Bible Strands
Psalms 78:40
How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses Israel’s historical rebellion, placing their wilderness disobedience between God’s remembrance of their mortality in verse 39 and their repeated testing of God in verse 41.
The words — מָה (mah) translates to “how often,” and יַעֲצִיבֻהוּ (ya'atziḇūhû) means “they grieved him.”
The thread — The action of grieving God appears in Ephesians 4:30 regarding the Holy Spirit, while wilderness rebellion echoes in Psalms 95:8 at Meribah and Massah, and Numbers 14:11 questions God’s patience with the same contempt.
Why it lands — It requires readers to acknowledge that persistent rebellion provokes divine grief and to heed the warning against testing God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
Cross-references
- Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Psalms 95:8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
- Numbers 14:11 And 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?
- Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
- Hebrews 3:15 As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”
- Deuteronomy 9:21 And 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.
- Psalms 78:17 But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
- Psalms 106:14 They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.
- Psalms 107:11 because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.
- Isaiah 7:13 Then 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?