By Jeremy Bell
I am going to share my personal study on Psalm 78 using groupings from my motif analysis. I have taken these groupings of the Psalm and put them together. So, the entirety of the Psalm will be posted, but these groupings will present the text in a different order. Further illustrations are found in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization.
In the Fall of 2015 Lei Ouyang Bryant wrote a journal article titled ‘Music, Memory, and Nostalgia: Collective Memories of Cultural Revolution Songs in Contemporary China’. In this journal she analyzed the revolutionary music played during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the effect it had on the masses. Her conclusions were that a dissemination of music propaganda was effective because the songs are still remembered fondly. The songs stay with youth because memories form in youth more vibrantly. These songs have effect on attitude trends that last to this day. Bryant, Lei Ouyang. “Music, Memory, and Nostalgia: Collective Memories of Cultural Revolution Songs in Contemporary China.” China Review 5, no. 2 (2005): 151–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23462034.
Propaganda
This is one observance of how music impacts a culture. Propaganda is messaging so music propaganda puts that messaging in song. It can be facts, rumors, lies, or half-truths, but it whatever it is, it is given by one party to another. In the news, we mostly hear of propaganda in the negative sense about governments who promote one thing that is either half-true or a deception in order to control their people. Propaganda is also used in many other ways we don’t recognize especially when promoting good things. I won’t give examples here primarily because we live in such a hyper skeptical culture right now that considers the possibility that everything we hear is evil propaganda. This is not right, though we are wise to consider what we hear and test it against the truth.
This is how the ancient Israelites were instructed to know and remember truth. From the truth source, God, through inspired writers, writers of scripture, songs were written. These songs and music propaganda were teaching and correcting for all generations. They were warnings and promises and hope from a God who wanted a relationship with the people He created and called. In my motif analysis, I have grouped similar motifs and found patterns. Here, I group those patterns together to give, what I hope to be, fresh insight to what God is breathing through these authors and what they intended to convey.
In its’ original form, I see Psalm 78 with an introduction and conclusion and six verses in between. This may be less obvious now; I am grouping the motifs together. Consider the things God may be revealing to you then go and read Psalm 78 as it originally was written. What is driving you to worship Him?
[ Psalm 78 ]
Group A
Hear my teaching, my people.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
For he established a covenant in Jacob,
and appointed a teaching in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known to their children;
that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;
who should arise and tell their children,
that they might set their hope in God,
and not forget God’s deeds,
but keep his commandments,
and might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal,
whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,
like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth which he has established forever.
He also chose David his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds;
from following the ewes that have their young,
he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,
and Israel, his inheritance.
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Group B
We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh,
his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.
He struck his adversaries backward.
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
These next three groupings are contained in the verses of my motif analysis
Group C
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
They didn’t keep God’s covenant,
and refused to walk in his law.
Yet they still went on to sin against him,
to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
They tempted God in their heart
by asking food according to their desire.
They didn’t turn from their cravings.
Their food was yet in their mouths,
when the anger of God went up against them,
killed some of their fattest,
and struck down the young men of Israel.
They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their redeemer.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,
and grieved him in the desert!
They turned again and tempted God,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
and didn’t keep his testimonies,
but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.
They were twisted like a deceitful bow.
Group D
They forgot his doings,
his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.
He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Yes, they spoke against God.
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,
and streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide meat for his people?”
For all this they still sinned,
and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
But they flattered him with their mouth,
and lied to him with their tongue.
For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they faithful in his covenant.
They didn’t remember his hand,
nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
Group E
He split the sea, and caused them to pass through.
He made the waters stand as a heap.
In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,
and all night with a light of fire.
He split rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock,
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
anger also went up against Israel,
because they didn’t believe in God,
and didn’t trust in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above,
and opened the doors of heaven.
He rained down manna on them to eat,
and gave them food from the sky.
Man ate the bread of angels.
He sent them food to the full.
He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.
By his power he guided the south wind.
He also rained meat on them as the dust,
winged birds as the sand of the seas.
He let them fall in the middle of their camp,
around their habitations.
So they ate, and were well filled.
He gave them their own desire.
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,
and their years in terror.
When he killed them, then they inquired after him.
They returned and sought God earnestly.
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them.
Yes, many times he turned his anger away,
and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
how he set his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the field of Zoan,
he turned their rivers into blood,
and their streams, so that they could not drink.
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
He also gave their increase to the caterpillar,
and their labor to the locust.
He destroyed their vines with hail,
their sycamore fig trees with frost.
He also gave over their livestock to the hail,
and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,
wrath, indignation, and trouble,
and a band of angels of evil.
He made a path for his anger.
He didn’t spare their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the pestilence,
and struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
But he led out his own people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,
to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
He also drove out the nations before them,
allotted them for an inheritance by line,
and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
When God heard this, he was angry,
and greatly abhorred Israel,
so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh,
the tent which he placed among men,
and delivered his strength into captivity,
his glory into the adversary’s hand.
He also gave his people over to the sword,
and was angry with his inheritance.
Fire devoured their young men.
Their virgins had no wedding song.
Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows couldn’t weep.
God Spread His Word
God disseminated His word through the prophets and His scripture. In the past God to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. At the end of these days, He speaks to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the worlds. These words have been taught to children for thousands of generations and studied by experts and scholars by many more. The word of God is truth, warning, wisdom, and care. We know it fondly because of these things. God’s word is useful for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness that should transform our attitude. This is music propaganda of the purest form for the healthiest of reasons.
Is our attitude right because we think it’s ours to decide? What is the song in our hearts? Is it truth? Do we sing of our love for God and adoration for what He has done for us? Do we sing of loving and helping our brothers and sisters of the human race? Or is there something else that takes over these God commands? Our natural music propaganda sings a ‘me first’ tune. Denying ourselves and following Jesus is against our natural nature of self-song. Jesus said, ‘whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.’ This is a more beautiful music propaganda and thrives in life found in Jesus, the supernatural Jesus-song, the Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Truth Basics for Christian Living with Strategic Options.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.