Ps. 78.43 (story, sign and hands)

how he set his signs / in Egypt
and his wonders / in the region of Zoan  

A particular story: This verse, like the last, serves as a preface to the story and orients us to the exodus. This ‘day of ransom’ refers to a specific time and to a specific geographic location. The ‘signs’ are set in Egypt, the wonders in the region of Zoan. It is not the forgetting of general truths, but the forgetting of a particular story, rooted in a particular time and a particular place that is the source of Israel’s problem. It is there that God has set (planted) his ‘signs and wonders’. Signs and plagues: A second interesting thing to note is that we have encountered God’s wonders already in verse 4, 7, 11, 12 and 32. We have not encountered his ‘signs’. As to the wonders, in the previous verses they refer the acts of deliverance and provision by God that he did “in the land of Egypt and the region of Zoan” (vs. 11). This ‘wonder’ that God performed is referred to in the singular but encompasses the entire action from the red sea to the provision of water, bread and meat—just as the ‘signs and wonders’ will be prefaced by the single “day of ransom”. One wonders then if the presence now of ‘signs’ refers to the acts of God performed against Israel’s enemies: specifically, the plagues. Neither is again mentioned in the psalm. The hand: the previous verse refers to the ransoming on that day as being accomplished by God’s “hand.” Here, the “sings and wonders” are ‘set’ in Egypt and Zoan, an image it seems of a type of ‘planting’ or building on the part of God’s hands. In this we see that the act of ransoming is the act of ‘plague-planting’ by God’s powerful hand. When we envision the plagues, then, and all subsequent acts, we are to see them as works of God’s ‘hand’. There is another important aspect to this hand. This portion of the psalm begins in verse 42 with God’s ‘hand’ in delivering. It ends in verse 72 with David: “And so he shepherded them, with his upright heart, with his skillful hands he led them.” David becomes the ‘hand’ of God on earth. This final line summarizes, or centralizes, all of God’s acts on behalf of Israel in David. The ‘shepherding’ is clear in this portion of the psalm. Verse 52 says God “guided them as a flock in the wilderness”. The final concluding lines regarding David are filled with images of shepherding—David is taken ‘from the sheep folds’ where is shepherding and brought to ‘shepherd Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance’. Likewise, the image of ‘leading’ is previously the action of God. After destroying the Egyptians, God “led them safely and they were not afraid.” One of the points to all of this is key—if you ‘forget’ God’s hands, you will not perceive the Davidic king’s ‘hands’ either. And if you ‘forget’ God’s shepherding, it is likely you will forget (not perceive) the shepherding of the Davidic king. This is both a profound insight into the majesty of the Davidic covenant and a careful qualifying of it, by pointing to the fact that it is God’s hands/shepherding/leading which leavens the covenant; it does not stand on its own but is ‘sourced’ in God’s history and choice. Here, the entire ‘historical’ prologue to the Davidic kingdom is the entire story from Egypt to throne.