Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
The psalm opens with a call to listen, and the speaker claims the people as His own. What follows is Israel's history, which raises two questions: who is speaking, and why does a history lesson carry the force of law?
An Instruction
The psalm's heading is the word "Maschil." One commentator explains the kind of learning that word means:
Scripture QuarterlyThe word Maschil means to become intelligent by receiving instruction. That implies nearness, intimacy and the company of a guide.
Whose Voice
Asaph writes the psalm, but the words "my people" belong to a higher speaker. One commentator puts the human author in his place:
L. M. GrantIt is God who tells His people to give ear to His law and to incline their ears to hear His words — little as they have done so in the past (v. 1). Asaph is His mouthpiece here, and he opens his mouth in a parable. But we look far higher than Asaph for the Source of this parable, which holds dark (or puzzling) truths inside it (v. 2).
By verse 3 the speaker stands among the hearers, who have heard what their fathers told them. Another writer asks who joins the two:
J. N. DarbyIt begins with the right of Jehovah: "Give ear, O my people." But it also stands in the love of the same interests, "which we have heard and known, which our fathers have told us." Who makes this mighty link? It is the Spirit of Christ, who is Jehovah, speaking in the remnant. They recognise His truth among the people, the nation.
Law, Or Teaching
Older translations say "law" here where the ESV says "teaching." One commentator weighs the two words:
F. W. Grant"Give ear, O my people, to my law." Some would say "instruction," and that is indeed the primary meaning of the word. Yet it is the word regularly used for "law" (torah). We must take it as at least implying the authority that truth always has for the true.
The same writer adds that a word is not less binding because its meaning lies deep:
F. W. GrantSo it is not only what is clear at first sight that carries authority. Yet how many people excuse themselves from obedience on exactly that ground! "Deep" things are for the deep, they say — for people with the mind for it, or the taste, or the learning, or the leisure, or all of these! But when the psalmist calls these things "deep things" or "parables," is he commending them to us, or the reverse? Does he speak to the many or to the few?
Bending The Ear
On the face of it, the psalm offers the listener plain national history. One commentator explains why it still counts as a parable:
Hamilton SmithThe psalmist speaks with the authority of one coming from God. He appeals to the people to listen to the testimony of the law. He is about to utter a parable: he gives us, in fact, history. It is history, and history shows us the failure of the people of God. But it is also a parable, teaching the hidden way of God to those who incline their ear to hear. Behind the failure and weakness of the people, such hearers will see the strength of the Lord, the "wonderful works that He has done." So the history of the people turns into "the praises of the Lord."
Hearing That Is Handed On
The hearing asked for here is not meant to stop with the first hearer. One writer points out the place children hold in the psalm:
J. N. DarbyI notice the teaching of children in it, as the order of blessing. Compare Genesis 18:19; the end of Psalm 22; and Deuteronomy 4:9-10; 6:7; 11:19. It is a distinct feature of that age, and of ordered blessing. It counts greatly on God, and Christianity does not pass it by; see Ephesians 6.
Where The Lesson Lands
By the end of the psalm, the call to hear the law has led to what law itself could never give:
William KellyIt sets out the total failure of Israel under God's government. Law can only end in the ruin of sinful man, whatever long-suffering goodness goes with it. Sovereign grace alone avails. The testimony the Lord raised in Jacob was excellent, and the law He set in Israel was holy and good. But what could either do, when the people were what they were? Then He chose Judah, Zion and David, the pledge and security of final blessing and triumph, in the day when the children will indeed learn to profit by their fathers' failure.
Summary
- Listen — the heading marks this as a psalm of instruction. That means learning close to a guide, not at a distance.
- Law — the word can be read as "teaching," but it carries the authority truth always has for an honest heart.
- Parable — the psalm hands you history, and under that failure runs the hidden way of God.
- Pass on — teaching the children is the order of blessing, and Christianity keeps that pattern.
- Grace — the history ends where law could not reach. God chose Judah, Zion and David as the security of blessing.