Day #124

Sermon - Audio
Pslam 106-107 - Audio
Pslam 106-107 - Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment

Background: Like Psalm 105, Psalm 106 is recalls important events in history of Israel’s Redemption; however, unlike Psalm 105, the focus is on the sin of Israel and Israel’s failure to keep the covenant.

• 106.1: Praise the Lord (Hallelu Ya) The psalm begins and ends with these words. Despite the psalmists’ focus on the sins of Israel throughout the psalm, he still proclaims God’s goodness and faithfulness to Israel specifically because God’s covenant love and devotion (hesed).

• 106.3: Blessed- To be blessed is to be the recipient of God’s favor and grace. Vs. 3 draws our

attention back to Psalm 1 where the one who is blessed is the one who delights in the law

of the LORD. The appeal to those who are blessed and do what is right in vs. 3 will be

contrasted to the sins of Israel throughout Psalm 106. Israel did not do “what (was)

right” and consequently did not receive the benefits of a blessed life.

• 106.4-5 After the initial call to praise in the first three verses, the psalmist calls for restoration. The psalmist and Israel are in a state in which they are not blessed because of their

disobedience. But, the psalmist is sure that even though Israel has sinned God would

restore the nation His faithfulness to the covenant (vs. 1). The psalmist wants to enjoy

this restoration with his nation.

• 106.6: We have sinned This phrase introduces the theme of the main body of the psalm. The

psalmist is confessing the sins of his people. As you read, continue to look at the ways in

which Israel’s sin is contrasted to God’s mighty acts of redemption.

• 106.7: Throughout the psalm the psalmist is amazed at Israel’s ability to not worship God for his mighty acts. This verse refers to the ten plagues which Israel quickly forgot as

Pharaoh pursued them into the desert. “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" Exodus 14.10-12 (NIV)

• Remember- Israel’s disobedience is often attributed to their failure to remember. As you read the rest of the psalm, how is this demonstrated over and over.

• 106.8: God’s saving actions bring praise and renown to His name.

• 106.9-11: Even though Israel responded to the threat of the Egyptians by complaining to Moses (Exodus 14.10-12), God saved them by “rebuking the Red Sea.” (Exodus 14.21) He is faithful, while Israel is not.

• 106.12: In Exodus 15.1-21, Moses and Mariam sing songs of praise to God for saving them. It is a wonderful moment of praise and adoration for the work God has done.

• 106.13: The singing of praise (vs. 12) is short lived and Israel again fails to remember the magnificent acts of God.

• 106.16-18: Dathan and Abiram lead a group of Israel’s leaders against Moses and Aaron. Their revolt was an act of disobedience against the leaders that God had appointed for Israel, and as a result they faced severe punishment while Moses and Aaron were reaffirmed as the chosen leaders of Israel. (See Numbers 16 for the whole story)

• 106.19: “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him…He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf,

fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." Exodus 32.1,4

• 106.20: In place of the God who had redeemed them from Egypt, the people worship an idol

made out of their own material and worshipped their creation. At the beginning of Romans, Paul explains that worshipping a piece of creation as though it were God is at the heart of idolatry. He also points out the consequences of idolatry. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Romans 1.21-25 (NIV)

• 106.22: the land of Ham. Ham, the son of Noah, was the Father of the Mizraim, also known

as Egypt.

• 106.23: After the Israelites make and worship the golden calf, Moses interceded on their behalf so that God would not destroy Israel. Moses action foreshadows the work of Christ, who becomes the ultimate interceder between God and his people.

• 106.24-27: despised the land- When the people are on the verge of entering into the promised land, they fail to trust God to give them the land. The people complain, asking why they had not died in Egypt or the desert, and God’s punishment for Israel is that they will wander in the desert until the entire generation had died. Notice that God’s punishment is really giving Israel what they have asked for in their complaints. (Numbers 13-14)

• 106.28-31: This portion of the psalm recalls Numbers 25 when Israel began to worship the gods of the Moabites. The story takes place after the previous generation had died in the desert and the people are going to enter into the land again. As a result of their idolatry a plague broke out, and Phinehas, an Israelite priest took violent means to stop the idolatry. “6 Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before

the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.” Numbers 25.6-8

• 106.34-39: Once Israel entered the promised land, they still remained unfaithful to the covenant. These verses recall the different ways in which they were unfaithful.

• 106.40-43: The result of Israel’s covenantal disobedience was exile. Even though God delivered them and continued to be faithful, the people continued to sin and waste away as a result of their disobedience. Vs. 43 reflects the book of Judges shows the cycle of sin repentance-deliverance which is also present throughout the old testament.

• 106.45-48: Remember- In the Old Testament to remember is both to recall and take action based on what is remembered. God’s remembrance of the covenant leads him to rescue

his people once again. It is the actions of covenant faithfulness that brings the psalmist to praise God again at the close of the psalm.

Psalm 107

Background

• Psalm 107 celebrates God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises, his wonderful forgiveness

when his people break his covenant, and his wonderful reversals on behalf of both sinners and

the weak. It is a song of great celebration and hope that should be read often and with joyful hope.

• “Book Five” Somewhere along the way the Psalms were divided into 5 books to reflect the five books of the Torah. Each section ends with a statement of praise and each section has unique attributes. In this case it is not clear why Psalm 107 starts this new section since it seems to have strong connections with Psalms 105-106.

• 107.1 “his love endures forever” Love in this verse (also in verses 8,15,21,31,43) is the Hebrew word “hesed” i.e. God’s covenant love for his people. The love being celebrated is not God’s general love for people, but specifically the love he has for his people based on his covenant promises to them. This Psalm, therefore, is a Psalm for believers.

• 107.2-3: These two verses let us know that the Psalm is written after the Babylonian exile and

celebrates in part God’s faithfulness in bringing the people back to the land of Israel.

• 107.4-9: This first section tells of people whose sin meant wandering in the desert. God hears their

• 107.8-9: God’s covenant (“unfailing love”) means that he gives what people need physically—

food and drink.

• 107.9: “fills the hungry with good things” Mary says in her magnificat “He has filled the hungry with good things….” Luke 1.53 Mary’s magnificat and it’s theme of great reversals has a number of marvelous connections to this Psalm.

• 107.15-16: God’s power to rescue people from prison (even when they are there because of their own failings) recalls the inaugural address of Jesus in Luke 4.18" The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

• 107.17: “fools” in the Old Testament is an ethical and moral category i.e. a fool is someone who ignores or rebels against living according to God’s covenant. God in a deep richness of mercy rescues even a fool who repents.

• 107.22: The only proper response when God rescues a fool is to bring a sacrifice of thanksgiving (a sacrifice which spoke of God’s rescue and the joy of the one who was

rescued) and to then go and tell what God has done. While James 5.13, “Is anyone among you struggling? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” does not relate to God’s rescue because of evil it does remind us that all rescue is to bring forth praise.

• 107.24-27: God’s wonderful works turn out to be the storms that he brings. The words of these verses picture a powerful storm on the sea.

• 107.29-30: The words of these verses, “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.” Wonderfully point to the experience of Jesus’ disciples, 37”And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Mark 4 The reason the disciples have “great fear” is because being people of the text they know who stills the waves and rescues—it is God himself. Could God be among them?

• 107.33-42: A picture of the people of Israel coming into the promised land, their lack of faithfulness, their punishment and God’s care for those who had been abused by the rich

who did not live in covenant faithfulness (cf. Deuteronomy 15).

• 107:43: “whoever is wise” compared with those who are fools. A wise person sees God’s covenant faithfulness and lives accordingly both in terms of the ethical life and a life of

praise.