Ps. 78.29-31 (death's appearance)

And so they ate / more than enough
he brought them / what they wanted.
But / before they ate / all thy wanted
with their food / still in their mouths
the wrath of God / flared up against them,
and he killed / their best me
and he brought down to death / the youths of Israel. 

A sudden reversal. These lines, in the way they are structured, largely confirm our previous observations regarding the use of irony in God’s judgment and its purpose. What we see here are the Israelites led right up to the point of celebration and are, immediately and suddenly, reversed into death. This dynamic of celebration and death is important to pause over—God has apparently blessed the Israelites in such an extravagant manner that they are preparing to sit down to feast on the ‘bread of angels’ and on meat. More important, perhaps, is the fact that this is all about to occur “in a wasteland”. Both geography and the meal are absolutely crucial as they both point to a seemingly prodigal and astonishing power of God to move into the realm of curse and provide a festal celebration. The Israelites are not being cut-off after simply being placed into a realm of well-being; they are being cut-off at the point where the divine has come down to lift man up. And then, just as their mouths are about to consummate the banquet, God’s wrath flares up and death enters the psalm.  
Death’s appearance. It is instructive to note that the first time death is seen is not as it attacks Israel’s enemies, but rather as it descends (or, flares up against) the Israelites. They are its first victims. When the parting/splitting of the sea occurred, there was no mention of its engulfing the Egyptians, no “casting of horse and chariot into the sea.” The psalm will, interestingly, go back over this sequence of events at the end of the psalm (it will actually move back in time), and there it will detail the plagues and destruction wrought on the Egyptians, but it seems very important that the first time the psalmist introduces death he does it by way of the Israelites. Thematically, this is coherent as the psalm seems to be more one of instruction—focusing on the Israelite need to ‘remember’ these events. Its central concern is not one of praise but of instruction and direction. The ‘wonders’ in this psalm are not so much ‘for the world’ but for ‘Israel’. And, what is apparent in this psalm is that the real enemy of God is Israel’s continuously unfaithful heart. As we will see later, this points to the fact that Israel is not somehow immune to God’s fury; quite the opposite; here, they become its first target.  

The Victims: The Israelites, in general, are not singled out for destruction. Rather, two parties (who may, in fact be just one) are the victims: “the best men” and “the youths of Israel”. Why these parties? Why is God particular in this manner? How would their deaths be a ‘sign’ to Israel? The questions are not callous. When God operates in judgment it is not random; rather, it meets the particular sin/rebellion and operates to reverse it, not just destroy it. We see this often enough: those who seek to operate in stealth and secret, will be judged in the open and publicly; those who seek to live in perpetuity, will be brought down suddenly and without warning; those who ‘dig a pit’ will fall it in themselves. In this way, God is revealed as the master, or lord, of judgment. The first thing to note then is the “generational disruption” this judgment creates—God focuses upon the ‘youths of Israel’. God’s judgment disrupts the families of the Israelites, taking from them their children and , potentially, their best children. We saw this focus in the opening verses, on the necessity of generational transfer, and on how the covenant became the ‘leaven’ or ‘glue’ of the family. We also saw there, that, the family’s life depends not on the family itself, but on obedience to covenant and Torah, and to memory of God’s ‘wonders’. In other words, the family cannot serve itself. Implicit within this is judgment: when the family rebels against its life, the consequences will be the ‘undoing’ of its life. Here, the rebellion of Israel is not isolated. All of Israel makes the request for ‘bread and meat’. The consequences, however, are limited and specific. And they go to the heart of the problem: the family. It is clear then, at least on one level, why God’s wrath flares up against these youths: rebellion (in this psalm) points to familial failure; judgment will therefore also highlight this failure by severing/disrupting it. What is absolutely crucial to keep in mind is that this judgment is not falling on the youths, as youths; it is falling upon Israel. This is a conception of identity that is much (much) more communal in its understanding than individualistic. What is suffered by these youths is, primarily, suffered by Israel and points to Israel.