Psalm 106 vs 1-23 - He blazed

Read: Psalm 106 vs 1-23

There is a lot of ‘retelling’ in the Psalms, a lot of recalling of Israel’s past and especially the many episodes from the days of Moses, the escape from Egypt and the journey through the wilderness towards the Promised Land. These stories teach us many things about God, and as we have already seen through eyes of faith these stories become our stories as we come to praise this God and trust ourselves to Him.

There’s another side to all of this however. The foundational stories of the Bible don’t just teach us about God but they also teach us about people. The Bible is very honest in its retelling of the past. In Psalm 106 the story of the Exodus is retold with a particular focus on how Israel responded to God at this moment in their history. The picture is not a pretty one:

‘When our ancestors were in Egypt they gave no thought to your miracles;

They did not remember your many kindnesses,

And they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.’ (vs 7)

‘But they soon forgot what he had done

And they did not wait for His plan to unfold.’ (vs 13)

God intervenes to save His people but no sooner had He led them out of slavery than they were exchanging ‘their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass’ (vs 20). When we read a Psalm like this it is very easy to immediately judge these people, to be amazed at how quickly they turned from the God who saved them, and even to allow their story to warn us, and to keep us on the right track.

However this Psalm goes further than this. In vs 6 we read these words: ‘We have sinned, even as our ancestors did, we have done wrong and acted wickedly.’

When Psalm 106 retells the sins of past generations the Psalmist doesn’t stand in judgment, they stand alongside and accept the judgment of God as judgment due to them. These Psalms don’t just warn us as to what we can be like, they reveal to us what we are like, and why like them (vs 23) we need someone to stand ‘in the breach’ between us and God. We need a Saviour. 

Prayer: Father I confess that our father’s generation sinned against You in many ways, and so did the generation of their fathers, and their fathers before them. Lord into this rebellious mess thank You that Jesus has come to redeem and save us. Have mercy on us today Lord we pray. In our Saviour’s Name. Amen.