Psalms 78:38, commentary and pictures

Psalm 78 recounts how richly God blessed His people and how poorly they returned those benefits. Its immediate setting is Israel's distrust in the wilderness that God would give them the food best suited to preserve their health. They despised the angels' food that would have blessed them and lusted for meat, and though He gave them their desire His wrath struck down the fattest and the chosen men while the meat was still in their mouths, yet they still sinned and did not believe His wondrous works, so their days were consumed in vanity and their years in trouble.

When chastised and slain they sought Him and remembered that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer. Yet their repentance was insincere, for they flattered Him with their mouth and lied with their tongues, their hearts not right with Him and not steadfast in His covenant. It describes a good God dealing with a people who constantly worked against Him. Their suffering came through their own disobedience as the sure result of their own course of action, and although when rebuked and chastised they repented and were forgiven, they fell again under temptation, self-indulgence, and self-gratification.

Even then, being full of compassion, He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. Though angry at their rebellion, many times He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath. He showed this restraint because He remembered their human frailty. They were frail flesh, mortal and short-lived, like a passing wind that does not return.

The verse belongs to the history of Israel complaining when trials came and forgetting the source of their strength. By contrast, those who have Bible religion have Christ abiding in them and they in Him, continually advancing in the divine life. They become strong and sanctified through fully receiving truth of heavenly origin, and they will not complain in trial or forget where strength comes from.