Psa. 105-106

Psa 105:1-7

Psa 105:8-45

Psa 106:1-5

Psa 106:6-15

Psa 106:16-27

Psa 106:28-39

Psa 106:40-48

Recap

A. Find Out:    

1. What does the psalmist call us to do? v.1,2b,5

2. How is it to be expressed? v.2a,3

3. How does he describe his readers? v.6

4. What does he say about the Lord? v.7

5. On what basis does the Lord work with them? v.8

6. To whom had he spoken it? v.9,10

B. Think:

1. What appears the point of this psalm?

2. Who is it addressed to?

3. What is the basis of what is to come?

C. Comment:

  1 Chron 16:7 tells us that this is a psalm of David. The call is to give thanks to God, call on His name (v.1), sing to Him (v.2), glory in His name (v.3) and rejoice, and to seek God (v.4). Underpinning all this, the reason for it, is the call to remember what God has done (v.1b,2b,5). Our faith is always built on the historical acts of God, the things He has done with His people on the earth. On the basis of that come our beliefs, and from our beliefs we live our lives.

  This psalm is a specific call to Israel to remember and tell others. The call throughout the Old Testament was for Israel to be a light to the nations (e.g. Isa 49:6, 60:3), though it was mostly not expressed like that. See Gen 18:18, 22:18, 26:4, Ex 15:14, Lev 26:45, Num 14;15, Deut 2:25, 4:6, 26:19, 29:24, 1 Kings 4:31, 1 Chron 16:8,24,28,31, 1 Chron 22;5, 2 Chron 32:23, Neh 6:6,16, Psa 9:11, 18:49, 22:27, 44:14, 45:17, 46:10, 57:9, 67:2-4, 79:10, 86:9, 96:3,7,10, 98:2, 102:15, 105:1, 108:3-5, 113:4, 117:1, 126:2, Isa 11:10,12, 12:4, 42:1, 51:4,5, 52:10,15, 56:7, 60:3, 61:11, 62:2,10, 66:19, Jer 1:5,10, 3:17, 4:2,16, 6:18, 31:7, 33:9, 46:12, 50:2, Ezek 5:8,14,15, 16:14, 28:25, 36:23, 37:28, 38:16,23, 39:7,21,23,27, Dan 6:25, Joel 2:17, 3:9,11, Na 3:5, Zep 3:11, Zec 9:10, Mal 1:1, 3:12. Get the message! And it's all about the covenant He made with Abram, Isaac & Jacob (v.9,10).

D. Application:

1. God wants the world to know about Him.

         2. He uses His people to tell them.

Passage: Psalm 105:8-45

A. Find Out:

1. What had God initially given Israel ? v.11

2. Yet what happened before that took place? v.12-15

3. How had He provided for them? v.16-22

4. What does he next remember? v.23-38

5. What was the next stage? v.39-41

6. Why did the Lord do all this? v.42-45

B. Think:

1. Why had God done the things listed here?

2. What was covered in His works here?

3. What was the end result?

C. Comment:

  Remember this psalm is a call to remember what God has done and to praise Him for it. It is thus an account of God's early acts of deliverance of Israel from Egypt .

  The crucial feature of all this is the point that it was all because God had promised Abraham that He would do it (v.9,42) and He had confirmed that promise to Jacob (v.10). It was ultimately so that the Lord could have a people who He could teach and guide to follow His design rules (v.45), for that is what the Law was – the best way for a people to live according to the way God had designed mankind.

  Initially the patriarchs had been wanderers (v.13) but God protected them. Eventually He moved on the world circumstances (v.16) to create a situation where Joseph (v.17) ended up, not in Canaan but in Egypt (v.18-20) as a ruler (v.21,22). The result of this was that Jacob and his family also came there and settled down (v.23) and God blessed them there so they did so well that the Egyptians rose against them and made them slaves (v.24,25). Then He raised up Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of Egypt after the Lord had brought the plagues on Pharaoh (v.26-38). He led them through the desert (v.39-41) and brought them into the Land as promised (v.42-45). This is an amazing glimpse or potted history of God's early dealing with Israel .

D. Application:

1. God has a plan for His people, that stretches over centuries.

2. We are part of God's plan today.

Passage: Psalm 106:1-5  

A. Find Out:

1. What are we to do and why? v.1

2. What seems an almost impossible task? v.2

3. Who are blessed? v.3

4. When does he ask the Lord to remember him? v.4a

5. When does he ask the Lord to come to his aid? v.4b

6. For what three results? v.5

B. Think:

1. What are we told about the Lord in these verses?

2. What is implied about the psalmist's present state?

3. What does he know IS possible with the Lord?

C. Comment:

  This psalm is mostly about the failures of Israel in their long relationship with the Lord, but there is no real hint of that in these five opening verses. It opens with a call to give thanks to God (v.1) and, as always in the psalms, gives a reason for that. Here it is simply because His love goes on for ever. We perhaps take that for granted, but it is repeated again and again in Scripture. It means His love will never cease; it is always there and it is there for us!

  But love is always expressive, and it is expressed in God's mighty acts (v.2) and (implied) they are so many you couldn't proclaim them all and couldn't do justice to your praise of Him. But knowledge of His mighty acts makes him realise that this calls for the response of a righteous life (v.3) because (again implied) if you have seen what God has done you will know that there are expectations in God's heart of us.

  This causes him to make a request of the Lord to be included when the Lord blesses His people (v.4). Having thought of God's mighty acts he realises they are all about God coming to the aid of His people and he wants to be included when God next does that. Why? He knows that when God comes to His people and they rightly relate to Him, blessings follow, blessings of prosperity, and blessings of joy. These are part of the inheritance that releases praise, and he wants that of God.

D. Application:

1. God is always reaching out in love to us and looks for response.

2. Surrendered hearts receive the blessing of God.

Passage: Psalm 106:6-15    

A. Find Out:

1. What does the psalmist acknowledge? v.6

2. What example of this does he give? v.7

3. Yet what did God do? v.8-11

4. How did they respond but what did they soon do? v.12,13

5. How did they do this, this time? v.14

6. So how did God respond? v.15

B. Think:

1. What sins of Israel are revealed here?

2. Yet what did God do for them?

C. Comment:

  The psalmist now embarks on a list of examples of how Israel had sinned against God. He starts from right back in Egypt where, after God had done amazing miracles of deliverance (v.7), when they got to the Red Sea they grumbled to Moses (see Ex 14:11) and didn't believe God was for them. Nevertheless God took them through and saved them (v.8-10) and they praised Him when they saw His miraculous deliverance yet again (v.11).

  However very soon, once they were travelling across the desert, they grumbled (v.13,14) for food and water (see Ex 16 & 17). It wasn't that there was a need but it was the way they responded to the need and grumbled against God and against Moses. Nevertheless God did provide both food and water for them. However this time, He brought the discipline of a disease upon them. The point about a disease is that it appears slowly and you have plenty of time to repent of your sins and cry out to God. This young nation had been in a training season with God, but were very slow to learn that He was there, He was there with them and He was there for them. They were being taught to enter into a relationship with the Lord whereby they spoke to their heavenly Father, not in grumbling tones, but in the tones of a child to its Father. Unfortunately they were very slow to learn this.

D. Application:

1. The object of God saving us is to draw us into a living relationship with Him

    which involves loving two-way communication.

2. Never grumble against God; simply ask if you have questions!

Passage: Psalm 106:16-27

A. Find Out:

1. What was the next sin of Israel ? v.16

2. What happened to them? v.17,18

3. What was the next thing they did wrong? v.19-22

4. What happened? v.23

5. What was the next thing? v.24,25

6. What happened? v.26,27

B. Think:

1. What were the three sins in this passage?

2. What happened in each case?

C. Comment:

  Trying to understand Israel , we must assume that the passing of time with the passing of distance must have contributed to the foolish inability of this people to realise what is happening and who is leading them in this new venture in life.

  They are still in the desert when some of the leaders started challenging Moses and Aaron (v.16), not realising that they were challenging God's leadership. For this they died in a most spectacular mini-earthquake (v.17,18). You might have thought that this act of judgement was so obvious that they would have learned by now, but it gets worse. They have amazing revelation of God at Mount Sinai (Horeb) but as soon as Moses delays coming down the mountain they create a golden calf for visible worship (v.19). There was, in fact, death following but it was very limited because of Moses' plea for mercy (v.23). Still they didn't learn and when, after the next lot of travelling, they arrive at the border of the Promised Land and they send in scouts, they decide they can't take the Land (v.24,25). This time the whole generation of those over twenty are consigned to die in the desert before the nation will be allowed to go in (v.26,27).

In each case there is a responsibility to believe (and there is plenty of evidence to help them) and when they refuse to believe there are consequences.

D. Application:

1. God always gives us plenty of evidence to help us believe.

2. If we refuse to believe Him there are consequences to that.

Passage: Psalm 106:28-39

A. Find Out:

1. What is the next sin recorded? v.28,29a

2. How was it dealt with? v.29b-31

3. What further sin had what consequence? v.32,33

4. How also had they failed? v.34

5. With what consequence? v.35-39.

B. Think:

1. Why was the sin of Baal so bad? See Num 25:1-3

2. Why do you think Moses' sin was so bad? See Num 20:9-12

3. Why was the sin of v.34 so bad?

C. Comment:

  You have to remember what God was doing with this people to understand the awfulness of what we have read today. The Lord took Israel and sought (by the covenant at Sinai – Ex 19:5,6) to enter into a relationship with them whereby they would be a unique people on the earth who would reveal the Lord to the rest of the world (see Study 9). Thus He gave them Laws by which to live, which would mean Israel would live in accordance with the way God had designed mankind and as a result He would bless them. Solomon's reign and the nation's affluence was the peak of that.

  Thus turning to idol worship with the Moabites (v.28), and eventually mixed with the people of the land (v.35) who they had failed to clear out (v.34), meant that they ended up worshipping their gods as well and following their practices (v.36-39). This was tantamount to totally rejecting God and utterly failing to be the light to the rest of the world that they were supposed to be.

  So frustrating had been this people, that even mild mannered Moses had snapped on one occasion (Num 20:9-12). This meant that he failed to properly represent God, for which the Lord cut short his future leadership and he was not allowed to enter the land. His example would remain in the minds of subsequent leaders! The chequered history of Israel , therefore, was to act as a warning to future generations.

D. Application:

1. We are Christians because we have a relationship with God.

2. That relationship relies on Jesus & we are to reveal Him.

RECAP -   Psalms 105 & 106

SUMMARY :

In this second group of 7 studies we have seen : 

COMMENT :

  These are two long, historical psalms. Psalm 105 praises the Lord for all His acts of deliverance, from the time of the call of Abraham through to giving the people the Promised Land. Psa 106, by contrast, is a reminder not to commit the sins of Israel that occurred throughout their past history.

LESSONS?

PRAY :

  Lord, thank you for your salvation. Thank you for what you have done for me. But Lord please keep me from sin. Guard me, protect me and keep me from the evil one. Help me not to drift away from you or be seduced by the ways of the world and the ways of the enemy. Keep me pure, keep me holy, keep me true!