And they tested God in their heart By asking for the food of their fancy.
Parallel translations
- WEB They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
- KJV And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
- BSB They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.
- NASB And in their heart they put God to the test By asking for food that suited their taste.
- NLT They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel tested God by demanding food to satisfy their own appetites rather than trusting His provision. It exposes how craving can become a form of unbelief.
Overview
Asaph recounts the wilderness generation deliberately putting God to the test, demanding food on their own terms. The phrase 'in their heart' shows the sin was inward before it was spoken. Such testing of God's goodness is the opposite of the trusting faith Christ commends, who Himself refused to test God when tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Num 11:4The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
- Deut 6:16You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
- 1 Cor 10:9Let us not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
- 1 Cor 10:6Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
- Ps 106:14–15but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland.
- Exod 16:2–3The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;
- Ps 95:9when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.
- Jas 4:2–3You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 78:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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