Psalm 106, we're going to start in verse 34.
We're going to, Lord willing, wrap it up tonight.
We've been looking at the rest of the stories
in the first part of Psalm 106. Most of them
are two, three, four verses, just real short
little stories. They're mentioned in Psalm 106.
We've gone back through Numbers and Deuteronomy
and Exodus or wherever these stories were found.
and kind of looked at them in greater detail.
And so if you missed any of those, you can go
back and find them online. But tonight we will
be in Psalm 106, starting in verse 34. The last
story we looked at was when Moses didn't do what
God said. He was angry with the people, and God
told him to speak to the rock to bring about
water, and he struck the rock. And as a result,
he didn't get to enter into the promised land.
And that was the last story we looked at. And
tonight we're going to kind of see just, I guess
we could say, just kind of an overview of, okay,
here's a generalization of what the people of
Israel did throughout their time as they entered
into Canaan, as they entered into the land that
God had brought them to, to be their own that
God was going to give them. And he gave them
some specific instructions to not have any other
gods before him. Not worship any idols. Don't
get involved with any of the things of these
other nations. God was bringing judgment on the
other nations. He was going to destroy the other
nations through Israel. And all they had to do
was be obedient. They could have went in there
and they could have overtook all of them and
destroyed them. But they failed to do that. And
sometimes they destroyed some of them, but not
all of them. And as a result, they ended up giving
in to the practices of some of these Canaanite
folks. That's what we're going to see in the
verses we're going to look at tonight. So let's
pray and we'll get started. God, we thank you
for your word. I pray that you would help us
to learn from this. God, maybe we find ourselves
in a similar situation to your people Israel.
Maybe not the same circumstances, but maybe sometimes
we are disobedient in the things that we do and
the way that we act. And we know what you tell
us to do. And we don't do right, dear Lord, and
it leaves us in some bad situations. And so whatever
may have gotten us where we are tonight, if we
are in a bad situation, I pray that we would
be a people that would wake up and pay attention
to your word and your instruction. It's still
good for us tonight that we would be a people
that would call out to you. And I ask these things
in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Psalm 106, verse
34. They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord
had commanded them, but mingled with the nations
and adopted their ways. They served their idols,
which became a snare to them. All right, so this
is just kind of a situation we see among God's
people. They go in there and they destroy some
of the people, but even the people that they
leave, instead of separating themselves from
them, They do exactly what God told them not
to do. They begin to take over their practices.
They begin to worship their idols. They begin
to put other gods before God. They begin to marry
with foreigners. And that's a bad situation.
Even in the New Testament, it talks about being
unequally yoked. And that's not talking about
race. That's not talking about marrying somebody
of a different nationality. That's not what it's
talking about when it talks about unequally yoked.
It's talking about... Marrying somebody with
differing beliefs. Marrying somebody that's not
a Christian. That's what he's saying in the New
Testament when Paul says that. That was God's
main concern here in the Old Testament. I don't
think that the problem was he didn't want an
Israelite marrying a Canaanite, but he knew that
if the Israelites were to follow God and they
were his people and the Canaanites followed these
false gods, then the likelihood of being drawn
away from your God It's pretty high if you marry
somebody with different beliefs, and that's true
today. That's true. If you're a Christian, or
maybe in most of our cases, have a Christian
child or grandchildren, then it's very important
that you encourage them to marry a Christian
mate, that you encourage your granddaughters
to marry a Christian man and your grandsons to
marry a Christian woman. And if you see that
the... person they appear to be falling in love
with is not, then that's a hard conversation
to have to say, hey, listen, grandson, granddaughter,
this is probably not a good situation. You better
be really careful who you marry. Because you
always will say, oh, well, I'll never give up
my faith. I'll never allow them to sway me. But
oftentimes when you're exposed to somebody with
differing beliefs, there's a greater chance of
you being torn from your belief. and switch to
theirs, or perhaps even worse, a total lack of
belief. Well, God's people, they were with these
foreigners, they were intermarrying with these
foreigners, and lo and behold, did they convert
them to God? Well, it doesn't sound like it in
most of the teachings, but it does sound like
that the foreigners converted the Israelites
to worshiping these false gods. And so they found
themselves in a lot of trouble. because of that.
All right, let's continue on in verse 37. They
sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
They shed innocent blood, the blood of their
sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the
idols of Canaan. So the land became polluted
with blood. They defiled themselves by their
actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
Now, this is a pretty serious allegation right
here. This is not just, oh, the Canaanites, the
people over there that are here when we got there,
they worship one God and we worship another God.
It wasn't just as simple as we're just going
to go to a different church next Sunday. It was
when they started worshiping these false gods
and these idols, the ways of these false gods
were totally different. Like, hey, if you had
a kid, why don't you just go sacrifice it to
the God? Why don't you burn it up? So this was
a pretty serious deal. This wasn't like, hey,
he's a Baptist and she's a Methodist. We'll just
go to his church one Sunday and mine next Sunday.
This was, hey, when you stop following God, you're
going to start doing some really evil and detestable
things. Killing your own kids as a sacrifice.
So this is pretty serious what was going on.
It's not like the Israelites just said, I don't
feel like going to church this Sunday. I ain't
going to make it. And God says, aw, aw, shucks.
Well, you're not going to get some of my blessings.
Like the things that they were doing were serious
things. Like when they were rejecting God and
putting other gods before him and started worshiping
these idols, what does it say here? It says that
they sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.
These weren't gods. These were demons. This was
a bad way that the people of Israel were in.
And so you kind of can understand, maybe, that
when God gets angry with his people in the Old
Testament, that it's not like he was just angry
for no reason. When God punishes his people in
the Old Testament, it's not like he was just
doing it for fun. Like, there were some serious
things that went on. Now, if they would have
followed God's commands, when he said, have no
other God before me, If they would have just
started right there, they'd have been in pretty
good shape. But they didn't start there, and
they did have other gods before them. And pretty
soon, they started sacrificing their own children.
Now, you've got to be in pretty bad shape to
start sacrificing your own children. Like anybody
in here ever sacrificed their child before? Please
don't raise your hand if you did. Hope you didn't.
What would it take for you to do that? There's
nothing I can tell you tonight that would convince
you to do that, I hope. So you've got to be in
a pretty bad shape to start living in that kind
of evil. And that's why God says it's pretty
important that you follow my words because eventually
if you turn from God and you stop following his
commands, that's where you get to. That's a scary
thing to think about. Here's a scary thing to
think about. People back in those days ain't
no different from people today. People today
are just as evil. It's not like humanity is just,
oh, we have gotten so elevated that we don't
do these types of things anymore. Nope. People
today are just as evil as they have ever been.
Now, some would say that abortion today is similar
to this. Now, maybe it is in some way. I don't
know that there's a direct correlation, but there
are a lot of people that don't. pause for a moment
in aborting a baby, and that's a pretty serious
situation too. Maybe they're not knowingly kneeling
down before an altar and saying, here you go,
all false god and demon, here's my child. They
may not be doing that, but nonetheless, the result
of so freely taking an innocent life, well, you're
in a bad place when you start doing that, and
we see that as a culture, as a society. Continuing
on that same note in verse 40, it says, Okay,
the Lord was angry here. He was angry. He didn't
just turn a blind eye. He didn't just say, well,
they're just doing some things. I wish they wouldn't
do that, but there's nothing I can do about it.
It's kind of what we would say, right? When somebody
in our family, when our children do something,
we say, well, I wish they wouldn't do that, but
there's nothing I can do about it. But God was
really angry about what had taken place here
because he loved them. He didn't want them to
do that. He didn't want them to fall into those
types of evils. Lord knows he didn't want them
to be sacrificing a child. Like that was totally
against everything that God wanted his people
to do. And yet these people were so twisted.
that these are the types of things that had infiltrated
their society. Now, this is not just true of
Israel. I believe this is true of humanity throughout
the existence of humanity. That if a people will
seek God, follow His commands, live according
to His commands, try to live in obedience to
Him, they will experience blessing. There will
be love. There will be peace. Not ever total
peace and love. There will always be a few in
the bunch. It's going to be troublemakers. But
as a whole in general, when a people will seek
God, you will be able to see that through that
people group, through that country, through that
civilization. It will be evident. And the moment
a people stop seeking God, that will become evident
because there will be more fussing and fighting
and feuding. There will be more murdering and
rioting. There will be more conflict. There will
be more wars. There will be more hatred. There
will be parents that may not be sacrificing their
kid on an altar, but parents whose little boy
comes up to them and says, I want to be a little
girl, and the parent applauds that. That's evil.
That's not good. That's not healthy. That's not
love to say, oh, I love my kid. I'm going to
support whatever they do. That's not love. That's
mental illness. That's evil. And how did we get
to that point? Like, some of you say, well, when
I was born, when I was a teenager, when I was
a young adult, we didn't do that thing. Well,
what changed to all of a sudden that people's
kids think they're animals and the parents put
litter boxes in the house because their child
thinks they're a cat? Like, this is the world
we live in. This is not... It's... It's almost
funny, but it's not funny at all because this
is reality in 2026 in the United States of America.
And how in the world did we get here? I can tell
you how we got here. We got here because we stopped
seeking God. We got here the same way that the
Israelites got to where they got, where they
were offering their kids as sacrifices in the
fire. That's the result of abandoning God. You
can't just say, I don't want God, and you take
God out of everything, and you just think somehow
the world's going to continue on and be good.
It doesn't work that way. Because there is no
good but God. And when you remove God, you've
removed all that's good, and when you've removed
all that's good, all that remains is evil, and
before long, you're sacrificing your own children.
And that's what the people were doing in Israel.
And that's what we see in a lot of places in
our world today. We see so many people in our
world, so many countries in our world, so many
people groups in our world, and they have completely
taken God out of everything. And the more they
take God out of things, the more that they see
things get worse, and the worse they see things
get, the more they say, we've got to take even
more God out. And the more God is removed, the
worse it gets. And this is the cycle. There's
nothing new under the sun. It's not a surprise
to us, shouldn't be, if we read Scripture. This
is what humanity does. When we put other gods
before God, when we stop seeking Him and living
for Him, the result is bad things are going to
happen. And I believe that that was true for
Israel. And I believe that's true for any people
in our world today. I do not think God has changed.
I think He blesses those who will seek Him, and
I believe that He brings punishment and wrath
on those who will reject Him. And I think we
see evidences of that in our world today. Verse
41, He handed them over to the nations. Those
who hated them ruled them. Their enemies oppressed
them, and they were subdued under their power.
He rescued them many times, but they continued
to rebel deliberately and were beaten down by
their sin. Now, when they followed God, they
didn't really have any trouble. You may remember
when they first crossed over the Jordan to go
into Canaan. And they went to Jericho. We just
talked about this in Sunday School going through
the book of Joshua. Jericho, pretty big fortified
walls. Israel probably didn't have no business
overtaking them. But what happened? By God's
power, they overtook them. And by God's power,
they would have overtaken every person in that
land with no trouble. When the spies got sent
to see what was going on in the land, and the
spies come back and tell them, said, hold up,
there's some big folks over there. We can't go
over there and do that. And Joshua and Caleb
said, well, look, we go over there and do it.
It's fine. The Lord brought us here. We'll go
do it. He'll give them over to us. No problem.
And they said, well, you ain't going over there.
And they could have overtook everybody in the
land had they have trusted in God, but they didn't.
And this scripture reminds us that their enemies
overtook them. Was it because their enemies were
stronger than them? Nope. Was it because their
enemies were stronger than God? Nope. It was
because God said, okay, you don't want to trust
me. I'm going to back up. Well, when God backs
up, you're in big trouble. And God's people find
themselves in big trouble. It says he rescued
them many times in verse 43, but they continue
to rebel deliberately. Now, you read through
the Old Testament. You see a lot of times. I'd
be curious to know what the count is. I've never
really thought about that. How many times that
God handed them over and how many times that
he rescued them. But there was a pattern. They
continued to rebel deliberately. And listen to
that last line in verse 43. And were beaten down
by their sin. Think about that for a second.
They were beaten down by their sin. That's what
sin will do to us. Now we all have sin. Maybe
not the same sin like we're talking about here.
But there is some sin in our life that is tough
for us to overcome, and it's different for you
than it is for me. Everybody's is different.
But it's a bad feeling, and maybe some of you
have been there. I suspect you are. When there
is sin in your life, and it has got the better
of you, and you've just continued to give in
to it, and it will beat you down. And it's hard.
It's hard to overcome that. We want to give up.
We want to just keep giving in to it. But man,
it just leaves us feeling so rotten and so angry
and so bitter. So how do we overcome that? Well,
we overcome that by the power of the Lord. That's
the only way that we overcome that sin that,
as Hebrews would say, so easily ensnares us,
that sin that would beat us down. Now maybe we
read this passage tonight, or maybe there's somebody
online that's listening to this, and maybe if
we're honest, We can relate to this passage more
than we want to. Maybe we can look at our own
life and say, golly, there's some evils in my
life. Maybe I've abandoned God. Maybe I've put
other gods and other things before Him. Maybe
I'm committing some evils that are pretty bad.
Maybe I've rebelled repeatedly. Maybe I feel
the burden of my own sin right now and it has
beaten me down and I don't know what I'm going
to do. Well, I can tell you what you can do,
and you can do the same thing that God's people
Israel did. In the next verse, in verse 44, it
says, When he heard their cry, he took note of
their distress, remembered his covenant with
them, and relented according to the riches of
his faithful love. He calls them to be pitied
before all their captors. All right? So if you
find yourself in this shape, Maybe you have before,
maybe you are now, or maybe you will in the future.
Where you have turned away from God, there's
evil in your life, there's sin in your life,
and you've gotten to a point where you realize
you are in a bad way. What are you going to do?
Well, God's people cried out to the Lord. And
the good news is, when we seek God, we'll find
Him. When we reject God, all we'll find is evil
and pain and suffering. And that's a bad place
to be. But when we seek God, we will find Him.
And when God's people cried out to Him in all
the stuff that they had done, in all that they
were guilty of, when they cried out to God, it
says He took note of their distress. Well, that's
good news. It's not good to live in evil. If
we're living in evil, then we need to repent.
We don't want to stay there. We don't want to
stay beaten down by sin and say, I can't get
over this. I'm too far gone. My sin has got the
best of me. I've got no power over it. You don't
have to stay there. You can cry out to the Lord
and you can say, Lord, help me. Through Jesus
Christ, you can be delivered. We can be overcomers
through Jesus Christ. We can be victorious over
that sin that ensnares us through Jesus Christ
if we would seek Him and call out to Him. And
cry out to him. As God's people did. Verse 47.
Save us Yahweh our God. And gather us from the
nations. So that we may give thanks to your holy
name. And rejoice in your praise. May Yahweh
the God of Israel be praised. From everlasting
to everlasting. That all the people say. Amen.
Hallelujah. That's a pretty good prayer. Those
last couple of verses there. Save us and gather
us from the nations. And we may give thanks to
your holy name. Well, maybe that needs to be
the prayer that some of us pray today. God, I've
turned from you and I'm in a mess. I've been
doing things that are so evil, I'm afraid to
speak them out loud they are so evil. But God,
I cry out to you now because I'm in a bad shape
and everything's falling in on me and my sin's
just crushing me. Lord, I cry out to you. Would
you save me? Would you help me? And the good
news is, is that through Jesus Christ tonight,
he will help you. Because Jesus died on the cross
so that your sins could be forgiven. If you would
just repent, God will take note of your distress,
just as he did the people of Israel. Let's pray.
God, we thank you for these good words. And maybe
we can learn something from Psalm 106, dear Lord.
We say a lot. of examples of failure throughout
this whole psalm. And dear Lord, our life can
only add to those examples, dear Lord. We've
got plenty of failures of our own. But I pray,
God, that even as we look at all this unfaithfulness
and all the evil that we've seen in this psalm,
that we would not forget the main theme, and
that is, dear Lord, that continually we see in
this psalm people who intercede, people who atone
for. We see deliverance for your people, dear
Lord. And we thank you for all those folks in
the Old Testament that you sent to be good leaders,
to intercede for your people and to make atonement
for your people. But God, I pray that we do not
fail to recognize that all these examples we
see in Psalm 106 are pointing us to Jesus Christ.
That He is the one who is interceding for us
on our behalf. That He is the one who has made
atonement for us through His sacrifice. And God,
it's because of that that today that we can cry
out to You that we can have confidence to know
that You will hear us in our distress. So God,
I pray for the one whose sin has beaten them
down tonight. I pray, God, that through Jesus
Christ they would find strength and peace and
forgiveness. And I ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.