God Speaks
Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord?
Who can ever praise him enough?
3 There is joy for those who deal justly with others
and always do what is right.
4 Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people;
come near and rescue me.
5 Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen ones.
Let me rejoice in the joy of your people;
let me praise you with those who are your heritage.
6 Like our ancestors, we have sinned.
We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!
7 Our ancestors in Egypt
were not impressed by the Lord’s miraculous deeds.
They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them.
Instead, they rebelled against him at the Red Sea.
8 Even so, he saved them—
to defend the honor of his name
and to demonstrate his mighty power.
9 He commanded the Red Sea to dry up.
He led Israel across the sea as if it were a desert.
10 So he rescued them from their enemies
and redeemed them from their foes.
11 Then the water returned and covered their enemies;
not one of them survived.
12 Then his people believed his promises.
Then they sang his praise.
13 Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!
They wouldn’t wait for his counsel!
14 In the wilderness their desires ran wild,
testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.
15 So he gave them what they asked for,
but he sent a plague along with it.
16 The people in the camp were jealous of Moses
and envious of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.
17 Because of this, the earth opened up;
it swallowed Dathan
and buried Abiram and the other rebels.
18 Fire fell upon their followers;
a flame consumed the wicked.
19 The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
they bowed before an image made of gold.
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God, their savior,
who had done such great things in Egypt—
22 such wonderful things in the land of Ham,
such awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23 So he declared he would destroy them.
But Moses, his chosen one, stepped between the Lord and the people.
He begged him to turn from his anger and not destroy them.
24 The people refused to enter the pleasant land,
for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.
26 Therefore, he solemnly swore
that he would kill them in the wilderness,
27 that he would scatter their descendants among the nations,
exiling them to distant lands.
28 Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor;
they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead!
29 They angered the Lord with all these things,
so a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas had the courage to intervene,
and the plague was stopped.
31 So he has been regarded as a righteous man
ever since that time.
32 At Meribah, too, they angered the Lord,
causing Moses serious trouble.
33 They made Moses angry,
and he spoke foolishly.
34 Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land,
as the Lord had commanded them.
35 Instead, they mingled among the pagans
and adopted their evil customs.
36 They worshiped their idols,
which led to their downfall.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons.
38 They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters.
By sacrificing them to the idols of Canaan,
they polluted the land with murder.
39 They defiled themselves by their evil deeds,
and their love of idols was adultery in the Lord’s sight.
40 That is why the Lord’s anger burned against his people,
and he abhorred his own special possession.
41 He handed them over to pagan nations,
and they were ruled by those who hated them.
42 Their enemies crushed them
and brought them under their cruel power.
43 Again and again he rescued them,
but they chose to rebel against him,
and they were finally destroyed by their sin.
44 Even so, he pitied them in their distress
and listened to their cries.
45 He remembered his covenant with them
and relented because of his unfailing love.
46 He even caused their captors
to treat them with kindness.
47 Save us, O Lord our God!
Gather us back from among the nations,
so we can thank your holy name
and rejoice and praise you.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
who lives from everlasting to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: As mentioned previously in this blog, Psalms 105, 106 and 107 all are historical accounts of God’s interactions with His people, in particular Abraham and his descendants. Psalm 106 begins where all interaction with our great God should, praising Him (vv. 1-5). Verses 6-12 present a confession of the Psalmist’s and the Israelites’ present and past sins beginning with their ingratitude for God’s miracles on their behalf in Egypt. God’s people believed in Him immediately after the miracle of crossing the Red Sea, but not for long as verses 13-15 tell us. In verses 16-18 some of them were jealous of Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership which God dealt with by the earth opening up, followed by fire against these rebels. The Israelites made the golden calf at Mount Sinai, forgetting all about God delivering them from Egypt and their escape at the Red Sea, which made Him truly angry with them, but Moses begged Him not to destroy them in verses 19-23. The people refused to go into the promised land because they didn’t believe His promise to care for them, so God swore in verses 24-27 that generation would die in the wilderness and their descendants would be taken into exile. Verses 28-31 cover their worship of Baal at Peor and its consequences. At Meribah, too, they got Moses so upset that he lost his patience and his temper and acted rashly (vv. 32-33). The next generation of Israelites failed to destroy the nations that occupied the land God had promised them. They even worshiped their so-called gods in despicable ways (vv. 34-39). All these acts of disloyalty and rebellion were why the LORD was forced to punish the people He loved, allowing them to be defeated by enemy nations and sending them into exile (vv. 40-42). Even though He rescued them repeatedly, they chose to rebel against the LORD, and finally, they were destroyed by their own sin (vv. 42-43). Then the LORD, because of His unfailing love, acted on His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (vv. 44-46). In conclusion (vv. 47-48), the Psalmist cries out to the LORD to save His people and gather them from the nations. He calls on all God’s people to join him in worshiping, thanking, and praising the LORD.
Prayer: Dear Father God, who deserves our trust and expects our obedience, I praise and thank You for Your goodness and faithful, everlasting love. No one can grasp or count all the miracles You have performed for Your chosen ones. The most important one is the perfect life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Your beloved Son, Jesus. The next is Your forgiveness and Your grace extended to rebellious sinners like me. We (I) continually do wrong and act wickedly! We (I am) are ungrateful like the Israelites You freed from slavery in Egypt. Instead, we (I) forget to thank You for Your many acts of kindness. We (I) bring disgrace instead of honor to Your name or the mighty power You demonstrated in rescuing us. One example of Your power is the parting of the Red Sea so that Your people could go through on dry land. We (I) should be singing Your praises every day. Instead, we (I) continually try Your tremendous patience. We are jealous of the leaders You have placed over us. We (I) put other people, objects, or ideologies ahead of You. We, (I) like the Israelites of old, trade our gracious, incorruptible God for corruptible baubles. You sent the Savior, Jesus, to give You a reason not to destroy us. We (I) refuse to do what You have commanded us (me) to do. We (I) fear everything but You, the only one worthy of our awestruck wonder. We (I) need courageous men like Phinehas to intervene and show what righteousness looks like. We (I) get so frustrated that we lose our God-empowered patience and our (my) temper and speak or act foolishly. We (I) have been inattentive and surrendered our children to extremely anti-God ideologies. We (I) have defined ourselves by our (my) evil deeds, and our love for God-substitutes is adultery in Your sight, O LORD. You have every reason and right to destroy us, Your special possession. We (I) have chosen to rebel against You; thus, we are being destroyed by our own sin. Please take pity on us, listen to our cries for mercy, and relent because of Your unfailing love. Save us, O LORD our God! Draw people back to You from every tongue and tribe, people group and nation. Then, by the power of Your grace, we will rejoice, thank, and praise Your holy name. And all God’s people will say, “AMEN!”
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will make a point to thank and praise God at the beginning and end of every day.
- I will make a list of the ways God has demonstrated His love and goodness to me.
- I will reflect on what Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection mean in my life.
- I will research and then tell the next generations how God has performed miraculous acts of mercy and love throughout the history of my nation (USA).
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.