Craig Thomas

Psalm 106 is relatively long, but more than worthy of our reading and contemplation.  I would call it a “psalm of remembrance.”  It opens praising the Lord:

“ 1 Praise the Lord!

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?

Who can declare all His praise?

3 Blessed are those who keep justice,

And he who does righteousness at all times!”

Then the psalmist asks God for His mercy (vv. 4-5):

“ 4 Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people.

Oh, visit me with Your salvation,

5 That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones,

That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,

That I may glory with Your inheritance.”

Then, importantly and a model for us, the psalmist makes a confession of sin:

“ 6 We have sinned with our fathers,

We have committed iniquity,

We have done wickedly.”

Then, also very importantly, the psalmist recounts the many cases where the Israelites failed as they continually rebelled against God.  Their history was a litany of failure!  They failed when they balked at crossing the Red Sea (vv. 7-12).  They failed when they lusted after the life they had left in Egypt (vv. 13-15).  They failed when they rebelled against the leadership of Moses and Aaron (vv. 16-18).  They failed when they fashioned the golden calf at the foot of Sinai (vv. 19-23).  They failed when they balked and refused to enter the Promised Land (vv. 24-27).  They failed when they joined with the Midianites in idol worship and fornication (vv. 28-31).  They failed (including Moses!) when they complained at the waters of Meribah (vv. 32-33).  They failed in the Promised Land when they did not fully destroy the wicked, pagan Gentile nations and instead intermarried with them and joined with them in idol worship, even to the point of shedding innocent blood by offering their own children as sacrifices (vv. 34-39).

Because of their hardheaded obstinance and nearly constant rebellion, the Lord punished and oppressed them just as He had warned (vv. 40-42; cf. Deut. 28; Lev. 26).  Many times, during that checkered history, they cried out to the Lord and He delivered them (vv. 43-46).  Yet they fell right back into their obstinance and rebellion, even to ultimately murdering their own Savior; bringing God’s final and total rejection upon themselves (Matt. 23:37-24:35).

God help us if we fail to see the parallels between these people and our own personal lives!  Like the Israelites, it is so easy for us to forget God’s greatness in our lives and reject His Word.  The psalmist describes this in verse 13:  “They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel.”  When we continually reject God and His counsel, He will give us over to our own devices (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28) and the aftermath will be devastating (cf. Rom. 1:24-32).  We are seeing a lot of that play out in America today!

The psalmist says, “They forgot God their Savior” (v. 21) and He “sent leanness into their soul” (v. 15).  Let us not make the same foolish mistake in our individual lives!  Like the psalmist let us cry out to the Lord for salvation (vv. 4-5), confess and repent of our sins, and be determined to forsake evil and serve the Lord forever more!

“ 47 Save us, O Lord our God,

And gather us from among the Gentiles,

To give thanks to Your holy name,

To triumph in Your praise.

48 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel

From everlasting to everlasting!

And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Praise the Lord!”