Psalm 106

Introduction

Psalm 105, which we studied the last time, was about what the Lord had done for his people and how he kept his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them and their descendants the Promised Land. And so, the Lord was with them when they were only a small family. And he was with them in Egypt, where they became a mighty nation. And he rescued them from Egypt by performing mighty miracles on their behalf. And he brought them through the wilderness and gave them the land of Canaan. So, Psalm 105 was about what God had done for his people.

Today’s psalm, Psalm 106, tells the same story, but this time there’s an emphasis on the sins of the people. And so, the story of Israel is not only a story about God’s faithfulness to his people, but it’s a story about their faithlessness and rebellion.

It’s also the last psalm in Book 4 of the Psalms. The Psalms are divided into five books and each book ends with a doxology or an expression of praise to God. And so, today’s psalm ends with praise:

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting.
Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord for all that we have read about him in Psalm 106 and praise the Lord for all that we have read about him in Book 4 of the Psalms. Praise the Lord.

Verses 1 to 6

And the psalm begins with praise too. The psalmist calls on the people to praise the Lord and to give thanks to him, because he is good and his love endures for ever. The psalmist uses God’s special covenant name, which speaks of God’s commitment to his people, because he has bound himself to his people with a promise to be their God and to deliver them from our sin and misery. And the psalmist also uses the covenant word for love. This is God’s steadfast love, his never-ending love. God’s covenant love for his covenant people endures for ever.

The psalmist then asks who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise. He means that it’s too much for us. It’s beyond our ability. How can we possibly express God’s greatness adequately? An artist has a go at painting a landscape, but, though he tries, he’s unable to capture the beauty of the scenery. And we can try to praise God. But, though we try, we’ll always fall short, because who has the words to express the glory and the majesty of our God and what he has done for us?

The psalmist follows this with a blessing which he pronounces on those who maintain justice and who constantly do what is right. The Lord, of course, maintains justice and he always does what is right. And therefore, blessed are they who are like the Lord and who walk in his ways and who do his will.

In verse 5, the psalmist asks the Lord to remember him when the Lord shows favour to his people so that he — the psalmist — may see the prosperity of God’s chosen people and share in their joy. This implies that the psalmist and all of God’s chosen people are in need of God’s favour. They need God’s help. And the reason they need God’s help becomes apparent at the end of the psalm, where the psalmist asks God to save them and to gather them from the nations. This suggests that the psalm was written during the time of the exile, when God’s chosen people were taken from the Promised Land and sent to Babylon as God’s judgment on them for their persistent unbelief and rebellion.

And so, when God’s people were in exile, the psalmist called out to the Lord, whose covenant love endures for ever, and asked him to remember his chosen, covenant people, and to restore them to the Promised Land and to restore their fortunes and to restore their joy. Like their forefathers, they had rebelled against the Lord. But will the Lord now show them mercy just as he showed mercy to his people in the past?

And that takes us to verse 6 where the psalmist confesses that they have sinned, even as their forefathers did. They have done wrong. They have acted wickedly. So, he confesses their sins before the Lord and he’s hoping that the Lord will hear this confession and pardon them for all that they have done wrong and for all their shortcomings.

And in what follows, the psalmist refers: firstly, in verses 7 to 12, to the time when their forefathers were in Egypt; secondly, in verses 13 to 33, to the time when their forefathers were in the wilderness; and thirdly, in verses 34 to 46, to the time when their forefathers were in the Promised Land.

Verses 7 to 12

Let’s turn to verses 7 to 12, where he says that their forefathers in Egypt gave no thought to the Lord’s miracles and they did not remember his kindnesses. He then mentions how they rebelled at the Red Sea. And so, he means that when they reached the Red Sea, and saw that it was blocking their way and that the Egyptian soldiers were pursuing them, they forget what God has done for them when he sent the plagues on the Egyptians. And so, they panicked and started to complain to Moses. They said, ‘What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?’ And they said to him that they’d have been better off in Egypt than to die in the desert.

And so, they complained and rebelled. And yet — the psalmist says in verse 8 — the Lord saved them for his name’s sake. So, he rebuked the Red Sea and made it become dry and he led his people across on dry land. In this way, he saved them from their foe, who were drowned when the sea went back and covered them. And the psalmist adds in verse 12: ‘Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.’ By saying this, the psalmist is not commending them. Instead he’s being sarcastic. He’s saying: Then they believed, but not before. Before, they panicked and complained and they were ready to return, because they did not believe the Lord, even though the Lord had demonstrated his commitment to them and his great power when they were still in Egypt.

Verses 13 to 33

Let’s turn to verses 13 to 33 now where the psalmist mentions six episodes from the time when the people of Israel were in the wilderness. Firstly, he says that they soon forgot what the Lord had done for them and they did not wait for his counsel. That is, they didn’t wait for him to reveal his plan for how he was going to feed them. Instead of waiting, they gave in to their cravings and complained that they had no meat. You can read about this in Numbers 11. The Lord heard them and sent them quail to eat. However, the Lord was also angry with them and he struck them with a severe plague.

Secondly, he refers to the time which we read about in Numbers 16 when some of them were jealous of Moses and Aaron. They complained: why should Moses and Aaron rule over them? And the Lord opened up the ground and swallowed Dathan and Abiram, who, along with Korah, were the ringleaders of the rebellion. And another 250 men were destroyed by fire.

Thirdly, he refers to the time when they made and bowed down to the golden calf. They exchanged the glory of the Lord for an image of a bull. They therefore forgot the Lord who had saved them when they were slaves in Egypt and who had performed awesome deeds for them. And after they worshipped the golden calf, the Lord was ready to destroy them all, if it were not for Moses who stood in the breach, as it were, to keep God’s wrath from destroying them.

Fourthly, he refers to the episode in Numbers 13 when they got to the edge of the Promised Land, but refused to enter it, because they did not believe God’s promise that he would give it to them. Instead of believing God’s promise and going up to take the land, they stayed in their tents and grumbled. And because of their unbelief, the Lord swore that none of that unbelieving generation would enter the land.

Fifthly, he refers to an incident recorded in Numbers 25 when the Israelites men indulged in sexual immorality with Moabite women who also invited them to offer sacrifices to their gods. And so, Israel worshipped the Baal of Peor instead of the one, true and living God who had brought them out of Egypt. The Lord sent a plague on them, which only stopped whenever Phinehas intervened. Phinehas intervened by killing an Israelite man who had brought a foreign woman into the camp.

And sixthly, he refers to the time, recorded for us in Numbers 20, when they angered the Lord at Meribah by complaining because there was no water. The Lord made water come from a rock, but the Lord was angry with Moses who dishonoured the Lord at that time when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, which is what the Lord commanded him to do.

And so, the psalmist refers to six occasions when their forefathers rebelled against the Lord in the wilderness.

Verses 34 to 46

In verses 34 to 46 he refers to the time when their forefathers were in the Promised Land.

Once again, it’s a story of sin and rebellion. They didn’t destroy the Canaanites, as God commanded them to do, but they mingled with them and became like them, which is why God commanded them to destroy them in the first place. God knew the Canaanites would lead them astray. And so, the Israelites worshipped the Canaanite gods and they even sacrificed their sons and daughters to demonic idols. They defiled the land and themselves by the wicked things they did and by their deeds they prostituted themselves.

And the Lord was angry with them and he abhorred them. And so, he handed them over to the nations when he let their enemies invade the land and rule over them and oppress them and when they subjected the Israelites to their power. He’s referring now to the time of the judges, when the Philstines and others used to subdue them. He says in verse 43 that the Lord delivered them many times. He delivered them by sending the judges to save them: men like Gideon and Samson. But look: they were bent on rebellion. They were inclined to it. They were prone to rebel. And they wasted away in their sin, because sin always leads to misery.

And then we have a ‘but’ in verse 43. ‘But’, or ‘nevertheless’, the Lord took note of their distress when he heard their cry. And he remembered his covenant. He remembered his promise to them to be their God and to deliver them from their sin and misery. And out of his great love, he relented. He did not destroy them, even though that’s what they deserved for their persistent sin and rebellion and unbelief. And he caused them to be pitied by all who held them captive.

Verses 47 and 48

And so, despite their sin in the past, the Lord did not destroy them. From time to time, he disciplined them. But he did not destroy them. And again and again he saved them from trouble and danger. And so, the psalmist calls on the Lord to save them in their present distress. He asks the Lord to gather them from the nations where they have been exiled and to let them return to the Promised Land where they will give thanks to him and glory in his praise. They will give thanks to him and sing his praise for graciously and freely saving them.

Conclusion

The psalmist recorded the history of Israel and it was a history of sin and rebellion and unbelief. And yet, instead of destroying them, the Lord saved them because of his covenant commitment to them. And if we wrote the history of the church from the time of the apostles until now, it would be a similar story. Thankfully, by God’s grace, the history of the church is not altogether bad and God’s people have been able to serve him faithfully and well. But the history of the church also contains many shameful times when God’s people have gone astray. And in our own personal lives, we can think of many occasions when we dishonoured the Lord by the things we said and did and we have not trusted him as we should. And yet, instead of destroying us, which is what we deserve, the Lord has been merciful to us and he has forgiven us and he has kept us. And he continues to save us because of his covenant promise to deliver us from our sin and misery by his Son, who took the blame for all that we have done wrong and who has made peace for us with God by his death on the cross. And so, instead of receiving trouble from the Lord, which is what we deserve, we receive good things from the Lord. And so, praise be to the Lord from everlasting to everlasting. Let all his people say: ‘Amen!’ Praise the Lord.