Psalm 78 tells the story of the people of Israel and their Exodus from Egypt to the mountain of Zion which God loves. (Ps 78:68) The psalmist called it a mashal, a teaching, a parable: I will open my mouth in a parable / and utter hidden lessons of the past. (Ps 78:2)
The psalm describes the Exodus, saying that the people on that journey were a defiant and rebellious generation. (Ps 78:8) They resisted every step of the way:
Yet again they turned and tested God; they provoked the Holy One of Israel. (Ps 78:41)
They strayed, faithless like their ancestors;
they betrayed him like a
treacherous bow.
(Ps 78:57)
A disturbing poem, and it goes on long enough – the second-longest psalm in the Bible. But woven through its conflicts is a God who behaves like a shepherd. Could this be the parable?
By day he led them with a cloud;
throughout the night, with a light of fire.
He split the rocks in the desert.
He gave them plentiful drink,
as from the deep.
(Ps 78:14-15)
He had brought out his people like sheep,
leading them in the desert like a flock.
He had led them safely with nothing to fear,
while the sea engulfed their foes.
(Ps 78:52-53)
A later practitioner said about the shepherd’s craft: “When he has brought out all his sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.” (John 10:4) It is the classic Biblical image of the shepherd but, as Jesus well knew, only half the parable.
What of those who can’t keep up? Listen: “The children are weak, and the sheep and the cows which have calved make it hard for me. If they are driven too hard, even for one day, the whole flock will die....For my part, I shall move at a slower pace, according to the pace of the flock I am driving and the children.” It could be any time, any war zone, any wasted earth; in fact, it is the voice of the Patriarch Jacob, another shepherd. (Genesis 33:13-14)
Psalm 78 completes the parable with David, who is to be shepherd of Jacob:
And he chose his servant David,
and took him away from the sheepfolds.
From the care of the ewes he brought him
to be shepherd of Jacob, his people,
of Israel his own possession.
(Ps 78:70-71)
The shepherd not only leads but accompanies. The Hebrew idiom behind “the care of the ewes” is literally “from after” and is most often translated “following.” Or as we might put it, the shepherd looks after the flock.
He tended them with blameless heart;
with his skilful hands he led them.
(Psalm 78:72)