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Messianic Prophecies

Psalms 78:1-2

This passage comes from the wider catalog — a broader, more lightly curated list than the core set. Both readings are shown as peers; GEBible takes no side.

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Psalms 78:1-2

Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

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Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments,

The fulfillment reading

How this passage is read as pointing to the Messiah.

The messianic-fulfillment reading holds that Matthew 13:35 explicitly quotes Psalm 78:2 with a fulfillment formula, presenting Jesus' practice of teaching in parables as the realization of the psalmist's declaration to open his mouth in a mashal and utter things hidden from of old. On this reading the inspired psalm-writer functions prophetically, so introducing the line with 'the prophet' is coherent within the early church's understanding of the Psalter. Proponents note that the psalm pairs an accessible didactic form with deep or hidden content and see Jesus' kingdom parables as supplying that form's ultimate content. The correspondence is thus taken as a genuine method-and-content match rather than a shared word alone.

The counter-reading

How this passage is read within its own context.

The critical reading observes that Psalm 78 is a historical psalm attributed to Asaph, a Levitical musician, recounting Israel's history as an instructive lesson for the next generation. In its setting the mashal is that historical recitation itself, and the Hebrew term spans proverbs, riddles, and instructive narrative rather than the fictional kingdom-stories Jesus tells. On this view the fulfillment formula rests on the shared word parable/mashal while the two genres differ, and the label 'the prophet' sits awkwardly with Asaph's Temple-musician role. Critics therefore treat the link as a keyword-driven application rather than a predictive correspondence.

How the New Testament uses this passage

Each entry names how the New Testament author draws on the passage — a direct quotation, an allusion, an echo, or a typological reading. An echo or an allusion is not the same as a prediction; the label says which is which.

  • Matthew 13:34-35 Direct quotation

    Matthew 13:35 reproduces Psalm 78:2 (via the LXX) under an explicit 'that it might be fulfilled' formula — a formal quotation.