God's Marvellous Doings
Psalm 78:12, 31
Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.…


The marvel of God's doings is always this - He is ever rescuing, delivering, restoring, redeeming, saving, or, as we may say, putting things straight. The type of all God's doings was, to the Jew, the rescue of the race from Egyptian bondage. The Divine attributes are not best seen in punishments or scenes of terror; throughout the history of the world they have been most fully revealed in God's savings, deliverings, and redeemings. Moses composed a song when the Hebrews had safely reached the further shores of the Red Sea. To him that rescue was a most impressive demonstration of the Divine righteousness; so the song runs thus: "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" When God would declare the great foundation laws, he revealed himself as the nation's Deliverer and Saviour: "I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." When Joshua pleaded so earnestly, "What wilt thou do unto thy great Name?" the thing distressing him was that God seemed to have ceased to be a Deliverer and Redeemer of his people. David gains right impressions of the Divine righteousness by meditating on the Divine mercy. Started on this line, we may consider as "marvellous doings" -

I. THE DIVINE DELIVERANCES. Reading sacred history for illustrations, we find:

1. Noah delivered from peril of flood.

2. Abraham delivered from Chaldean polytheistic associations.

3. Hebrews delivered from bondage, and from position of peril at the Red Sea.

4. Local deliverances, as in the times of the Judges, early history of David, reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat.

5. National rescue from captivity.

6. Deliverance from sin, by Christ Jesus. Every case is a marvel of Divine wisdom, power, and grace. And God is best known in his redeemings. "He delivereth and rescueth."

II. THE DIVINE PROVIDENCES. Which efficiently provide, and mysteriously guide. By providences we mean the ordinary arrangements of life, as distinct from times of trouble and peril. There is a marvel of the Divine ordering of Israel's way, and of ours. Heaven-sent manna, and streams from smitten rocks, tell of an ever-wonder-working providence. To devout minds, no marvel is greater than God's making "all things work together for good."

III. THE DIVINE FORBEARANCES. Many of these are called to mind in this psalm. God's long suffering towards stiff-necked Israel must always seem a marvel of grace; and his people in every age have exclaimed, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed."

IV. THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. (See ver. 31.) These must be included, but they are put last, because "judgment is his strange work." The marvel of God's judgments is the absence of vindictiveness in them, and the power that makes them work towards ends of moral blessing. - R.T.



Parallel Verses
KJV: Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

WEB: He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.




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