In this Psalm we have the story of God's ancient covenant people, and as we read it, we may read our own history in it if we also are his people. It is a looking-glass, in which the beholder may see himself.
Psalms 106:1. Praise ye the LORD.
The Psalm begins with Hallelujah, and the story of the Church is a succession of Hallelujahs; and the story of every Christian man's life concerning the wonderful forbearance of God to him is a series of Hallelujahs.
Psalms 106:1. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
That is the text, and this Psalm is the sermon upon it, an exhibition of the goodness and ever-enduring mercy of God.
Psalms 106:2-19. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.
These are the really blessed people, and we shall see, in this Psalm, how God's ancient people so often missed that blessing by their sin, as I doubt not that we also miss much of the sacred, sweet blessedness which would be ours if we walked more closely with God, and were more obedient to him.
Psalms 106:4-19. Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.
This is a suitable prayer for each one of us to pray before we go any further. May God hear the vies of his people as we each one seek the fivefold blessing!
Psalms 106:6. We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
God has dealt kindly and graciously with us, yet here is an all too true description of what we have done: «We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.»
Psalms 106:7. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt.
Yet they were very plain, easy to understand, for they were the wonders of power that were wrought by God on behalf of his people; but they understood them not.
Psalms 106:7. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies;
They had bad memories as well as bad understandings, and it is so often with us, we remember not the multitude of God's mercies to us.
Psalms 106:7. But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.
That was a bad beginning; they were only just out of Egypt, and they had not yet crossed the Red sea, but they provoked the Lord even there. Oh, how soon after our first joy does our evil nature betray itself!
Psalms 106:8. Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
He saved them, not for their own sakes, but for his name's sake, for the manifestation of his own power and glory. This is how God still deals with his children; not on the ground of their merits, but for the manifestation of his own mercy and grace toward them.
Psalms 106:9-12. He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.
I should think they did believe God's words when they could see his wonderful works, but it is a poor faith that needs prodigies to be wrought each hour or else it fails. No wonder they sang God's praise at the Red sea, but, exultant as the songs of Moses and Miriam were, even better is that praise which rises from a broken and contrite heart which the Lord has delivered out of its trouble.
Psalms 106:13-15. They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
So it always is with us when we begin to let our desires outrun the will of God. He will sometimes let us discover our own folly by granting us our desires. The answer to some prayers would be a dire calamity. Some pray for riches, and they get them; but they also get leanness in their soul. Some ask for earthly honours and success, and get them, but with then they also get leanness in their soul; and if a man is lean in his soul, it is not much good being fat anywhere else.
Psalms 106:16. They envied Moses also in the camp,
Envy is a gaunt, lean, spectral thing; and when a soul is lean, it soon gets to be envious of others who are better than itself.
Psalms 106:16-20. And Aaron the saint of the LORD. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
What a descent it was to come down from worshipping the spiritual God who had wrought such wonders for them, to the adoration of «an ox that eateth grass.» When we put our trust in men, instead of in God, we might have the same sort of ironical description applied to us, «They trusted in a man that must die, and in the son of man that is but dust.» Whenever we forsake the Lord, and put our confidence in anyone else, we are fools indeed.
Psalms 106:21-23. They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
You remember the intercession of Moses with the Lord, how he cried, «If thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.» And, beloved friends, what should you and I have done if it had not been for the Mediator, far greater than Moses, who has stood in the breach very often when we have provoked the Lord, and who has so stood in the breach that he has borne the wrath of God which else must have destroyed us?
Psalms 106:24. Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
They said that the land that flowed with milk and honey was a land that did eat up the inhabitants thereof, and that was full of giants, and they could not drive them out.
Psalms 106:25. But murmured in their hearts, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.
Do we ever fall into this sin of murmuring in the family, murmuring in the counting-house, murmuring against men, and murmuring against God, as they murmured in their tents?
Psalms 106:26-28. Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness: to overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
They turned aside from the pure worship of the living God to hold communion with departed spirits; they fell into all the horrible abominations of the heathen among whom they dwelt.
Psalms 106:29-30. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.
God always has somebody to stand up for him, it is Moses one day, and Phinehas another day. He will not permit his people utterly to quit their faith and to be destroyed.
Psalms 106:31-33. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
It is not surprising that Moses should have spoken as he did to people who so worried and wearied him with their rebellions and murmurings. Yet you see that God dealt sternly with his servant because of his sin, and he will do the same with those of us who bear the vessels of the Lord. The higher our office, the greater our responsibility. One slip of temper in the meek Moses shuts him out of the Promised Land; so see what sin will do, and see how one who sins in a smaller degree than others may be made a scapegoat for them.
Psalms 106:34-36. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their work. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
God warned them that it would be so, and that they must drive out those Canaanites, and not make a league with them, or else they would be sure to be led astray by them.
Psalms 106:37-38. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
Yet these were God's people, whom he brought out of Egypt, whom he tutored in the wilderness, whom he fed with manna, and to whom he gave miraculous streams from the rock; these were the only people in the world whom God had chosen as his own, the rest were sitting in darkness, yet see to what degradation they had fallen.
Psalms 106:39. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
They were not true to God; but they plunged into every kind of uncleanness.
Psalms 106:40-41. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them.
Read the history of God's ancient people, and see how often this occurred.
Psalms 106:42-44. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.
Nevertheless Oh, that wonderful «nevertheless»
Psalms 106:44-48. He regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.
And well we may.