But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
The psalm sets God's rich blessings and benefits to Israel alongside the people's poor response to them. It describes Israel turning back from God and dealing unfaithfully, turning away like their fathers before them. Their course is pictured as unreliable and false, like a faulty bow that fails to shoot straight. That unfaithfulness was a lack of steadfastness to God's covenant, even though they sought Him when calamity came upon them. They worked constantly against a good God, and by disobedience brought themselves into the state that was the sure result of their own course of action. Under rebuke and chastisement they repented and returned, but then they turned back again, falling anew under temptation through self-indulgence and self-gratification.
The psalm sets God's rich blessings and benefits to Israel alongside the people's poor response to them. It describes Israel turning back from God and dealing unfaithfully, turning away like their fathers before them. Their course is pictured as unreliable and false, like a faulty bow that fails to shoot straight. That unfaithfulness was a lack of steadfastness to God's covenant, even though they sought Him when calamity came upon them. They worked constantly against a good God, and by disobedience brought themselves into the state that was the sure result of their own course of action. Under rebuke and chastisement they repented and returned, but then they turned back again, falling anew under temptation through self-indulgence and self-gratification.