1. Alert for Israel

Todays¡Ç lecturing part is Psalm 78, which is a very long poem. Though rather difficult, we will make efforts to reflect on the whole. The verses 1 to 8 are the introduction part and the following verses develop the contexts. The poet overlooked the history of the Jewish people from Exodus till the end of the reign of the king David. Because he thought that the era would determine the persistence of the people in future.

The introduction passage explains the necessity of telling the history recorded by the post-David generation. Throughout the text, history writers mediated sinful acts committed by their ancestors. Jewish people had been chosen by God and given the covenant. But they became ingrate and forgot God¡Çs mercy and grace afterwards. As a result, they committed sinful acts repeatedly. For that reason, the poet criticized his ancestors in order that his contemporaries won¡Çt conducts likewise. He thought that they must understand correctly what had happened and take lessons from it. He intended to give an alert to them in that way. He wrote in a tone of teacher for that reason ; - A maskil of Asaph. O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old — (Psalm 78:1-2)

Maskil (Hebrew: מַשְׂכִּיל‎) is a Hebrew musical term occurring in the heading of some psalms.*1 And, as you notice, Asaph was the writer of the poem, who was a Levite in the court of King David. He might be both a music leader and a teacher. *2

Asaph as the teacher underlined the essence of the history at first ; - what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.(Psalm 78:3-4)

When historians wrote the history of their won people they might prefer naturally to conceal shameful episodes. But biased records cannot give important lessons to the descendants. Besides, the hidden truth must be revealed more clearly afterwards. The poet knew that. So he compels the people to tell following generations sincerely and honestly what happened in the history. He begins with how God gave the covenant to the Jewish people ; - He(God) decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.(Psalm 78:5-6)

Then he writes that the ancestors were not faithful and ignored the commands of God. ; - Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their forefathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.(Psalm 78:7-8)

The poet advises the people sincerely not to forget what happened in the past in order that they won¡Çt repeat the same sin.

*1 Maskil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskil
*2 Asaph http://www.prca.org/sermons/Psalm_78_1-8.htm

2. The past told as the history of ingratitude.

Then details were given ; - The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle;they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.(Psalm 78:9-11)

¡ÈThe men of Ephraim¡É*1 were subjects of the North kingdom of Israel*2. They were described as soldiers armed with bows. They had been led to the land of merciful God but they did not respected the covenant there. Furthermore, they began to warship Baal*2, a regional idol. (see Numbers 25:3) In other words, they abandoned the faith in righteous God and chose an icon which seemed to them willing to satisfy earthy desires. As the result, ; - He(God) gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance.(Psalm 78:62)

The poet considered the idolatry to be the cause of the defeat of the North Kingdom of Israel in 721 BC. Mercy God had opened the sea to save the Jewish from Egypt. Then He had led them day and night, in giving them food in form of Manna and water by breaking the rock.

Nonetheless ; - They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the desert? When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?¡É(Psalm 78:19-20)

They were not only ingrate but also sceptical about God¡Çs power. So much so, God reacted ; - When the Lord heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.(Psalm 78:21-22)

However, God showed mercy afterwards ;- Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. (Psalm 78:23-24)

But the people didn¡Çt learn the lesson from the past. They should have surrendered entirely and trusted themselves to God by admitting their faults. Instead, their stubborn heart made them blind to God¡Çs mercy. Thus the North Kingdom of Israel was thrown out by God and defeated by Assyria.
From verse 67, the poet presents the conclusion; - Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.(Psalm 78:67-69)

The poet should be a person of the kingdom of Judah.*4 He thought that his country must learn from the experience of the North kingdom of Israel, the brother country. Because he found the judgement of God behind the destruction of the North kingdom of Israel.

Even though Judah was still surviving thanks to God¡Çs mercy, the poet was already supposing the same future as the North kingdom of Israel for his own country. Because the people of Judah were committing the same sin. For that reason, the poet tried to alert the contemporaries and following generations in order that ; -They would not be like their forefathers— stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.(Psalm 78:8)

*1 Tribe of Ephraim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_of_Ephraim
*2The¡¡north kingdom of Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_Israel_and_Judah
*3Baal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal
*4 Kingdom of Judah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Judah

3. Why is the sin of ancestors ours?

Todays¡Ç invocation verses are Psalm 78:56-58 ; - But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

The people thought that the North kingdom of Israel, the brother country of Judah, was destroyed due to disloyalty and faithlessness and, furthermore, the idolatry. Therefore the poet teaches the people to look back sinful acts committed by their ancestors in order to lean from the past. The similar theme appears in Psalm 106. However, the contemporaries of the writer of the latter seem already admitting recognizing ancestors¡Çs sin as theirs ; - We have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.(Psalm 106:6)

And the writer of 106 too recorded the result of acts of their fathers ; - They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord. So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.(Psalm 106:25-27)

The case must be more severe than the time of destruction of Israel. The sin of Judah caused the captivity of Babylon as the condemnation by God, which was carried out by Babylonian forces.

The people of Judah thought before that they were not the same as the people of the North Israel who deserved God¡Çs severe judgement. But they must admit their own sins in their turn. Thus they received another punishement from God.

Acknowledging the sin of our ancestors itself cannot change our own nature. To be newly born, we must accept it as our own sin, instead of criticizing the ancestors. Because, if not, we cannot feel its weight and pain by ourselves.

Every time I reflect on the theme, the sin of ancestors, I remember a book titled, ¡È We and the world,¡É which I presented before. It is written by Takeda Kiyoko, a Japanese scholar in the history of Japanese modern thought. She is christian too. The work aims for middle and hight school students. The contents treat problems of sins committed by ancestors and the results which weight on the descendants. The author analyzed them by referring to her personal experiences in Philippines.

In September 1951, Miss Takeda took an aircraft which would make an emergency landing in Manila due to a engine deficiency. The passengers had to stay in the city several days for repair of it. It was only 6 years after the end of the World War II and very few young women travelled abroad alone at that time. Besides, Japanese christians were minority. So a church in Manila introduced her to several christian families during the unexpected stay. It was rather painful for her to visit their homes because almost all them expressed hostility against the Japanese due to cruel conducts of Japanese soldiers in Philippines. Without exception, they talked about harsh pains caused by aggressions of soldiers. Young girls were abused and killed. Babies were thrown up high, like a little ball, then bayonetted in falling down. Young men were forced to work like slaves. Soldiers kicked young men on face with feet wearing hard boots, which left blue-black marks like stigmas. Many houses were burned.

Every time, she could say nothing but ¡ÈSorry and please forgive us.¡É However, some days passed, such blaming attitude changed. Then one person said to her, ¡ÈThank you for having listened to our complaints. To be honest, we wanted to be freed from those painful memories. So we will stop blaming what they did and won¡Çt be indignant against the Japanese.¡É

Thus they acknowledged that rancor and indignation were also painful for those who felt them. And Miss Takeda was moved strongly by their sincere words. She admitted that the sin committed by ancestors must be born by the descendants. The unexpected emergency landing and stay in Manila gave her the occasion to learn. No body can change the past. So much so we must face exactly what happened or what was done. Because if we ignore the history, we might repeat the same mistake of committing sinful conducts. We must learn from the past in order to be responsible for the future.

Indeed, numerous discussions were hold concerning the responsibility of acts of preceding generations. For example, after the end of the World War II, German payed today¡Çs Israel several billions of dollars as the compensation of Nazi¡Çs genocidal acts against Jewish people. That way, they recognized the sin.

Konrad Adenauer, The German chancellor of West Germany of the time, made a historic speech to the Bundestag in September 1951, in which he recognized the obligation of the German government to compensate Israel, as the representative of the Jewish people, for the Holocaust. This started a process which led to the Bundestag approving a pact between Israel and Germany in 1953 outlining the reparations Germany would pay to Israel.*2
I contrast, Japanese government gave the first official statement of apology to cruel behaviors of Japanese army only in 1995, under the prime minister Murayama.*3 But it was a mere statement, almost without any material compensation.

We Japanese tried to delete the repugnant memory of the war. Nonetheless, American Army camps are in Okinawa as tangible relics of the war. Effects of exposure to nuclear products after bombardments of atomic bombes are still causing problems. Or issues of ex-Korean people forced to come to Japan are not yet resolved. Japanese courts are avoiding validating their claims of compensations on the pretext of statute of limitations.
But we must share their sufferings. Because if we close eyes to the past we also become blind to the present. We must know clearly that the past, the present and the future are inseparable and involving in each other closely. Psalm 78 compels us to engage courageously in the history to resolve those problems. In this very month of August, we as Japanese keep in our mind the significance of the war again.

*1 Adenauer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenauer
*2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenauer#Additional_actions_as_Chancellor
*3 Murayama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murayama_Tomiichi