The Holy Spirit directed the unknown author of Psalm 106 to help us learn lessons we often want to forget. Psalm 105 summarizes God's faithfulness to His people, while Psalm 106 summarizes man's sinfulness. Even when God acts in power and mercy on behalf of His people, something in man seems never to be satisfied. Unless we find joy and satisfaction in God, we will live and die with unfulfilled ambition.
Between the two “Hallelujahs” at the beginning and end of this psalm, this historical account of Israel gives us an understanding that the mighty acts of God on behalf of His people, which are recorded in scripture, cover every aspect of human life. When we appreciate the miracles God has done for us, we are moved to praise Him in the same way this unknown psalmist did. The provision from His gracious hands that meets our needs, the personal blessings of life, health, and salvation, stir the heart of a believer to praise the Lord. The assembly life we are a part of, the nation in which we live in freedom, all make us give our heartfelt thanks to the Lord for His mercy and love that endures forever. He has given us what we never deserved, and His power and protection are ongoing.
The lessons of this psalm are not just for the people of the past but also for us in the present. We do well to learn from the failures of those who have left on the pages of history accounts of blessings from God and failures of human beings. The psalmist recognized personal responsibility for the nation's sins when he wrote, “We have sinned.” To point to those who lived before us and complain that what happens to us is their fault is open and blatant ignorance. We are responsible for our choices, and we are responsible for the consequences that come upon us because of our failure and sin. So, this writer, after praise and petition, confessed sin.
Reading through this psalm, we find a severe lack of appreciation for God’s work for them. They forgot the mercies of God. When things don’t go the way we want, our memories seem to be very short. The miracles God has done were taken for granted by the people of Israel. If we do not “in everything give thanks,” the tendency is to complain and rebel against that which is of God. Discontented people usually live and die discontented. Everything that goes wrong according to their plan is someone else’s fault. They refuse to take ownership of their sin. Discontent leads to open complaints. An open complaint leads to ingratitude from people who have been blessed but are not thankful. Ingratitude leads to rejection, which leads to rebellion. Rebellion against God leads to divine justice meted out consistent with judgment on stubbornness and idolatry.
Physical gratification is not always best for us. Trust and obedience are the best responses we can make when difficulties arise. What God does and what he provides are far better than the personal gratification of our flesh. This psalm teaches us what happens when people act in their own will and without divine guidance. The children of Israel also lost their self-control and yielded to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The world today entices believers with the same things to which Israel succumbed. Power, convenience, fame, pleasure, and sex are all available to the person or nation that rejects God’s standard and His revealed will in the scriptures.
Spiritual pollution comes from mixing with the ungodly people and religions of the world system. Failure to learn the lessons others learned before us means we will go through the same problems, only likely more intense because of rejecting the lessons others learned. We provoke God by not asking for and submitting to His will. So, He allows trouble to come upon us to prevent greater tragedies. By His grace and love, He will enable difficulties to humble us, keeping us from compromising with the world, and bringing us back to Himself. Then, our prayers may be honest instead of affected. We are given opportunities to experience God in our lives, which makes us learn to depend on Him.
The children of Israel learned, to their dismay, that to reject divinely appointed leadership is to reject God. They turned to idolatry instead of faith in God. That can happen to us. They joined with the ungodly in religious practices, which soon led to unequal yokes. They denounced their leader so that, in his frustration, Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it and was not allowed to enter the promised land. They refused to reject evil associations and soon joined in with cruel and immoral practices in social and religious life. That, too, can happen to us.
When people misunderstand God and think He is an easy pushover, they begin to “murmur” about what they do not have or what they have is not good enough. Rebellion usually follows, substituting that which is pleasing to the eyes for that of faith. Resisting and refusing divinely appointed leaders who care for God’s people’s souls may soon occur. Then people get joined to the “idols” around them, for whom other people live. Backsliding and unfaithfulness that “defile their works” contrast with God’s faithfulness and mercy.
The warnings given to us in this psalm are clear. Ingratitude, forgetting God, complaining, self-will, and a critical spirit, especially against those who lead us, should make us take stock of ourselves. Idolatry – putting other things before God, unbelief, immorality, disobedience, unequal yokes, and even sacrificing our children to the world system can result when we do not learn the lessons of history. So, when troubles and difficulties come, let us encourage each other to yield to God’s will for us, no matter what. Let us empathize with those in hard times, knowing that God remains the same and His love for His people endures. Our unfaithfulness does not limit his compassion and mercy. He was merciful when we were in our sins. How much more are His mercies real to us and those who are His children by faith in Jesus Christ?