Psalms 78:2

My Notes

What Does Psalms 78:2 Mean?

Asaph announces his method for the psalm that follows: parable and dark sayings. The Hebrew mashal (parable) means a comparison, a likeness — a story that carries meaning beneath its surface. Chidoth (dark sayings) means riddles or enigmas — truths wrapped in layers that require digging to access. Asaph isn't going to deliver straightforward history. He's going to tell Israel's story as a mystery that demands interpretation.

Matthew 13:35 quotes this verse as fulfilled in Jesus' teaching: "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." Matthew sees Asaph's method as prophetically pointing to Christ's teaching style. Jesus didn't choose parables randomly. He taught in the tradition that Asaph inaugurated — truth embedded in story, accessible to those willing to dig.

The phrase "dark sayings of old" (chidoth min-qedem) literally means riddles from ancient times. The history Asaph is about to recount — Egypt, the wilderness, the conquest — isn't new. But he's going to tell it as if it contains secrets most people have missed. The events are old. The meaning is still being unlocked. History, in Asaph's hands, isn't information. It's revelation that keeps revealing.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What 'old story' from your own life has revealed new meaning when you looked at it again years later?
• 2.Why does God embed truth in parables rather than stating it plainly? What does the digging do for you?
• 3.Is there a familiar Bible story that has become flat for you? What riddle might you have missed in it?
• 4.Jesus taught in the tradition of Asaph's dark sayings. How does that change the way you read the parables — not as simple moral lessons but as layered revelations?

Devotional

Asaph is about to tell a story everyone already knows — the exodus, the wilderness, the faithlessness of Israel — and he announces it as a parable full of riddles. How can a story you've heard a hundred times still contain dark sayings? Because the story isn't the point. The meaning underneath is. And meaning has layers that unfold over a lifetime.

You've experienced this with your own story. The event that happened five years ago — the loss, the transition, the unexpected turn — looked one way when it happened. But looking back now, you see things in it you couldn't see then. Patterns. Providence. A purpose that was invisible at surface level. Your history isn't just a sequence of things that happened. It's a parable. And if you're willing to dig, there are dark sayings in it — riddles that reveal God's hand in places you assumed He was absent.

Jesus taught in parables for the same reason Asaph wrote this psalm: truth that costs you nothing to receive changes nothing. The things that transform you are the things you had to search for, wrestle with, and discover beneath the surface. If your faith has become flat — if the Bible stories you grew up with feel like old information with nothing left to offer — try Asaph's approach. Open the same old story and look for the riddle you missed. There is always something underneath that you haven't found yet.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture