1. Praise and Prayer (verses 1-6).
2. He is Compassionate (verses 7-46).
3. Prayer and Praise (verses 47-48).
The Bible is not a book about righteous people doing righteous things gaining God's favor for the good deeds they have done. No. The Bible is a book about wicked people in their sin finding God's favor through God grace.
Over and over and over again, you see this same message played out. Whether it was Abraham, who came from an idol-making family and was a deceiver (Genesis 12, 20). Or whether it was Jacob, who was a scoundrel who deceived his brother on several occasions. Or whether it was Moses, who was a murderer. Or whether it was David, who was an adulterer and a murderer. Or whether it was Peter, who denied Jesus on three occasions. Or whether it was Paul, who was "a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor" against the people of God (1 Timothy 1:13). The story is always the same. We are sinners saved by grace.
The reality is this: because of Adam's sin, we have all been thrust into sin and its grip. We are sinners by nature. We are sinners by choice. As a result, we are called "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:1). We are under the wrath of God. But, here's the incredible thing. God loves to show His favor toward sinners. When Jesus came to earth, He said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:9).
And there are some New Testament stories that illustrate just what Jesus means. Remember the prodigal son? (Luke 15). He was a wretched and sinful man. But, when he returned to his father, grace and mercy was lavished upon him. The father killed the fattened calf and had a party for the son who returned back home! Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery. Caught in the very act! Rather than condemning her in her sin, Jesus showed her mercy, calling upon her accusers: "He who is without sin, let him throw the first stone" (John 8:7).
God welcomes sinners into His presence. That's the story of the Bible! Remember the woman in the city who was a sinner (Luke 7:37)? When Jesus came to the home of the Pharisees, this woman was there at His feet, weeping and wetting His feet with her tears and wiping them away with her hair. She was anointing His feet with perfume.
The Pharisees said, "If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner" (Luke 7:39). Well, Jesus was greater than a prophet. And Jesus knew what sort of woman she was. And He welcomed her into His presence, because God welcomes sinners.
The Pharisees hated this fact. With disgust, they called Jesus, "A friend of sinners" (Matthew 11:19). See, when sinners repent of their sin and cry to God for mercy, mercy is ready to be dispensed. And when by grace we come to faith in Jesus Christ, He transforms us from objects of wrath to trophies of grace (Ephesians 2:10).
And in many ways, this will be our function throughout all eternity! Our presence in heaven will be a continual reminder for all creation of the wonderful grace of God. We will be "grace on display." Ephesians 2:7 says that we are saved by grace, "so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." In other words, for eternity, our presence in heaven will be a testimony to the compassion of God. Nobody deserves to be there. But, by God's grace, as He has extended His mercy to undeserving sinners, the very fact that they are in heaven and enjoying His pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11) will be a testimony to the grace of God.
My message this morning is entitled, "Objects of Compassion," because that is what our text will show us this morning. Psalm 106 will take us through the history of Israel, demonstrating just how unworthy Israel was. It's a history of sin and failure and disobedience and rebellion. Yet, God has demonstrated Him compassion toward Israel time and time again. Rather than destroying them, they received grace. So much so that verse 46 in the Psalm says, "He also made them objects of compassion."
I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 106. My message this morning has three points. They are practically identical to my points the last two Sundays. If you recall, two Sundays ago, we looked at Psalm 103, which began with praise and ended with praise. In the middle are reasons for praising God. Last week, we looked at Psalm 105, which began with praise and ended with praise. In the middle are reasons for praising God. This week is no different. Psalm 106 begins with praise and ends with praise. In the middle are reasons for praising God.
Look at the beginning of the Psalm.
Psalm 106:1
Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Look at the end of the Psalm.
Psalm 106: 48
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
From everlasting even to everlasting.
And let all the people say, "Amen."
Praise the LORD!
And everything in between puts forth the sinfulness of Israel and God's amazing compassion toward her. Let's read the Psalm, and then we will work our way through it.
Psalm 106
Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the LORD,
Or can show forth all His praise?
How blessed are those who keep justice,
Who practice righteousness at all times!
Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor toward Your people;
Visit me with Your salvation,
That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
That I may glory with Your inheritance.
We have sinned like our fathers,
We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly.
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;
They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses,
But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
That He might make His power known.
Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up,
And He led them through the deeps, as through the wilderness.
So He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
The waters covered their adversaries;
Not one of them was left.
Then they believed His words;
They sang His praise.
They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
But craved intensely in the wilderness,
And tempted God in the desert.
So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease among them.
When they became envious of Moses in the camp,
And of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD,
The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
And engulfed the company of Abiram.
And a fire blazed up in their company;
The flame consumed the wicked.
They made a calf in Horeb
And worshiped a molten image.
Thus they exchanged their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.
They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
Wonders in the land of Ham
And awesome things by the Red Sea.
Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.
Then they despised the pleasant land;
They did not believe in His word,
But grumbled in their tents;
They did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
Therefore He swore to them
That He would cast them down in the wilderness,
And that He would cast their seed among the nations
And scatter them in the lands.
They joined themselves also to Baal-peor,
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
And the plague broke out among them.
Then Phinehas stood up and interposed,
And so the plague was stayed.
And it was reckoned to him for righteousness,
To all generations forever.
They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah,
So that it went hard with Moses on their account;
Because they were rebellious against His Spirit,
He spoke rashly with his lips.
They did not destroy the peoples,
As the LORD commanded them,
But they mingled with the nations
And learned their practices,
And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood.
Thus they became unclean in their practices,
And played the harlot in their deeds.
Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people
And He abhorred His inheritance.
Then He gave them into the hand of the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under their power.
Many times He would deliver them;
They, however, were rebellious in their counsel,
And so sank down in their iniquity.
Nevertheless He looked upon their distress
When He heard their cry;
And He remembered His covenant for their sake,
And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness.
He also made them objects of compassion
In the presence of all their captors.
Save us, O LORD our God,
And gather us from among the nations,
To give thanks to Your holy name
And glory in Your praise.
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
From everlasting even to everlasting.
And let all the people say, "Amen."
Praise the LORD!
Like Psalm 105, which we looked at last week, this is known as an "historical Psalm." It looks at the history of Israel. In fact, it covers much of the same history as Psalm 105 does. Psalm 106 spends a good portion of time talking about the Exodus and the resultant wanderings. However, it looks at it from a radically different perspective.
In Psalm 105, the emphasis was upon the faithfulness of God. God was faithful to the covenant that He made with Abraham. He confirmed the oath on numerous occasions. He protected them. He brought them out of slavery. He cared for them in the wilderness.
In Psalm 106, the emphasis is upon the sinfulness of Israel. Time and time again in Psalm 106, we will read of the failings of the people of God. How they sinned at the Red Sea. How they sinned in the wilderness. How they were jealous of Moses and rebelled against him. How they worshiped the golden calf. How they joined in idol worship. How they failed to destroy the people of the land as God commanded. How angry God became as a result of their sin.
Yet, with the backdrop of Israel's sin, the compassion of God shines forth. These are two great themes of the Bible. The sinfulness of man. And the compassion of God. That's the reason why Jesus came. We are sinners in need of grace. In love, God sent Jesus to bear the wrath that we deserve. We simply need to repent and believe. My prayer is that this Psalm will help to shine greater light in your minds on the glorious gospel of Christ! May we say with Paul, "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all" (1 Tim 1:15).
Let's dig into the Psalm. My first point is this:
1. Praise and Prayer (verses 1-6).
We see praise in verses 1-3. We see prayer in verses 4-6. So, let's look at verse 1, ...
Psalm 106:1
Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
This verse sets the stage for the entire Psalm. In many ways, it is a smaller version of the Psalm. We are called to praise the LORD, because of God's goodness, because of God's lovingkindness, and because of God's steadfast love.
Nowhere does the lovingkindness of the LORD show itself more than when His people rebel against Him, as this Psalm will show. And so, as we work through this Psalm and see the sinfulness of Israel over and over and over again. "Nevertheless," God extended compassion toward them. And He will extend the same compassion toward us. May it bring us to praise the LORD.
His grace should stun us. This is the point of verse 2, ...
Psalm 106:2
Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the LORD,
Or can show forth all His praise?
This is a rhetorical question. "Who can fully grasp all that God has done for His people?" And the answer is simply this: nobody. Nobody can fully do this. And yet, this Psalm calls us to try. So let's try! And let us walk in His ways.
Psalm 106:3
How blessed are those who keep justice,
Who practice righteousness at all times!
Let's look at the prayer in verses 4-6.
Psalm 106:4-5
Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor toward Your people;
Visit me with Your salvation,
That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
That I may glory with Your inheritance.
This is a prayer for grace. This is a prayer for inclusion in the compassion of God. As the LORD shows compassion with His nation, the Psalmist wants to be a part of it. What a great prayer to pray! "LORD, when you are pouring forth your grace, let me drink from the same well. Don't pass me by." This was the cry of the blind man who were alongside the road as Jesus passed by. He cried out, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:47). When others tried to stop him, he refused, repeating again, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:48). Jesus was dispensing mercy throughout all of Israel and the blind man was saying, "Don't pass me by!" Such is the cry of the Psalmist here in verses 4 and 5.
And it's not because of merit. It's not because I think that I deserve it. Look at what the Psalmist says in verse 6, ...
Psalm 106:6
We have sinned like our fathers,
We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly.
In other words, "As I look upon the sin of Israel, in no way do I hold myself blameless. I have sinned just like them." And as we work through the sin of Israel, let us not look only at them, and despise them for their sin. Because, were the truth be told, we are guilty of many of the same sins ourselves. So, as we work through the this Psalm and see Israel's sin, let us rejoice in God who brings compassion to us.
Let's look at my second point. I have called it ...
2. He is Compassionate (verses 7-46).
I've not zeroed in on God's compassion because it is the major theme of these verses. Because it isn't. Rather, these verses speak about the wickedness of Israel. But, I have identified God's compassion in these verses, because the point of the sin of the people of Israel is that God showed compassion toward them (verse 46). Furthermore, it is God's compassion that leads us to praise the LORD (per the beginning and end of this Psalm). There are eight sins of Israel in these verses.[1]We will look at them one by one.
a. The sin of rebellion (verses 7-12)
Psalm 106:7
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;
They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses,
But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
This takes us back to the time of the ten plagues in Egypt. God performed ten mighty miracles to demonstrate his power, so that Pharaoh would let the people go. And these wonders are so great that they are only matched by the miracles of Jesus. Water in the Nile was turned to blood. Frogs, gnats, and swarms of insects infested the land. Livestock were struck with pestilence. Boils came upon the people. Devastating hail came from heaven. Darkness came upon the land. Finally, the angel of the LORD went throughout the land, putting to death the firstborn throughout all the land.
There was no doubt that God was the power behind the miracle. These weren't natural occurrences that took place by chance. No, these were designed demonstrations of God's power upon the land. Israel knew that it was. Egypt knew that it was.
So, the Israelites left Egypt. But, as they went out, they found themselves in a difficult spot. The Red Sea was before them. Pharaoh's army was behind them. In Exodus 14:10, we read that the people were "very frightened" (Exodus 14:10). They cried out to the LORD and said to Moses, "'Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt saying, "Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians"? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness?'" (Exodus 14:11-12).
This is the sin of rebellion. And, rather than destroying them on the spot, we see God's compassion. Verse 8, ...
Psalm 106:8
Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
That He might make His power known.
And you remember how Moses lifted up his staff and stretched out his hand over the sea and it divided it? (Exodus 14:16). And the Israelites passed through on dry ground. But, when the Egyptians pursued them, they were drowned in the sea? This is exactly what the Psalm describes, ...
Psalm 106:9-12
Thus He rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up,
And He led them through the deeps, as through the wilderness.
So He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
The waters covered their adversaries;
Not one of them was left.
Then they believed His words;
They sang His praise.
The song is recorded in Exodus 15. It begins with these words, "I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea" (Exodus 15:1). And you would think that Israel would forever remember the LORD, His power and compassion and kindness and grace. And yet, we find Israel committing ...
b. The sin of discontentment (verses 13-15)
Psalm 106:13-15
They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
But craved intensely in the wilderness,
And tempted God in the desert.
So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease among them.
You can read about this in Numbers 11. Though God had consistently provided Manna for them without fail, it wasn't enough for them. They were discontent with God's provision. They wanted more. They said, "Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well-off in Egypt." (Exodus 11:18).
And so, God gave them meat. He sent quail throughout all the camp. They had way more meat than they could ever dream of eating. Yet, as they ate, "the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague" (Numbers 11:33). You would have thought that the people of Israel would have learned their lesson. "Let us trust the LORD." But no. They continued in their sin. Then, they committed ...
c. The sin of jealousy (verses 16-18)
Shortly afterwards, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were jealous of Moses and approached him saying, "You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" (Numbers 16:3). Verse 16 records the story, ...
Psalm 106:16-18
When they became envious of Moses in the camp,
And of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD,
The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
And engulfed the company of Abiram.
And a fire blazed up in their company;
The flame consumed the wicked.
You can read about this in Numbers 16. This was the sin of jealousy. They were jealous toward Moses and the way that God was working through him. And to make a long story short, God dealt with the rebels in a way that clearly put forth Moses as God's man. He spoke to the congregation of Israel saying, ...
Numbers 16:28-30
By this you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing. If these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the Lord.
Sure enough, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up (Numbers 16:32). God was gracious in this act to purge the evil from the people of Israel. And they were an evil people.
d. The sin of idolatry (verses 19-23)
In verse 19, we go back in time, back to Exodus 32, when Moses was on the mountain, meeting with God and receiving the law. However, it seemed that Moses was gone for too long. The people grumbled to Aaron, "Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him" (Exodus 32:1). Verse 19 records the story, ...
Psalm 106:19-22
They made a calf in Horeb
And worshiped a molten image.
Thus they exchanged their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.
They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
Wonders in the land of Ham
And awesome things by the Red Sea.
Moses was up on the mountain for only 40 days. Now, before Moses left to go meet with God, he had presented Israel with a portion of the law. And when the people of Israel heard it, they all cried out, saying, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" (Exodus 24:3). After a bit more of Moses reading from the book of the covenant, the people said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient" (Exodus 24:7).
But, in a bit more than a month, Israel went from professing their unrestrained loyalty to the LORD to blatant idolatry. Specifically, this is the sin of idolatry. Such was the sin of Israel. And God was ready to destroy them. But, Moses stood in the gap and pleaded before the LORD and God showed forth His compassion and didn't destroy them. Instead, the LORD renewed the covenant with them. This is summarized in verse 23, ...
Psalm 106:23
Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.
This was the grace of God! They deserved to be killed! But, God spared their lives. You would think that things would change with Israel. But, things never changed. How like us that is. We experience something of the grace of God. But, we quickly forget and change ever so slowly.
I'm reminded of a friend of mine in high school. We grew up together at the same church. He spurned the Lord and was living a wild lifestyle. At one point in his life, he managed to flip his car alongside the road (under the influence of alcohol, no doubt). He broke his neck. By God's grace, he lived to tell about it. Furthermore, he has experienced no lasting damage from the accident. I recall visiting him in his home while his head was still in traction with a halo. He said that the Lord really grabbed his attention and that he was thankful to be alive. He pledged to live His life in obedience to Christ. His pledge was short-lived, as he is continuing to live the same wild lifestyle as before. Such is the nature of all of us. God shows His grace toward us and we are thankful ... for a time. Soon afterwards, we forget and live the way we did before. May the Lord have mercy upon us like He did with Israel.
e. The sin of unbelief (verses 24-27)
Psalm 106:24-27
Then they despised the pleasant land;
They did not believe in His word,
But grumbled in their tents;
They did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
Therefore He swore to them
That He would cast them down in the wilderness,
And that He would cast their seed among the nations
And scatter them in the lands.
This takes us into Numbers 13 and 14, when the 12 spies went to spy out the land. The report back was that it was overflowing with milk and honey and full of fruit (Numbers 13:27). Yet, it was the report of the strength of the people living in the land that led the congregation of Israel to cower in fear (Numbers 13:28). Despite the pleadings of Joshua and Caleb, the people refused to take the land as the LORD commanded. Instead Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, ...
Numbers 14:2-4
"Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt."
Here is the sin of unbelief. Things were so bad that the people were ready to stone Moses and Aaron (Numbers 14:10). But, right then, "the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel" (Numbers 14:11). And so, their threats were diminished. At that point, the LORD decreed that they would wander in the land for 40 years and that all who were 20 years and older would die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:28-35). And of course, things got worse.
f. The sin of apostasy (verses 28-31)
Psalm 106:28-31
They joined themselves also to Baal-peor,
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
And the plague broke out among them.
Then Phinehas stood up and interposed,
And so the plague was stayed.
And it was reckoned to him for righteousness,
To all generations forever.
Rather than remaining true to the LORD, the people of Israel "played the harlot with the daughters of Moab" (Numbers 25:1). This is the sin of apostasy. They attended the sacrifices to the false gods (Numbers 25:2). They bowed down to their gods (Numbers 25:2). So, God sent a plague among the camp.
At one point, things were so bad that, "one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting" (Numbers 25:6). Blatant sin in front of all, and nothing was being done!
But, Phinehas arose with spear in hand and entered the tent and speared them both. It's a gruesome act. But, it was a display of hatred toward sin. And because of Phinehas' act, the plague was checked at 24,000 people (Numbers 25:9). God could easily have destroyed the entire congregation. But in His compassion, He didn't.
g. The sin of provocation (verses 32-33)
Psalm 106:32-33
They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah,
So that it went hard with Moses on their account;
Because they were rebellious against his spirit, [2]
He spoke rashly with his lips.
This refers to the time when Moses was angry with the people of Israel. He said, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" (Numbers 20:10). Then, he struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly (Numbers 20:11).
But, it went both ways. The people provoked Moses to anger. And Moses also provoked the LORD to anger. The LORD was not pleased with Moses and his harsh words. He wouldn't let him enter the promised land as a result (Numbers 20:12). He was only allowed to see it from a distance, up on Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34:1-8).
And things only got worse from there.
h. The sin of worldliness (verses 34-46)
Psalm 106:34
They did not destroy the peoples,
As the LORD commanded them,
This verse brings us to the time of Joshua. God had told the nation of Israel to take the land, destroying the people within. Sadly, through a lack of faith, they failed. Judges, chapter 1 lays out some of their failures. They failed to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem (Judges 1:21). Manasseh didn't take possession of all of their land (Judges 1:27). Nor did Ephraim or Zebulun or Asher or Naphtali or Dan (Judges 1:29-36). Instead, ...
Psalm 106:35-36
But they mingled with the nations
And learned their practices,
And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
This is the sin of worldliness, not following the ways of God. This is the pattern of those in the Bible. I meet weekly with some non-Christian children in the neighborhood of our church. As I have taught them the Bible, they clearly understand that the Bible is filled with disobedience and unbelief. Whenever I come upon a story that is unfamiliar to them, they aren't surprised to see the main characters of the story sin, even in the greatest ways.
Psalm 106:37
They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
This is about as low as it can get. Sacrificing your sons and your daughters. We see that Ahaz does this (2 Kings 16:3) as does Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:6). Let's read on, ...
Psalm 106:38-43
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood.
Thus they became unclean in their practices,
And played the harlot in their deeds.
Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people
And He abhorred His inheritance.
Then He gave them into the hand of the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under their power.
Many times He would deliver them;
They, however, were rebellious in their counsel,
And so sank down in their iniquity.
Israel was not following the ways of the Lord. I think of some of the children who come to Kids KLUB. Some of them may not know much about the Bible. But what they do know is that the Bible is filled with the disobedient and unbelieving. The very fact that Israel continued in existence until the time of Jesus is only by a sheer act of God's grace. But, that's the point of verses 44-46. That's the point of this whole Psalm!
Psalm 106:44-46
Nevertheless He looked upon their distress
When He heard their cry;
And He remembered His covenant for their sake,
And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness.
He also made them objects of compassion
In the presence of all their captors.
Please know that this is the way that God deals with His chosen ones. Though we sin and go astray, there is opportunity to return. And as we return and cry out to the LORD, he will remember His covenant.
We are no different than Israel. Like Israel we commit sins of rebellion (verses 7-12), discontentment (verses 13-15), jealousy (verses 16-18), idolatry (verses 19-23), unbelief (verses 24-27), apostasy (verses 28-31), provocation (verses 32-33), and worldliness (verses 34-46).We deserve His wrath. Our only right response is the response of the Psalmist.
3. Prayer and Praise (verses 47-48).
Psalm 106:47-48
Save us, O LORD our God,
And gather us from among the nations,
To give thanks to Your holy name
And glory in Your praise.
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
From everlasting even to everlasting.
And let all the people say, "Amen."
Praise the LORD!
Perhaps you are here today apart from the saving knowledge of Christ. You don't know the compassion of God. All you know is His wrath. Then cry out like the psalmist, "Save us!" Believe in Christ.
This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on
August 17, 2014 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rvbc.cc.
[1] I was heavily influenced by Steve Lawson's exposition of this Psalm in coming up with these eight sins. See his treatment of this Psalm in the Holman Old Testament Commentary, edited by Max Anders.
[2] Note, I have deviated from the New American Standard at this point, believing that the reference in verse 33 better refers to Moses and not to the LORD. The English Standard Version translates it, "for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips."