Psalm 78 Bible study: I will open my mouth in a parable

Psalm 78 has 72 verses, and before it tells any of its story it says why it tells it. Its title is "A contemplation by Asaph" (78:1) (tap contemplation), and its first words are "Hear my teaching, my people" (78:1). It will tell "dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us" (78:2-3), and it won't "hide them from their children" (78:4). God "commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children" (78:5), "that the generation to come might know" (78:6). Then the psalm gives the reason in three parts: "that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments" (78:7). And one more: "and might not be as their fathers" (78:8). Here is what almost everyone misses: the Hebrew word torah comes three times in these opening verses, and it points three ways. It is the psalmist's own teaching (78:1), the teaching God "appointed … in Israel" (78:5), and the law that, in 78:10, they "refused to walk in". Psalm 44's chapter shows 78:3's our fathers have told us, and the chapters on Psalms 48 and 71 show 78:4's the generation to come; these notes don't repeat them.

Psalms 78:2→leads toMatthew 13:34-35

Matthew tells that Jesus sat by the sea and "spoke to them many things in parables" (Matthew 13:3). Then he writes, "Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to 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.”" (Matthew 13:34-35). The psalm says, "I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old" (Psalm 78:2). The WEB words the two differently: a parable in the psalm, parables in Matthew; dark sayings of old in the psalm, things hidden from the foundation of the world in Matthew. Matthew says "the prophet" and gives no name; the psalm's title says "A contemplation by Asaph" (Psalm 78:1).

מָשָׁלmashalsay ma-SHAL

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "proverb, parable". Strong's: "properly, a pithy maxim, usually of metaphorical nature". "I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old" (78:2). Psalm 49's chapter studies the word's four uses in the Psalms and shows that 78:2 sets it beside chidah, dark sayings, as Psalm 49:4 does; these notes don't repeat it. What the psalm goes on to tell is Israel's own story, from "the land of Egypt" (78:12) to David (78:70). When Matthew quotes this line about Jesus' teaching, the WEB has parables: "I will open my mouth in parables" (Matthew 13:35).