israel is for God, but on what God is for His people.
And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,
For centuries after Israel entered the land, the tabernacle stood at Shiloh. This verse records the moment God walked away from a tent He Himself had pitched among people — so why would He leave the home He chose?
The words point back to a remarkable act of kindness before they announce a judgment. God had come down to live in a tent among His people. Every visible sign that tied Him to them was bound up in that one place.
God's repayment follows in the next two sections of the psalm. First He removes the defiled sanctuary. He gives up Shiloh, and the tent He had pitched among men in wonderful loving-kindness. And He gave His strength — "the ark of His strength" (Ps. 132:8) — into captivity among the Philistines. He gave His beauty, or splendour — still the ark, but seen from another side — into the hand of Israel's oppressor. So in every visible sign of relationship, God had departed from Israel.
Israel expected to win their battle because they had the ark. Instead God let the ark go, and one writer explains why.
Israel hoped the Philistines would be defeated, and the Philistines feared the same. The very opposite happened. As a Psalm says, God "forsook His dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt among mankind, and delivered His power to captivity, His glory to the hand of the foe" (Ps. 78:60-61). Do you know why that was? God will have reality. If Israel thought that the Ark, which was the external pledge of God's presence, could or would support them in their sinful state, they were badly mistaken.
Eli was the priest at Shiloh. One writer traces the whole disaster back to sin that nobody there dealt with.
Israel — and Eli in particular — failed to judge themselves, and so failed to give glory to God. That is why God had to vindicate His own glory, as we have seen, by delivering it into the enemy's hand. Such are the terrible results of unjudged evil in the house and among the people of God.
The word "forsook" is final. Israel got the ark back from the Philistines, but Shiloh never got it back.
In the words of Psalm 78, "He forsook His dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt among mankind." To that tent He never returns. The ark stays at Kiriath-jearim, in the house of Abinadab, all through the days of Samuel and Saul. We find the tabernacle later at Gibeon, but it is empty.
Centuries later God told His people to go and look at the ruin of Shiloh.
The ruins of Shiloh show that Jehovah's holiness never changes. That empty place is powerful proof of God's displeasure when people turn away from Him. "Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel" (Jer. 7:12). Yet the ark stayed there for more than three hundred and fifty years. Every one of those years declares the Lord's great patience with His rebellious people! God will always keep His truth, but He has put it in the care of His people. If they dishonour Him, He will scatter them, and they will lose their place of trust.
The ruin was not the end of the story. What came next rested on God's own grace, not on Israel keeping its side.
Israel's responsibility, even under the mercy declared through Moses, ended when the Philistines captured the ark. There could be no day of atonement, no blood on the mercy-seat. One word now marked everything: Ichabod, "the glory has departed." God had delivered His strength into captivity, His glory into the enemies' hands. Sovereign grace raised up Samuel the prophet, and then David. David did not bring the ark into the tabernacle at all. He brought it to Mount Zion, which in this way became the seat of sovereign grace in power, in contrast with Sinai.
- Gift — God pitched a tent among people at Shiloh in loving-kindness. The privilege came before the loss.
- Cause — evil left unjudged in God's own house forced Him to vindicate His glory by handing it to the enemy.
- Reality — the outward pledge of His presence will not prop up a people whose state contradicts it.
- Finality — He never returned to that tent; the ark stayed away, and the tabernacle at Gibeon stood empty.
- Grace — Israel's failure closed one door, and God's own grace opened another: Samuel, David, and Zion instead of Shiloh.
And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;
Psalm 78 retells Israel's whole story as a lesson. Here the story hits bottom: God lets the ark — the sign of His own presence among His people — fall into enemy hands. Why would God hand over His own glory? And what can follow that?
Both phrases in this verse name one object. One writer traces each word back to the ark, and shows what the loss cost and how long it lasted.
He gave His strength — "the ark of His strength" (Ps. 132:8) — into captivity among the Philistines. He gave His beauty (or splendour) into the hand of the oppressor of Israel. That is still the ark, seen from another side. So God, in every visible sign of relationship, had departed from Israel. God might still speak by a prophet, and He did, because that rested on a grace that was sovereign with Him. But the established order of things was at an end. The ark did not return to its place until David's time (1 Chron. 13:3; Ps. 132:6).
(The ESV reads "his glory" where this older version reads "beauty" or "splendour".)
The psalm does not say the Philistines seized the ark; it says God delivered it. A commentator links that act to sin God's people refused to judge in themselves.
It was because Israel — yes, because Eli — failed to give glory to God, that God had to vindicate His own glory, as we have seen: to vindicate it by delivering it into the enemy's hand. … Such are the terrible results of evil left unjudged in the house, and among the people of God.
Israel expected the ark to carry them to victory. One writer explains why it did not.
Israel hoped to defeat the Philistines, and the Philistines feared the same. The very opposite happened. God will have reality. If Israel thought that the ark, which was the outward pledge of God's presence, could or would support them in their sinful state, they were completely wrong. God will be no party to what is not true and real, so He says, "I will let my ark go."
Losing the ark was not losing a piece of furniture. It left the people with no way to approach God at all.
Israel was corrupt in all their ways. They were reckless in their dealings with God, because they had forgotten His majesty and His holiness. They try to make the Lord one with them in their unfaithful condition, as He had been when they were in their original state. They do not come before Him to learn why He had forsaken His people. God will neither acknowledge nor help them. On the contrary, the enemy takes the ark of the covenant, the sign and the seat of His relationship with the people. His throne no longer stands among the people. His tabernacle is empty. Every ordered tie with Him stops. Where can they offer sacrifice? Where can they draw near to the Lord their God?
Handing the ark over was not God losing control of His reputation. Here a writer sees Him gaining two ends at once, and asks whether the church's story has run the same way.
God never allowed the ark to return to Shiloh; it was His judgment on the nation, and on the house of Eli. Has it not been the same with the church of God? The church fell into ruin and decay, because it left its first love. God did not let it return to the unity and power that marked it at the beginning, and He has not let it return since. In allowing the ark to fall into the enemy's hands, God secured His glory in the judgment of His people, and also of their enemies.
The psalm does not end at verse 61. After the collapse God acts, and a commentator names the only ground He acts on.
Sovereign grace is the only resource of God, if He is to bless man. All His dealings, however gracious, fail of their object. He loves His people, but He has no resource for blessing them except His own grace. If He acted on the effect of His dealings, He gives them up; they only turned aside like a deceitful bow. So it always is. But when everything was at its worst, He wakes in His love to His people, because of their misery and His love to them. Then He accomplishes the purpose of His own grace in His own way. He "chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved… he chose David his servant."
- Glory named. "His strength" and "His glory" both mean the ark. When it went, every visible sign of God's relationship with Israel went with it.
- Glory surrendered. God Himself handed it over, because evil among His people and in Eli's house went unjudged.
- Glory refused. Carrying the symbol into battle while living in sin could not work — God will have reality, not a charm.
- Glory guarded. Even in enemy hands, God secured His own glory. He judged His people and their enemies alike, and the ark never went back to Shiloh.
- Glory regained. After total ruin God woke in love and chose Judah, Zion and David. Sovereign grace is His only resource for blessing anyone.