Shalom,

Psalm 78 is a very long psalm! It is also a "History Psalm"! The German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, once said that one thing we learn from history, is that we don't learn from history! This has been shown to be particularly true with Bible history. Again and again and again God's people sinned, called on God, He delivered, they praised Him FOR A TIME, and then went right back to doubting Him again! A sad story, but one WE can learn from! Read through Psalm 78 and use it as a gauge for your thoughts, words and action concerning God and His wonderful promises found in the Word! See verses 1-8:

¹GIVE EAR, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable (in instruction by numerous examples); I will utter dark sayings of old [that hide important truth]

³Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, but we will tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonderful works that He has performed.

⁵For He established a testimony (an express precept) in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, commanding our fathers that they should make [the great facts of God's dealings with Israel] known to their children,

⁶That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born might arise and recount them to their children,

⁷That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but might keep His commandments

⁸And might not be as their fathers--a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their hearts aright nor prepared their hearts to know God, and whose spirits were not steadfast and faithful to God.

That is God's intended purpose in having this Psalm in here! He wants us to each make that determined purpose that WE will remember the Lord, our God! The rest of the verses detail the wonderful works of God and the profound foolishness of a people who take it so lightly! Check out Luke 12:48b:

For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.

We of the New Covenant have been given extremely much! Let's stay aware of it daily! But also remember that God NEVER gave up on them and He won't give up on you, either!

Romans 6 talks about the fact that a born again believer has been freed from sin because Jesus was MADE sin with our sin and we were MADE the righteousness of God through Him - SO act like it! Verse 11 is our key verse:

¹¹Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

AMEN!

Then we have Leviticus 26:1-13 where God tells of all the good things that He will do for His people if they just simply obey Him:

¹YOU SHALL make for yourselves no idols nor shall you erect a graven image, pillar, or obelisk, nor shall you place any figured stone in your land to which or on which to bow down; for I am the Lord your God.

²You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them,

⁴I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase and the trees of the field yield their fruit.

⁵And your threshing [time] shall reach to the vintage and the vintage [time] shall reach to the sowing time, and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.

⁶I will give peace in the land; you shall lie down and none shall fill you with dread or make you afraid; and I will clear ferocious (wild) beasts out of the land, and no sword shall go through your land.

⁷And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

⁸Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

⁹For I will be leaning toward you with favor and regard for you, rendering you fruitful, multiplying you, and establishing and ratifying My covenant with you.

¹⁰And you shall eat the [abundant] old store of produce long kept, and clear out the old [to make room] for the new.

¹¹I will set My dwelling in and among you, and My soul shall not despise or reject or separate itself from you.

¹²And I will walk in and with and among you and will be your God, and you shall be My people.

¹³I am the Lord your God, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should no more be slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect [as free men].

Then we see in the rest of the verses through verse 39 what the future holds in store for those who don't! But these are followed with what God will do when His people repent and change their thinking to agree with Him! Then he proceeds with more instruction in Leviticus 27. My favorite verse here is verse 30:

³⁰And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is holy to the Lord.

The tithe (the first 10% of our income) was declared by God Himself to be "holy", the Hebrew word, "qodesh", which means: apartness, dedicated, separated, set apart. God sees it as set apart from the world and set apart unto Him! When we agree with God by presenting our tithe to our High Priest Jesus, according to Deuteronomy 26, and by bringing all the tithes into the storehouse (Malachi 3), then He has promised to bless us in every way! Check out Malachi now! You'll be glad you did!

Shalom in Him!