A History of Redemption

[0:00] Psalm 106 tonight. It is only 48 verses long, so we can go verse by verse.

[0:15] Yeah, have this thing done by tomorrow. I'm just kidding. Now, this psalm is a little lengthy because as we go through it, we're going to be able to see little stories about Israel's rebellion and unfaithfulness to God.

[0:45] And through all that, we see God's faithfulness and his love for his people. So we're just going to go through it like that. We're going to read the little stories, have a few little comments, and continue through it that way.

[1:00] So although it looks long, I don't think it'll be that scary. Psalm 106. Praise the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

[1:16] Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all his praise? Just starting off this psalm with thinking about and reflecting on the goodness of God and the things he has done on his steadfast love.

[1:36] And then verse 3. Blessed are those who observe justice, who do righteousness all the time. So blessed are those who act justly and do what is right.

[1:49] Verse 4. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people. Help me when you save them, that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory in your inheritance.

[2:09] So here we see wanting to be saved from the Lord and wanting to be able to be a part of his plan, to know what God is doing and to be brought into that.

[2:27] Verse 5. That I may look, rejoice in glory in the work that God is doing in his people. Verse 6. And this is kind of the, or it's not kind of, this is like the topic verse of the next large section of this psalm.

[2:50] It says, both we and our fathers have sinned. We have committed iniquity and we have done wickedness. And that's what we're going to see here.

[3:01] We're going to get a summary in various instances where the hearts of the people are not where they should be. We'll get to see the situation, their heart status, and we end up seeing the result of that take place and what that means for the people.

[3:20] So we're looking at verse 6. Just before we break into the small stories. Both we and our fathers have sinned.

[3:31] So we're going to see sin instead of seeing righteousness in the people of God. We have committed iniquity. So there's going to be iniquity where there should be faithfulness.

[3:45] And then we have done wickedness. So there's wickedness in place of justice. Starting with verse 7.

[3:56] We'll do 7 to 12 for this next, the first story. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works. They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea.

[4:12] Yet he saved them for his namesake, that he might make known his mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry. And he led them through the deep as through a desert.

[4:25] So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries. Not one of them was left. When they believed his words, they sang praise.

[4:37] So this first section, as you can pick up, is when the Israelites face their first trial as Moses is leading them out of Egypt. And that's coming to the Red Sea.

[4:52] And we can pick up from how this is worded that it was more than just fear for the enemies coming to them. Because at the end of verse 7, it says that they rebelled by the sea.

[5:07] So there's more than disbelief, but there's rebellion in wanting to not follow God and go back to where they came from. And yet God saved.

[5:19] God has already started a work in his people. So verse 8, for his name's sake, and so that his power would be made known, he continued to save his people.

[5:30] And he did that by providing a dry path right through the middle of the sea. They go through, and as you know, the Egyptians come through after them, and they are completely wiped out. And then they believed the words of the Lord, and they sang his praise.

[5:47] That's actually one of the different little stories that we're going to read about. This is one of the few that they actually believe what God has said, and you see a change in their heart.

[6:00] So there's a change in their heart, and then we get to verse 13. But they soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel, but they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert.

[6:13] He gave them what they ask, but sent a wasting disease upon them. This is a reference to when they were complaining they're tired of manna, and they want meat.

[6:25] And so God sends them quail. But it wasn't that they were just asking for quail because they were tired of manna, but they were complaining about how God was taking care of them.

[6:36] And so instead of just giving them what they wanted, it was also a judgment. So there was a disease that as they started to eat the meat, they started to become sick with this disease, and many of them died because of it.

[6:52] But you see that in verse 13, it starts out because they had forgotten the works that God had just done for them and did not wait for his counsel. So we'll move down to verse 16.

[7:05] When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the Holy One of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abram.

[7:16] Fire also broke out in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. This is another reference to when the Israelites were starting to rebel against who Aaron and Moses were.

[7:33] They wanted to start to lead the people and have, like, they didn't see Aaron or Moses as being any more holy than them. And so they wanted to be able to offer sacrifices and do things like Aaron did and a rebellion that started in all of that.

[7:54] And basically, when that took place, God just opened up the earth and swallowed these people, or some of them were burned who were in the area around that. And again, after this, you don't see any change of heart.

[8:09] You don't see people's eyes open to the holiness of God and how we should follow him. They just continued. In verse 19, they made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a metal image.

[8:23] They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

[8:37] Therefore, he said he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him and turned away his wrath from destroying them.

[8:49] So there's a couple references to a couple different stories, the main one being where the people make their own idol and start to worship that instead of God.

[9:00] And also how they saw the awesome deeds by the Red Sea, and still they weren't worshipping God.

[9:15] They decided to worship whatever they could make with their hands, thinking that that was better. And we also, in that last verse, we see how Moses stood in the breach before God and them turning away his wrath.

[9:29] So we get a kind of a brief look towards what Jesus the Savior is going to do for us ultimately.

[9:43] Here we have Moses standing and taking the wrath that God wanted to lay on his people with kind of an image portrayed of what that is going to look like just to a greater extent when Jesus steps in and takes the wrath of God for us.

[10:02] And then down to verse 24, Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. They murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the Lord.

[10:13] Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness and would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands.

[10:29] Verse 24, Then they despised the pleasant land. I'm talking about the promised land that God had given to them. And you know the story of the 12 spies that they sent into the land and only two of them came back saying that it's good, we can take them.

[10:46] And 10 other ones did not. And those are the ones that the people listened to. But God had given them the promise and the command to go take the land.

[10:58] And instead they didn't. And so they're cursed with 40 years of wandering in the desert. So when he says that they would fall in the wilderness, they're referring to basically a whole generation is going to die in the wilderness because they didn't have that faith to follow God.

[11:16] So again, another example of their unfaithfulness, of their unbelief. And then verse 28, Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

[11:31] These were the people, the Moabites. They provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed.

[11:44] And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever. However, again, we have the people of God basically forsaking him and living however they want, making sacrifices that are offered to the dead.

[12:01] As you know, the touching or having anything to do with anything dead was a defilement. So for the people of God to worship or eat sacrifices that were offered to something that was dead just brought them more in connection to those things they were supposed to stay away from.

[12:22] And in addition to that, it also pulled them into some of the same things that the Moabites did, one of those being adultery. In verse 30, when it talks about Phinehas stood up and intervened, there's a story back in Numbers which is pretty graphic when you read about what Phinehas did to basically, he wanted to uphold this covenant of faithfulness that his people weren't following.

[12:53] And so he stood and basically stood to stop this that was going on. And he did it by murdering someone who was having adultery right in the camp of the people.

[13:10] So just the blatant defilement. And so he stood up to protect that covenant between God and his people and to stop the plague. And so we see that that was counted to him as righteousness because of what he did.

[13:28] And then verse 31, They angered him, him being God, at the waters of Meribah. And it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter.

[13:41] This is referring to when the people again were murmuring. And they know that Moses is God's spokesman, but they still complained to Moses as if it's all Moses' fault.

[14:01] Moses is just a spokesman for the Lord. So they complained to Moses to the point where he just, you know, we would be the same way. I hate to point fingers at Moses and say you just couldn't take it anymore, but I don't think I could take as much as Moses took.

[14:14] But basically Moses lost it. And when God told him to speak to the rock, he was mad and he struck the rock. And as you remember, that's when God says, I'm not going to allow you to go into the promised land because you didn't obey me.

[14:28] And that happened because people angered Moses and pushed him to that point. So this is, I never thought about it before, but these verses are a good example of like why we are not able to blame someone else for our anger or for our sin.

[14:45] We're still held accountable for that. But the people are also held accountable for the sin that they brought on as well. But that's what that is referring to.

[14:56] So, and I didn't finish verse 33, for they made his spirit bitter and he spoke rashly with his lips. And his punishment was that he was only able to look into the promised land, but not go into it.

[15:10] And then the next section is not as specific, but we see through it a continual pattern of disobedience and unfaithfulness.

[15:29] So let's start with verse 34. Verse 34.

[16:01] Just thinking about how they, like just from a humanitarian standpoint to sacrifice your own kids.

[16:14] I can't even imagine that, but that's where they brought themselves to. And to sacrifice your sons and your daughters on top of that was such, like so opposed to God and like we're made in the image of God.

[16:34] So to kill his own was like just direct opposition and defiance and not caring about who God is and who he made.

[16:45] On top of the fact that they're killing their own family. It's just, it's just crazy to think about. And so in verse 40, we see how then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people and he abhorred his heritage.

[17:05] He gave them into the land, into the hand of the nations so that those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and they were brought into submission under their power.

[17:24] Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. So in that verse 43, we can see how this aligns with when we went through Jeremiah.

[17:41] But all through the period of the judges, there's this repeating theme. God delivers them, they get rebellious, and then they're brought low with their iniquity.

[17:51] And it's over again where they get delivered because they ask for salvation, where God feels kindness towards them.

[18:04] And he lifts them up, they rebel, and then they're back again with their iniquity. So we see that repeating theme just over and over all through the Old Testament. And then verse 44, So if we look back at verse 6, I'm sorry, back at verse 7.

[18:46] Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, they did not consider your wondrous works. They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love. And then we compare that to what we just read in verse 45.

[18:59] God relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. So we put those two together. What we see there is this comparison between a faithful God, in verse 45, and an unfaithful people, in verse 7.

[19:17] And so it's very unbalanced. You have a faithful God seeking a faithful people, and they're not there. We move down to the end, verse 47.

[19:32] Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. The first part of 47.

[19:47] Save us, O Lord, and gather us from among the nations. Why? Like, what is the reason for that? The answer to that is because God is faithful.

[20:02] And he's faithful to those who align themselves to his goal. Not to their own goal, which is what they're doing, but to God's goal. And what is that? And that is that they may give thanks to his holy name and glory in his praise.

[20:16] That's what he desires. Looking back at verse 8. He saved them for his namesake. It's all about the name of the Lord.

[20:27] Because he deserves the praise. Because he deserves the honor. And then we move down to the last verse. Verse 48. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.

[20:40] And let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. So here we see, if you notice at the very beginning of the psalm, it says praise the Lord. And at the very end it says praise the Lord.

[20:52] So we have these two bookends of praising the Lord. And then in the middle we have these stories of unfaithful people. So we're looking at a holy and mighty God who's faithful.

[21:07] Who's always been faithful and is always going to be faithful. And then we're shown these examples of what happens when we are unfaithful.

[21:21] So one of the things that the psalm wants us to see here and in many other places that our greatest joy, our greatest blessing, our greatest usefulness, usefulness, is going to happen when we remain faithful to God.

[21:45] So we have a faithful, always faithful. Like just count on it because it's God. Like the rock that never moves. You guys know this. He's forever faithful.

[21:57] And so if we are going to become in alignment with Him, if we're going to find our joy and our purpose and needing and blessings that come from Him, that's going to happen if we are on, if we're in sync with Him.

[22:14] If we're out of sync in His faithfulness, then it can't work. God can't use a people that don't trust and stay faithful with Him.

[22:25] So that would be my encouragement to you is your greatest joy, your greatest blessing. If you're looking for purpose and usefulness, it's going to happen when we're faithful to a God that's forever faithful.