Ps. 78.42 (memory: internal to external)

They did not remember / his hand
on the day / when he ransomed them / from the foe 

The psalm here makes a sudden shift. We began our entrance into Israel’s history at the point of the parting of the waters; it then progressed to the dessert wanderings. We noted that the beginning seemed a little strange. No enemy was mentioned (only the water) and no drowning of the enemy takes place. Further, it seemed odd to begin at the parting of the Red Sea. There were, perhaps, literary reasons for doing so—so as to contrast the different ‘waters’. That said, it is surprising to only now move back in time to the point of the plagues, to the “day when he ransomed them from the foe”. The history will then actually recover ground already travelled over (the splitting of the sea and the wandering). The question then is why is the psalm constructed in this manner? Part of the answer is found in this verse. As with the previous section, the recounting of Israel’s journey with God begins with their ‘forgetting’. In verse 11 we read that the sons of Ephraim “forgot his deeds, and the wonders that he had shown them.” Then begins the sad story of their rebellion. That same preface begins this narration as well. The point is not a merely literary device to frame the two histories. The point rather is in what we will see being the content of the two histories. In the first, beginning in verse 11, the action of God is entirely on behalf of, or toward, Israel. Nowhere are enemies an aspect of God’s action. Here, by contrast, the entire emphasis is on God’s dealing with Israel’s oppressors. The memory is geared to "ransoming from the foe". However, in both, God is radically and prodigally for Israel. In the first, by way of astonishing blessing, discipline and mercy. In the second, by way of astonishing destruction of Israel’s enemies. In this we see how surrounding is God’s concern for Israel, both internally and externally. And yet—and this is the point—both are ‘forgotten’ by Israel. Israel fails to perceive any of the dynamic of God on their behalf and therefore falls into rebellion against him. It is a deeply damning indictment of Israel and sheds a greater light on why the opening section of the psalm is so focused on the necessity of passing on God’s ‘wonders’ and ‘Torah’ from generation to generation. The ‘passing on’ is the act of memory and provides the soil of their faithfulness.