Psalm 78:37

Psalm 78:37, in plain English

Their hearts were never truly loyal. They didn't break their covenant with God; they just ignored it and went their own way.

Why it's here

A covenant is a binding agreement, a marriage-like commitment. Israel kept treating it like optional—they'd repent when convenient, then drift back into disobedience. Their hearts remained divided; they wanted God's blessings without God's authority.

Who's speaking

Asaph, exposing the root problem—not ignorance but disloyalty.

Where it sits in the story

This unfaithfulness is the tragedy of the Old Testament—and it's exactly what Jesus came to heal in people, creating a new covenant written on the heart.

The scholarly reading

Their deepest problem was internal: their hearts were not genuinely devoted to God, and they proved unfaithful to the covenant despite their verbal promises.

Language and setting

The phrase וְלִבָּם לֹא־נָכוֹן אִתּוֹ (v'libam lo-nach'on ito, 'their hearts were not right/established with Him') uses the adjective נָכוֹן (nach'on), which denotes stability, reliability, or proper alignment. In covenantal language, the 'heart' (לֵב, lev) represents the seat of volition, intention, and genuine commitment. The second clause, וְלֹא־נֶאֱמְנוּ בִּבְרִיתוֹ (v'lo-ne'emnu bi-b'rito, 'they were not faithful to His covenant') employs the niphal of אמן (aman), the same root as 'belief' in verses 22 and 32. The repetition creates circular irony: they refused to believe God (v. 22), refused to believe despite wonders (v. 32), and now are revealed to have refused to commit themselves genuinely to the covenant. The term בְרִית (berit, 'covenant') appears here, reframing this from merely personal unfaithfulness to violation of the structured relationship God had established.

Voice

The psalmist penetrates beneath the linguistic deception to expose the fundamental spiritual condition—radical internal misalignment.

Significance

This verse articulates what prophetic and later wisdom literature identified as the core issue of Israel's spiritual crisis: the hiddenness of the heart. Jeremiah speaks of God searching the heart (Jeremiah 17:10); Proverbs repeatedly warns about the deceptive heart (Proverbs 28:26). The New Testament follows suit: Mark 7:20-23, where Jesus teaches that what defiles comes from within, from the heart. This verse's insistence on internal faithfulness over external performance becomes foundational to later Reformation theology's emphasis on faith as the aligning of the whole person's will toward God, not mere intellectual assent or behavioral compliance.

35And they remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.

36But they deceived Him with their mouths, and lied to Him with their tongues.

37Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

38And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

39He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

Read all of Psalm 78 — The longest historical psalm — a retelling of Israel's journey from Egypt to David. Remember, so the next generation won't forget.