Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:2

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

2. On the words parable and dark sayings or enigmas see note on Psa 49:4. The Psalmist has no mere narrative of facts to recount, but a history full of significance for those who can penetrate its hidden meaning. It is a ‘parable’ not for Israel only, but for every individual in the Christian Church. dark sayings of old ] Lessons drawn from the history of ancient times, from the Exodus, when Israel was ‘born’ as a nation, onward. Cp. Psa 77:5.

This verse is freely quoted by St Matthew (Mat 13:34-35), in a form which does not agree exactly either with the Heb. or with the LXX, with reference to our Lord’s teaching in parables. “All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; and without a parable spake he nothing unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,

I will open my mouth in parables;

I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”

The words of the Psalmist are not a direct prophecy of the Messiah’s method of teaching; but just as Christ as perfect Man summed up in Himself and fulfilled the manifold experiences of the people of God, so as the perfect Teacher He adopted the methods of the teachers of the old dispensation, and ‘fulfilled’ them by carrying them to their highest perfection. As the Psalmist used the facts of Israel’s history to convey the lesson which he desired to teach, so Christ used the phenomena of Nature and the experiences of Life. Cp. Introd. pp. lxxix ff.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

I will open my mouth in a parable – See the notes at Psa 49:4. The word parable here means a statement by analogy or comparison; that is, he would bring out what he had to say by a course of reasoning founded on an analogy drawn from the ancient history of the people.

I will utter dark sayings of old – Of ancient times; that is, maxims, or sententious thoughts, which had come down from past times, and which embodied the results of ancient observation and reflection. Compare Psa 49:4, where the word rendered dark sayings is explained. He would bring out, and apply, to the present case, the maxims of ancient wisdom.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Psa 78:2

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old.

The nature and design of parabolic teaching

The word here translated parable did not probably convey to the mind of the psalmist the signification which we ordinarily attach to it. It might mean nothing more than a sublime, figurative, and sententious manner of stating facts or imparting moral lessons; or nothing more than a poem in which this style should prevail.

I. The nature of parabolic teaching. It is that which discerns most deeply and employs most judiciously these manifold analogies and comparisons, more or less partaking of what we understand by a continued metaphor. And he who has the greatest moral perfection will assuredly be the best adapted to the discernment of the lessons they imply. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, must be, from His very character and offices, best acquainted with this method of instruction. He who made all things and without whom not anything was made that was made, He is not only the Word, but the Wisdom of God–pronouncing His dark sayings and forming His secret things in the progress of the world and the Church, so that Egypt is still the type of bondage, and Israels journey through the wilderness to the land of promise one long parable, as Asaph saw darkly, of Gods dealings with His saints in the latter day. Every hour we behold Him illustrating the nature of this varying and marvellous instruction; aiding us to its definition; supplying the materials of which its innumerable comparisons are formed.

II. The adaptation of parabolic teaching to the condition of mankind upon earth. The human mind is so constituted, as to be unable to comprehend essences, properly speaking. The principles of causation are a sealed book to us. The progress of language, the manner in which we give names to objects, are of themselves sufficient proofs of this view. In everything pertaining to our moral conduct and choice, we follow another kind of evidence, and are influenced by another kind of reasoning. We determine what shall be our preference, not because we know absolutely the best course, but because our minds remark that what we are about to do bears a likeness to some other event or circumstance, which on another occasion, we have observed, came to pass. The rule and measure of our hopes and fears concerning the success of our pursuits; our expectation that others will act so and so under such circumstances; and our judgment that such actions proceed from such principles–all these rely upon our having observed the like to what we hope, fear, expect, judge; we say, upon our having observed the like, either with respect to others or ourselves. Our very life, then, is guided by a sort of parable, and hence the adaptation of its formal development to our circumstances and condition. But that propriety is illustrated not only by the connection of reasoning on probabilities, or likelihoods, or parallel courses of events, with the teaching by parables. We prove it also by the shortness of human life. A moral question comes before us; we make a parable to ourselves; we compare the subject on which we want to learn with another, where the decision and propriety is obvious. We do this involuntarily, because our time is so short; it is now or never. Here is another ground of arguing the adaptation of parabolical teaching to the necessities of mankind. We have said, what must the case be with the masses of which the world is constituted! Engaged as they are from morning to night in obtaining a scant supply for the wants of their bodies, they have no time or opportunity to rise, were the rising possible, above the range of this kind of information. But to them it seems strangely forcible. It strikes a chord in their understanding and heart. Metaphors are ever popular with the multitude. Children (and the mass of mankind are but children of a larger growth) love to be instructed by a similitude. It casts them on a new field of discovery; it opens their mind to a fresh series of glorious thoughts and feelings. And is it presumptuous to suppose that all this was part of ancient and venerable design on the part of our Lord Jesus Christ the Creator, and by creating the Teacher, as well as the Redeemer of our species? (T. Jackson, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 2. In a parable] Or, I will give you instruction by numerous examples; see Ps 49:1-4, which bears a great similarity to this; and see the notes there. The term parable, in its various acceptations, has already been sufficiently explained; but mashal may here mean example, as opposed to torah, law or precept, Ps 78:1.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Open my mouth, speak to you with all freedom and plainness, in a parable; uttering divers and weighty sentences (for such are oft called

parables in Scripture) or passages of great moment for your instruction and advantage.

Dark sayings; so he calls the following passages, not because the words and sentences are in themselves hard to be understood, for they are generally historical and easy, but because the things contained in them, concerning Gods transcendent goodness to an unworthy people, and their unparalleled ingratitude for and abuse of such eminent favours, and their stupid ignorance and insensibleness under such excellent and constant teachings of Gods word and works, are indeed prodigious and hard to be believed.

Of old; of things done in ancient times, and in a great measure worn out of mens minds.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

I will open my mouth,…. Speak freely, boldly, and without reserve, Eph 6:19, so Christ opened his mouth, Mt 5:2,

in a parable; not that what follows in this psalm was such, but what were delivered by our Lord in the days of his flesh, who spake many parables; as of the sower, and of tares, and of the grain of mustard seed, and many others, and without a parable he spake not, and so fulfilled what he here said he would do, Mt 13:34.

I will utter dark sayings of old; sayings that relate to things of old; meaning not to the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and what follows in the psalm, delivered, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe, in figurative and topical terms, as in Ps 78:19, but to the things which were from the foundation of the world, as the phrase is rendered in Mt 13:35, spoken of Christ in his ministry, such as the fall of the angels, the ruin of man by Satan, the murder of Abel, Abraham’s sight of his day with joy, and many things that were said by them of old, Lu 10:18 or rather this refers to the Gospel, and the sayings and doctrines of it, which were kept secret since the world began, Mt 13:3, yea, which were ordained before the world was, and therefore called the everlasting Gospel, 1Co 2:7 and here in the Arabic version, “eternal mysteries”; such as concerning the everlasting love of God to his people, his everlasting choice of them, and everlasting covenant with them: and the sayings or doctrines of the Gospel may he called “dark”, because secret, hidden, and mysterious; and were so under the legal dispensation, in comparison of the more clear light under the Gospel dispensation; they having been wrapped up in types and shadows, and in the rites and ceremonies of the law, but now held forth clearly and plainly in the ministry of Christ and his apostles, as in a glass: these Christ says he would “utter” or deliver out as water from a fountain, in great plenty, as he did; he came in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel; and being full of grace and truth, the doctrines of grace and truth, these came by him, and were delivered from him in all their fulness and glory.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(2, 3) I will open.A difficulty is started by the fact that the psalm deals with history, and is neither a proverb (mshal) nor riddle (chdah). But the Divine rejection of the northern tribes may be the covert meaning which the poet sees to have been wrapped up in all the ancient history. The word mshal is also sometimes used in a wide, vague sense, embracing prophetic as well as proverbial poetry. (See Num. 21:27.)

For dark sayings, literally, knotty points, see Num. 12:8. In Hab. 2:6 the word seems to mean a sarcasm.

For the use of this passage in Mat. 13:35, see Note, New Testament Commentary.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 78:2. I will open my mouth in a parable I will open my mouth in a wise moral: I will utter mysteries of ancient times. The moral or design of this history is couched in the subsequent verses. See Mudge.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

I beg the Reader’s attention to what is here said, and, by way of rightly explaining it, to turn to what our Lord himself saith; Mat 13:34-35 . Have we not authority from hence to believe, that what Asaph saith in this Psalm, he delivers by the spirit of prophecy, as in the person of Christ? And as a farther confirmation, may it not be observed, that what are parables and dark sayings, unintelligible to the wisdom of this world, are plain sayings to the children of the kingdom? Mat 13:13-17 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

Ver. 2. I will open my mouth in a parable ] I will speak freely and plainly (I will open my mouth, Mat 5:2 Act 10:34 ), and yet acutely and accurately. See Psa 49:4 , See Trapp on “ Psa 49:4 “

I will utter dark sayings of old ] Heb. I will well out (as from a spring or fountain) dark or sharp sayings, transacted and recorded of old, but of good use for ever. Difficulty doth not discourage, but rather whet on heroic spirits to a more diligent inquiry. Aben Ezra noteth here, that Psa 78:9 , “The children of Ephraim,” &c., is a parable, and Psa 78:25 , “Man did eat angels’ food,” is a riddle, or dark saying.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

I will open, &c. Quoted in Mat 13:35.

parable . . . dark sayings. Compare Psa 49:5. Same words. The Psalm has a moral: showing that Divine history contains more than appears on the surface.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

I will: Psa 49:4, Mat 13:13, Mat 13:34, Mat 13:35

dark sayings: Pro 1:6, Mat 13:11-13, Mar 4:34

Reciprocal: Gen 18:19 – command Num 23:7 – he took Deu 29:29 – revealed 2Ch 9:1 – questions Job 20:3 – the spirit Job 27:1 – Job Job 33:2 – I Pro 15:7 – lips Pro 18:4 – the wellspring Eze 24:3 – utter Mat 5:2 – General Mar 4:2 – by parables Mar 4:22 – General Joh 16:25 – proverbs Act 13:16 – give Rom 16:25 – which 1Co 2:7 – even 1Co 14:2 – howbeit

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge