A Parable for the Next Generation

Psalm 78 opens by calling Israel to hear Torah and a “parable” or instructive saying drawn from the past. The purpose is generational memory: children must know God’s works so that they will set their hope in him rather than repeat the stubbornness of earlier generations.

Matthew 13:35 explicitly quotes Psalm 78:2 in connection with Jesus speaking in parables. This is therefore stronger than a devotional resemblance. Matthew uses fulfillment language for a psalm that is teaching through Israel’s history, showing that “fulfillment” can involve Scripture’s pattern and mode of revelation reaching a fuller expression in Jesus—not only a simple prediction followed by its predicted event.