Maranatha Baptist Church
Psalm 106
  • Immortal Invisible God Only Wise

      • Matthew 6:16-17ESV

      • Matthew 6:18-19ESV

      • Matthew 6:20-22ESV

      • Matthew 6:23-24ESV

  • My Worth Is Not In What I Own (At The Cross)
  • The Lord Is My Salvation

      • Psalms 106:1-4ESV

      • Psalms 106:5-6ESV

      • Psalms 106:7-8ESV

      • Psalms 106:9-12ESV

      • Psalms 106:13-16ESV

      • Psalms 106:17-21ESV

      • Psalms 106:22-24ESV

      • Psalms 106:25-28ESV

      • Psalms 106:29-32ESV

      • Psalms 106:33-37ESV

      • Psalms 106:38-40ESV

      • Psalms 106:41-43ESV

      • Psalms 106:44-46ESV

      • Psalms 106:47-48ESV

  • This Psalm is the last Psalm of book 4. Similar to our Psalm from last week, this is also a historical Psalm. Psalm 105 looked back at stories of the patriarchs and the exodus and celebrated God’s faithfulness.
    Psalm 106 looks back at the wilderness generation, the failure to complete the conquest of Canaan, and their wandering off into idolatry and false religion. That Psalm next week will heavily reference the events of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges. And in spite of their sins, and failures, the Psalmist celebrates God for his steadfast love.
    The Psalm here begins with thankfulness to God. For he is good. And while the Psalm sets up this comparison between God’s goodness, and man’s wickedness, it will mostly focus on the sinfulness of Israel.
    Many people have made their mindset to be something more of skepticism when it comes to how things work in the world. The example being in the problem of evil. How can God be good when evil exists? I’ve addressed this before - it’s a faulty premise, though an important question to navigate.
    Over the past few years, when it comes to considering what God is doing in time - I always start with the understanding that God is always holy, God is always good, and his steadfast love endures forever.
    That ultimately changes how you understand the world around you and God himself. Especially, atrocities. If God is holy, loving and good in all that he does - then the question is not how could God allow this - but rather how do what happened fit into that framework. God doesn’t change so how does this fit?
    This Psalm demonstrates God’s goodness, and steadfast love, to a stiffnecked sinful people.
    The biggest questions that I would have to each of you today is:
    Do you believe that God’s steadfast love endures forever?
    How do you understand that in your own life?
    The Psalm begins though with a praise of God, and an assertion of the unattainability of God’s praise.
    God is worthy of so much more praise that we are able to give him.
    Psalm 106:1–3 ESV
    1 Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all his praise? 3 Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!
    Verse 3 - a blessing for those who do observe justice and do righteousness at all times. And as the rest of the Psalm will follow by demonstrating that the people
    Verses 4-5 add an interesting personal prayer before the Psalmist enters into his historical recalling of Israel’s history of sinfulness.
    Psalm 106:4–5 ESV
    4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them, 5 that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.
    It is a prayer for salvation. The psalmist knows that the people have sinned, and will sin, but more than that he knows that God is good and abounding in steadfast love. So he asks that God deliver him - that he might glorify him.
    An important disposition to have as we move into the coming verses.
    As he begins his history in verse 6, he makes a confession. He isn’t blaming others for his sins, he is not taking the attitude of a victim, but confessing that his fathers of sinned and so has he.
    He does the opposite of what many do today. Adopt a victim mentality.
    Psalm 106:6 ESV
    6 Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.
    Recent generations have done much to blame those who have gone before them for their sins.
    Millennials are really good at blaming baby boomers for all of their problems. Ex: It’s not your fault you can’t afford a house, it’s because of the policies that baby boomers voted for to drive up inflation.
    Or all your problems are because of generational trauma, institutionalized racism, trickledown economic theory, etc.
    Everything that is wrong in our lives is someone else’s fault. Sometimes this can be true - but it is not nearly as often as people make it own to be.
    Take responsibility for what you can control.
    This text is the opposite, the psalmist acknowledges that they are where they are not only because of their father’s sins, but also because of their own.
    It crossed my mind to title this sermon “A History of Israel’s Sinfulness”. Because in a sense that is what this Psalm is - but the only reason the Psalmist lists and recalls the sins of the people is so that he might demonstrate all the more the steadfast love of God. And we should do the same, when you call your sinfulness - instead of dwelling in how much you sin - confess your sins, repent, and then rejoice instead in how much God loves.
    The Psalmist begins his history by recalling the Exodus and the splitting of the Red Sea. He mentions their sin and their rebellion. Though he delivered them in miraculous events before their eyes they soon forget.
    Psalm 106:7–8 ESV
    7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.
    They were not an exceptionally righteous people when God called them out of Egypt. They were not a numerically significant people.
    In Deuteronomy 7:7, and Deut 9:4-6 - the Lord tells his people that he did not choose them because they were special, or because they were great in number but because he loved them. And this is consistent with the Biblical Doctrine of election, as we see in the NT. God’s divine decree of election is not based on any certain innate value in a person - but rather because he has loved them so that he might demonstrate his life, and be glorified. He has done it for his namesake. For his glory.
    The Psalmist continues in verses 9-12 to show God’s works. Here he is retelling the events of Exodus 14.
    Psalm 106:9–12 ESV
    9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. 10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed his words; they sang his praise.
    God demonstrates his mighty power by rebuking the sea and making dry land appear. The same language as Psalm 104 to describe the creation of the land. God speaks and the dry land was created out of the waters. As God spoke and the waters responded in creation, they do so here as God calls a people out of slavery - and then he brings those waters back on their enemies. The response to this is belief. And that’s a good response.
    This brings me to one of those common objections that people have about faith in God. Many times I have heard someone say “I would believe in God, if only he would show me that he exists.” However, the story of Israel shows us how untrue that is. Israel sees some of the most incredible demonstrations of God’s power and they believe until they get hungry.
    As we see in the chapters immediately following the delivery from Egypt. Freed from slavery and in Ex 15 and 17 the complain about not having water and in 16 about not having food. To the point where they state that they would rather be enslaved again.
    God provides for them. He makes bitter waters sweet, he makes bread fall from heaven, he makes water to come from a rock.
    Psalm 106:13–15 ESV
    13 But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.
    And yet about a year later in Numbers 11, they crave meat. This is the reference that the Psalmist is making in verses 13-15 here. God punishes them in Nm 11 for their complaining. He gives them bread from heaven, but it’s not enough. He gives them so much quail - that it is all their eat for a month - they will eat so much quail that it will pour from their nostrils.
    Psalm 106:16–18 ESV
    16 When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, 17 the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. 18 Fire also broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.
    Then in Psalm 106:16-18, he recalls Korah’s Rebellion, from Numbers 16 and 17, where a group of men question if Moses really is the leader that God has chosen - and it ends in the earth opening up and Korah’s entire family, possessions and any slaves or servants he may have owned being swallowed by the earth - and then not long after the 250 chiefs who had sided with Korah, were consumed by fire.
    Following these two references to Numbers, the Psalmist then returns once again to the book of Exodus, as he references the Golden Calf.
    Psalm 106:19–22 ESV
    19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
    About 40 days after God delivers them from Egyptian slavery the Israelites have already turn idol worship. While Moses was receiving the covenant from the Lord on Mt. Sinai, the Israelites are at the base of the mountain breaking it.
    The Psalmist focuses on their idolatry.
    They build a calf, and exchange the glory of God for an ox that eats grass. Major downgrade.
    The major mark against them here is that they are faithless. They forgot the very God who delivered them out of Egypt. But God did not forget them.
    As we read in the following verses.
    Psalm 106:23 ESV
    23 Therefore he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
    And he would have been right to destroy them. But Moses, appeals to God’s character - and God relents.
    God knew what he was going to do from the beginning, God knew what Moses was going to say. Through the interaction with Moses and the Lord, we are shown why Moses is the leader of the Israelites but more importantly, we are shown the Lord’s steadfast love toward his people.
    The psalmist does not stop here.
    In 24-27, he explains how they fail to properly take the land that that was promised to them. Fearing man rather than God, they are disobedient to his command to take the land that he has given them. So he makes them to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
    And the next event that he writes of is also in the book of Numbers, as he reminds them of yet another instance in which Israel forgets the God who saved them. Though God has brought them out of slavery, fed them, given them water from a rock. Though he has provided for them for 39 years in the wilderness - in the final years of their wandering. They begin to embrace immoral relationships with Moabites, and worship their gods.
    Psalm 106:28–31 ESV
    28 Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; 29 they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed. 31 And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.
    God responds to this by sending a plague that kills 24,000 people in Numbers 25. Phineas, the grandson of Aaron the priest, is righteous - and he stands up and with a spear kills the man who was in sin with the moabite woman.
    And this deed is credited to Phineas as righteousness. Similar to the language that we see applied Abraham. His actions were a result of his faith, and that was credited to him as righteousness. While everyone around him was falling into idolatry and immorality he remained faithful.
    He was purging the camp of evil, and protecting the people from sin.
    And the next event that the Psalmist adds in here is from Numbers 20. This is another instance where the people complain because of a lack of water. The Lord tells Moses to go and speak to the rock, and it will yield water. Moses instead strikes it twice. This is the event that ultimately leads to Moses’ exclusion from the promised land.
    Psalm 106:32–33 ESV
    32 They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, 33 for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.
    Verses 34-39 deal with the instructions concerning the conquest of Canaan. The Psalmist laments that they were supposed to remove them from the land, and instead they did exactly as the people in the land did.
    They served idols, sacrificed their children, shed innocent blood. They did all the things that the law they were given forbid.
    Psalm 106:34–39 ESV
    34 They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, 35 but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. 36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; 38 they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.
    In Genesis 15, the Lord tells Abraham that the sin of the people of the land is not yet complete. In short he gave them at least 500 years to repent, and they failed to do so. So he brought Israel to judge them - however, instead of destroying them as they were commanded to do - they not only permitted them to live they adopted their customs. They worship their idols. They engaged in child sacrifice. They polluted the land with blood and became unclean. All of those things are markers of a rejection of the Lord. So the Lord used other nations to judge Israel. And this is what we read in verses 40-41. Because they failed to be obedient to the covenant as God commanded in Deuteronomy 28-29, he removed them from the land as they promised.
    Psalm 106:41–43 ESV
    41 he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.
    Because they failed to trust God, and were disobedient to his commands, the Lord gave them into the hands of other nations. Like Babylon and Assyria.
    God delivered them many times. And this is where they are at in history. Here at the end of book 4, rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. And also rebuilding the city.
    In verse 44 we get the turn of the story. Though they were rebellious, though they complained, though they wandered off into false religions, and immorality, and though they broke all of God’s commands - The Lord does not forget his people - or his promises. In the book of Judges we see this cycle where the Israelites continue to wander into apostacy. They continue to worship false gods. Because of this the Lord Judges them, by delivering them over into foreign nations. They rule over and oppress them. And then when they cry out for mercy, God delivers them again.
    The cycle repeatedly shows Israel’s inability to save themselves, and their constant need for the Lord’s guidance and protection - not just from the other nations, but also from themselves.
    The Lord continues to demonstrate his lovingkindness. His steadfast love.
    Psalm 106:47–48 ESV
    47 Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!
    The Psalm then ends with a prayer that God would gather his people from among the nations. And this has a double meaning to it. In one sense, it is about the Lord bringing back his people from Babylon and Assyria. However, what we see in the gospel of Jesus Christ is that God is gathering his people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. That the nations have been grafted in to the holy people of God.
    We should not look back and the sins of Israel, and think “I would have done better.”
    We should instead look at God’s steadfast love. One of the main sins that Israel commits over and over again is grumbling and complaining and a lack of faith in God’s plans.
    We should be reminded that In spite of Israel’s continued faithlessness, God remains faithful.
    And we should rejoice that the same mercy is extended to all who call upon the name of the Lord.
    “The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.”
    There is far more love in God than sin in us.
    Do you believe that when it comes to your own life?
    Do you have sins that you need to repent of?
    Knowing that God is abounding in mercy and steadfast love - but hates sin - confess your sin today. Before coming to the table. Take time to pray to the Lord and confess whatever sin may abound in you - rebellion, jealously, idolatry, immorality, faithfulness, lying, gossip, complaining, etc.
    That though we sinned just like Israel. They we were dead in our trespasses and sins. God send his Son, Jesus, to deliver us from our sins. Born of a virgin in Bethlehem, in the city of David, though David’s Son, also David’s Lord.
    He himself went down into Egypt. Was tested for 40 days in the wilderness - but is without sin. His body broken for us, his blood shed for us. This is the greatest demonstration of the steadfast love of God.
    That God himself, would become a man, in order to endure the wrath of his Father that we deserved for our sins. He laid his life down on the cross. Then rose from the dead.
    The steadfast love of God endures forever. The New Testament repeatedly reminds us as people of God, who have experienced the love of God. that we should extent that love to one another.
    The clearest reminder of the steadfast love of God is what we remember in this table.

      • Psalm 106:1–3ESV

      • Psalm 106:4–5ESV

      • Psalm 106:6ESV

      • Psalm 106:7–8ESV

      • Psalm 106:9–12ESV

      • Psalm 106:13–15ESV

      • Psalm 106:16–18ESV

      • Psalm 106:19–22ESV

      • Psalm 106:23ESV

      • Psalm 106:28–31ESV

      • Psalm 106:32–33ESV

      • Psalm 106:34–39ESV

      • Psalm 106:41–43ESV

      • Psalm 106:47–48ESV

  • Come Unto Jesus

      • Psalm 107ESV

Maranatha Baptist Church
info@mbcglobe.org
http://www.mbcglobe.org
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