How Quickly We Forget

“Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea.  Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known”.  Psalm 106:7-8

The Psalms are a collection of the songs used by the ancient Israelites in their praise and worship in the temple and the synagogues.  Some are sung as they traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover, Pentecost, and other days of celebration and remembrance.  It is believed that King David wrote 73 of them, and the remainder were written by various men.  It is also believed that many of them were written prior to the captivity by Babylon during the reign of King Zedekiah.  Some of them are prophetic, such as Psalm 22, which was written by David, and is a detailed account of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  Psalm 22 was written a little over 1,000 years before that event occurred.  This Psalm, 106, as far as is known, was not written by David, and the writer is not identified, but from the contents of this Psalm, it is clear that the writer was very familiar with Israel’s history.

Matthew Henry wrote concerning this Psalm, “We must give glory to God by making confession, not only of his goodness but our own badness, which serve as foils to each other.  Our badness makes His goodness appear the more illustrious, as His goodness makes our badness the more heinous and scandalous.”  The writer of Psalm 106 began his Psalm as a praise to the LORD for His mercy and His goodness which is never ending.  Writing in today’s vernacular He asks, “Who can even think of all that the LORD has done?  Who can even praise Him enough?”  Those who judge and do right are blessed.  He asks God to not forget him when He is giving out His blessings among His people.  He desires to be a part of God’s family.

Then he turns to the subject of sin.  Every human has sinned.  No exceptions.  We’ve all done bad things.  Even God’s chosen people, the children of Israel, didn’t take very long to forget how merciful that God was to them, but He saved them regardless for His name’s sake in order to show His mercy and His power.  He led His people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea on dry ground, saving them from their enemies.  He then caused the Red Sea to envelope the Egyptian army.  His people believed and obeyed Him then, but then they forgot that wonderful miracle.  They didn’t seek God’s counsel and became rebellious demanding better food.  When God gave them better food, they complained about that.  They became angry at Moses and Aaron because they envied them.  Some of them were swallowed up by the earth and some were burned to death for their rebellion.  Even after that, the people continued to rebel by making a golden calf to worship.  They completely forgot all about the LORD God of Israel who had been so good to them.

What a group of complaining people!  After all that God had done for the Israelites, they continued to rebel and whine about everything.  God would have wiped them out, but Moses interceded on their behalf, more than once.  The main sin of which God was so displeased was idolatry.  Some of the Israelites began to worship the gods of Moab.  One of the men of Israel brought a foreign woman boldly into his tent, but Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, threw a javelin at them and killed them both.  Many others died that day.  Moses became angry at their murmuring and struck the rock for water when he was only supposed to speak to it.  The people began to sacrifice their own children.  God began to abhor them.

Many times, God allowed them to be punished by their enemies, but He also heard their cries.  He had mercy on them over and over again and allowed their captors to go easy on them.  Even though they violated their part of the covenant that He had made with them years before, He still held strong to His promise.  The writer ends his Psalm by asking God to save them and to bring them back from among the heathen.  He gives thanks to the holy name of God and exalts God in praise, blessing Him from everlasting to everlasting.  Let all the people say, Amen.  Praise the LORD.