Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

78:9-16 God's People Forgot His Great Deeds of the Exodus. The first historical section recounts an otherwise unknown incident in which the Ephraimites . . . turned back on the day of battle; presumably this was a battle in which Israel was defending itself, and in which all Israel was expected to participate, each tribe serving the others because of their bond as God's people. Their failure, then, was not simply a failure in patriotism but also in brotherhood and faith; they did not keep God's covenant, and the reason is that they forgot God's works--this is not a simple mental lapse but a deliberate turning away from the implications of these great deeds, which marked them out as the body of God's chosen people, under obligation both to God and to each other. Verses 12-16 mention some of these deeds, such as the exodus from Egypt (vv. 12-13) and God's care for the people in the wilderness (vv. 14-16). Israel in every generation should have learned from these works of God, but often they did not.