Purpose and thrust (Kraus Commentary, 1993 edition/translation) - Sermon of admonitions and warning (Psalm 78 exegesis)

from Hans-Joachim Kraus PSALMS 60 - 150 (Fortress 1993):
Psalm 78 celebrates the great deeds of Yahweh.   It never tires of describing the wonders of the basic historical activity of God.  The history of salvation lives in the report, in the proclamation.  Transmitted from generation to generation, it approaches the present in the world.  The faithfulness of Yahweh, his ever-new activity in compassion and goodness, is vividly presented to the hearers before their very eyes.  But this glorification and description of the salvific deeds and wonders of God is shot through with a sermon of admonitions and warning which has its source in the order of the covenant and of obedience (verses 5 - 11).
In light of the wonders of Yahweh, the guilt of the people becomes evident.  It consists of the thankless greed that heedlessly passes the gifts of God by -- of the unbelieving, mistrusting challenge to Yahweh.  The chain of the salvific deeds of God is accompanied by continuous faithlessness on the part of Israel.  The history of the covenant people is the history of defection, of an insidious breech of faithfulness, and of a superficial repentance once displayed in great affliction.  But not only admonitions and warning sound forth from the history lesson of Psalm 78; the poet wants to propound a secret, a riddle.  The first introduction (verses 1 - 2), cast in the form of wisdom poetry, is to be considered once more at the conclusion (verses 65 - 72). . . [pages 130 - 131: translated by Hilton C. Oswald]