How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
Parallel translations
- WEB How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
- KJV How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
- NKJV How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!
- NASB ¶How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert!
- NLT Oh, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved his heart in that dry wasteland.
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
Asaph laments how often Israel rebelled and grieved God in the wilderness. Their repeated rebellion deeply pained Him.
Overview
The exclamation 'How often!' underscores the frequency of Israel's rebellion that 'grieved him in the desert.' Remarkably, Scripture speaks of God being grieved by sin, showing it is no mere abstraction to Him. Paul similarly warns believers not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Eph 4:30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Ps 95:8–10do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
- Isa 63:10But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
- Heb 3:15–17As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”
- Num 14:11And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?
- Ps 106:14–33They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.
- Ps 107:11because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.
- Deut 9:21–22And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
- Ps 78:17But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
- Isa 7:13Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?
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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 78:40 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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