in Psalm 106. Psalm 106. We concluded Psalm 105
last week. Psalm 106. We've gotten to some longer
psalms, way more than we could cover in a night.
Especially, we probably are going to be pretty
slow getting through Psalm 106. It's a lot of
passages that are referenced in there that we'll
probably go back and revisit some of those stories
as we get to them. But tonight we're going to
get a pretty good chunk. We're going to try to
get through 13 verses. This is likely a Psalm
of David. At least the beginning words of it
are words that are written by David. And so it's
possible he wrote the whole thing. It's possible
somebody else wrote parts of it. We really don't
know for sure. It doesn't matter too much. We
can understand what's going on regardless of
who wrote it. The last psalm we looked at was
a psalm that really talked about God's faithfulness.
Psalm 105 talked about how God was faithful to
fulfill the promises that he had made to his
people, that he promised to bless Abraham, and
he did, and he created the nation of Israel,
and he promised to take them into the... a land
that was their own, and he did. And he was faithful
to bring them out of Egypt. He provided for them
in the famine. And even when they got in Egypt
and things got tough, he was faithful to deliver
them. And so Psalm 105 tells us about the faithfulness
of God. And then when we shift to Psalm 106,
it's kind of just the opposite. It tells us about
the unfaithfulness of God's people. and that's
what we're going to see a little bit of tonight.
So let's pray, and then we'll get started. God,
we come to you. We thank you for your good word,
and I pray that we would get something from it,
that you would help us not to be worried or distracted
thinking about things of the world, but just
for a few moments we can think about you. I pray
that you'd hide me behind the cross, that I'd
preach and teach in a way that brings glory and
honor to you, that this word would be a word
that calls us to praise you. that causes us to
examine our own life, dear Lord, that maybe we
can learn something from the Israelites, dear
Lord, that we're not much better than they are.
And I pray, God, that we might see areas where
we're not trusting you and praising you as we
should and maybe start trusting you a little
more. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. All right, this psalm starts off very similar
to Psalm 105. It starts off with words of praise.
Verse 1, Psalm 106, verse 1. Hallelujah, give
thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His faithful
love endures forever. Who can declare the Lord's
mighty acts or proclaim all the praise due his
name? How happy are those who uphold justice,
who practice righteousness. At all times. Okay,
so we're Pretty basic praise language here. Praise
the Lord, he's good. That's what the psalm is
telling us. Again, that's the same thing we saw
at the beginning of Psalm 105. It's something
that we see plenty of people do throughout Scripture,
but it's a good reminder for us that we need
to praise the Lord. Life gets hard, it gets stressful,
things are really difficult, and sometime in
the midst of our struggles and our pains and
all the stuff that we're up against in this world,
Sometimes we forget to praise the Lord, but we
need to remember to do that, that even when things
are tough, God's worthy of our praise. Continuing
on in verse 4, Remember me, Lord, when you show
favor to your people. Come to me with your salvation,
so that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen
ones. Rejoice in the joy of your nation, and
boast about your heritage. Okay, a call to remembrance.
Lord, remember me. Remember me, Lord. We want
to remember the Lord to praise him. But there
are plenty of times that we ask the Lord to remember
us. Show me favor, Lord. Let me experience your
salvation. That's a good prayer. That's a prayer
that we all need. Okay, God, don't forget me.
I cannot do anything without you. I need your
strength, God. I'm doomed without you. I need
you to come to my rescue. I need you to be my
salvation. Just good language of, God, I want
to remember you, and God, I want to ask you that
you remember me. All right? Verse 6. Both we
and our fathers have sinned. We have done wrong
and have acted wickedly. Okay, so now we see
a shift. We see a praise of God, a call to God,
hey, remember me, be my salvation. And why is
that? Well, because we sin. And that's what's
being acknowledged in the psalm. He says, look,
I've sinned, we've sinned. As a nation, Israel
has sinned. The ones that came before us sinned.
And we've done all kinds of wrongs. And so here's
the problem that we have too. That we pray to
God, we praise God, but we have to come to God
because we are sinners. We're not deserving of
God's grace. And we have to acknowledge our sin.
And that's exactly what the psalmist does here.
He acknowledges not just his sin, but really
the sin of the nation as a whole. That he acknowledges,
look, God, I know we have not done right by you.
And not just once or twice, but time and again,
over a long period of time. Now, I believe that
that's true of plenty of nations throughout the
world. There are plenty of nations in this world.
How many of them seek to serve the Lord and live
according to his will? Well, not many. Maybe
at one point we would say the United States did,
but I don't even know that we can say that now.
There's a lot of people in this country that
don't seek the Lord, that don't seek his will,
that don't care about his word in the least.
And so when we pray not only over our sins, perhaps
this is a good reminder for us to pray over the
sins of our land. that God would have mercy on
us because Lord knows we are deserving of God's
wrath. And if God pulled out and said, hey, I'm
going to take any protection or blessing off
of you, then he'd be right to do so. And we see
occasion in Scripture where he does that. And
perhaps he will do that one day. He's been good
to us. He's blessed us as a nation. But how long
will God continue to bless us when we continue
to promote sin and celebrate sin? I don't know
the answer to that question. Here in this psalm,
the psalmist recognizes not only that he was
a sinner, but that the people were a sinner.
And this is nothing new, that God's people had
sinned for a long time before him and will continue
to sin for a long time after. But he calls out
and he acknowledges that sin. God, we've sinned
against you. And I believe that we could all
agree that... that that's the case for us here.
And not just us. I mean, there's plenty of nations
in the world that sinned against God. But I believe
any people that would call out to God, wherever
they are, that if they would call out to God
and seek Him, that they would experience His
blessings. Because when you take God out of everything,
there's no good that's going to come from it.
Because God is good, and when God is removed,
all that's left is the bad. But any people, no
matter how small or how large, that would seek
God and call out to Him, You instantly experience
the blessings of God. When you seek his wisdom
and you begin to live according to his ways,
then life gets better. We could probably all
acknowledge that in our own life. When we're
living in obedience to God, man, our life's going
better. We feel better. Things just work better.
And when we start living for ourself and living
in disobedience, things are not good. Our relationships
aren't good. Our attitude's not good. The things
we do aren't good. And so all that's a result
of disobedience. And we see plenty of that, not
only in our own lives sometimes, but we see it
in our nation. And Lord willing, maybe there'll
be a change. That should be our prayer, that
God will pour out His Spirit on us, that there'd
be a revival in the land, that people in this
country would realize, hey, what we need more
than anything is God. Verse 7. Our fathers in
Egypt did not grasp, Isn't that something? He
says that my descendants came before me. They
didn't understand the wonderful works of God.
They didn't appreciate all that God had done.
God had come in, and he had delivered them and
provided for them, and he had taken care of them
in every way, and they failed to realize that.
But what does it say in verse 8? Yet he saved
them because of his name to make his power known.
Now, we see that when God is bringing punishment
on the Egyptians, he says, look. I'm doing this
so that you'll know me, so that everybody will
know me, so that his own people would know him,
so the people of Egypt would know he is God.
All those plagues he sent, it should have been
abundantly clear to the Egyptians and to the
people of God that he was God. And you would
think, after seeing such amazing things with
their own eyes, that they would have been like,
holy smokes, whatever this God says, I ain't
questioning him. But they didn't. They failed
to really appreciate the wonders of his works.
But even still, God was faithful. Now, God was
ready after he delivered them out. They made
the golden calf. He was ready to wipe them out.
And Moses says, hold up, God. Have patience with
them. Don't wipe them out or else the other nations
will see you and they'll say, well, what kind
of God is this that brought them out just to
destroy them? And so God showed restraint and
didn't give them the punishment that they deserved.
And praise the Lord that He's a God of restraint.
That He doesn't give us the punishment that we
deserve. Because we're no better. Because we've
experienced the works of God. We've seen His
wonderful grace and we've seen how He's worked
in our life. And sometimes we too, we just, we
kind of think, we don't appreciate it, we don't
think much about it, we don't celebrate it. We
praise Him today and then tomorrow, the next
day's troubles comes and we quickly... Forget
about God, and that's exactly what Israel did,
and that's what we do too sometimes. Verse 9.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up. He led
them through the depths as through a desert.
He saved them from the hand of the adversary.
He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
Water covered their foes. Not one of them remained.
That had to have been a marvelous sight for them
to have experienced. Now, they had already seen
God do a lot of stuff while they were in Egypt.
I mean, those plagues, that was no joke. And
that God was able to protect them and deliver
them, that was pretty phenomenal. But then a
whole group of people, possibly a couple of million,
it would have been a lot at this point in time.
We don't know the exact number, but you have
a lot of people that are standing there in front
of a sea. And they're trapped. There is nowhere
for them to go. They have been enslaved all these
years. They finally get away from their enemy
only to have their backs against the wall. Egyptians
coming toward them on one side. The Red Sea is
in front of them on the other side. There's really
no hope for them except for God, who does a miraculous
thing. He parts the Red Sea so that they cross
on dry land. Now, how God did that, it's a...
It's a miracle. It's unexplainable. I've seen
people before say, oh, maybe he did this, and
maybe he sent this wind, and maybe he sent that.
Well, I don't know that there's any ordinary
explanation that God would have been able to
dry up a sea rather quickly and there be dry
ground to cross on. But yet that's the power
of God, and the people of God got to witness
that. They got to witness that. That's pretty
phenomenal. that they got to see that, and they
walked through the Red Sea on dry land, and as
their enemies chased them, and they got into
the Red Sea, as Israel was coming out of the
other side, and God released the waters, and
they covered up their enemies, boom, his people
were delivered just that quick. That's a phenomenal
thing for somebody to experience. And so what
did they do? What we see when we go back and
read in Exodus, I believe chapter 15, that there's
a song of praise, that they are praising the
Lord. Listen to what it says we see in the next
verse, verse 12. Then they believed his promises
and sang his praise. Well, praise the Lord. Shouldn't
we do that? When we have seen the Lord work and
experienced how he loves us and has given us
grace and we see even miracles today, maybe not
see his part, but I believe we see God heal people
and I believe we see God work and work things
together in ways that we just know that it's
God looking out for us. And shouldn't we rejoice
and praise the Lord? And that's exactly what
they do. What a beautiful example. I believe
it's in verse 21 that they are praising the Lord
in Exodus chapter 15. And then you go and you
flip down to verse 24. And guess what they're
doing by verse 23 verses. They just saw him part
a sea. And then they say, we ain't got no water
to drink. I don't know what we're going to do.
Now they should have just said, hey, we just
saw God part a red sea. We ain't got no water,
but it doesn't matter. Well, he probably got
some Coca -Colas over there for us under a rock.
Whatever it is, we're not going to worry. But
instead, they complain because I don't know what
we're going to do now. We was in Egypt. Things
were really good. Now look at us. We're over
this sea. We ain't got nothing to drink. And
they're praising God one minute, and it doesn't
take very long, and they start to complain. And
we see that shift here in this passage too in
verse 12. Then they believed his promises and
sang his praise. And then what's the next verse
say? They soon forgot his works and would not
wait for his counsel. Now, holy smokes. Now,
we look at that and we think about what they
did and we laugh and it would be funny if we
didn't do the same thing. But the fact of the
matter is, are we not guilty of that sometimes?
Maybe we are. Maybe we sang God's praises today.
And then something happens in our life tomorrow
and all of a sudden we start fretting. Like we
just, we get amnesia. Like we get, we get like
blessing amnesia. Like we forget how much God
has blessed us and all of a sudden it's like,
I don't know what I'm going to do. And we got
a lifetime full of ways that God has delivered
us. But oh how quickly we forget. And that's
exactly what God's people Israel did. It says
that they soon forgot his works. and would not
wait on his counsel. They were so impatient.
Moses goes up the mountain. They say, where's
he at? He's not coming back. Well, I guess we
need to make a god. Boom. Get all their gold
jewelry. They make a gold calf. They say, here
it is. This is the god that brought us out of
Egypt. Oh, really? Well, where was that gold
calf when the water split? He was non -existent.
And how quickly they got impatient because God
wasn't doing things the way that they wanted
him to do it. You read through the story of them
as they come out of Egypt. Well, they ain't got
water to drink. Well, they get tired of the food
that they're eating. Oh, Moses is taking too
long on the mountain. Everything. We want it
now. We want it now. We want it now. We want
it now. And see, we think that's the result of
having smartphones and fast internet that we
just get used to having and wanting everything
now. But they didn't have a single smartphone
or a single internet. And guess what? They were
impatient and didn't want to wait on anything.
And we need to learn from that. Because maybe
we say, I do the same thing. Okay, well, it's
good for us to acknowledge that. But we don't
ever want to be okay with that. We want to look
at this and we want to say, okay, I need you
to check me, dear Lord. I need you to look at
my heart. I need you to help me to look at my
heart and at my actions. And God, if that's in
my life, I don't want to be that way. And help
me to remember. And I think that's why stories
like this and psalms like this are good. It's
just a reminder of past events that we can learn
from, good or bad sometimes in the Bible. It's
a reminder sometimes of good things that God
has praised for and then a reminder of bad things
that God's people do. And that's what we see
here is that they too quickly forgot of God's
power, of his work, and they didn't wait for
his counsel. Now maybe there's... Just that one
little thing right there, that one little last
part of that verse, that might be enough for
us to chew on this week and really think about.
Like, is there something going on in our life
right now that maybe we need to wait on the counsel
of the Lord? It seems like every decision in
my life, it's like you've got to make it right
now. This deal's not going to be here if you
don't get it now, if you don't do this thing
now. The decision has to be made today. It's
like... So many decisions in our life, we feel
like they have to be right now, and maybe sometimes
they do. But maybe sometimes we just need to
say, okay, have I sought the counsel of the Lord
in this? And we really don't want to do that
because sometimes it takes a while. Because we
like to just say, okay, God, should I do X, Y,
and Z? Amen. And we want within five seconds
God to say, Yes or no. Like either one, we just
want to know. But it usually doesn't work that
quick. It's usually some waiting, some seeking
of the Lord's counsel. And God's people, Israel,
didn't do that. They didn't wait on the counsel
of the Lord. Instead, they did it their way.
And doing it our way usually fails. I will say
it always fails, I suppose. So maybe today we
need to pause for a second and we need to say,
okay, even in these first few verses, we have
some great reminders here, some great example
here to praise the Lord, to seek His forgiveness
in our life and seek His mercy for us as a people,
for us to recall the ways that He's worked in
our life and for us not to be so quick to forget
those ways but to continue to seek His counsel
in everything. Let's pray. God, we come to you.
We thank you for your word. I pray that you would
help us to listen to this word and take it to
heart, dear Lord, that we would live by it. We
thank you today, dear Lord, that we can praise
you, that you are worthy of our praise, dear
Lord, that you have blessed us and taken care
of us in so many ways. And the greatest way is
through Jesus Christ, that you've sent Jesus
Christ to... Be our Savior to die on the cross
for the forgiveness of our sins, dear Lord, that
we can have grace and we can have mercy. And
that alone, dear Lord, is worthy of praise. But
dear Lord, you do so much more. Not only do you
give us salvation for eternity, but you just,
you bless us in so many ways in this life and
you take care of us and I pray that you help
us not to miss those ways and to praise you in
those ways and not to be quick to forget how
you've worked and what you've done. And God,
help us to be patient and to wait on your counsel.
And that's hard to do, dear Lord. And I pray
that you'd help me to do that and help each one
of us to do that. And I ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.