Summary:
Psalm 106 talks about the 8 kinds of sins the Israelites committed for our reflection.

1. When we come to a dead end in our life’s journey do we murmur against God or rely on Him?
2. In our life, do we murmur because we lack things to eat or because we’re greedy for more?
3. Do we rebel because the leaders do wrong or because we are jealous?
4. Will we exchange the glorious God for the image of an ox that eats grass?
5. Today do we listen to the words of men and lose faith, or the words of God and become strengthened in faith?
6. Although we may not have worshipped idols or committed physical acts of adultery, have we done so in our minds?
7. Do we have a part in the sin of others? We must preserve ourselves and not join the sins of others, getting stained just like Moses.
8. Today as we live along Gentiles, do we imitate their behaviour or that of Christ’s?

The contents of Psalm 106 talks about the 8 kinds of sins the Israelites committed.

v7-47 talks about the 8 kinds of sins the Israelites committed since they left Egypt until they entered the land of Canaan.

Of course it doesn’t mean the Israelites only committed these 8 sins when they left Egypt, but it highlights 8 kinds of sins for us to reflect on ourselves.

1st sin

v7-12
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, That He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; So He led them through the depths, As through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. The waters covered their enemies; There was not one of them left. Then they believed His words; They sang His praise.

This was when the Israelites came to the edge of the Red Sea, thought God had brought them to a dead end and murmured. When we come to a dead end in our life’s journey do we murmur against God or rely on Him?

2nd sin

v13-15
They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.

The people got tired of eating manna God gave them and longed to eat meat. In our life, do we murmur because we lack things to eat or because we’re greedy for more?

3rd sin

v16-18
When they envied Moses in the camp, And Aaron the saint of the Lord, The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, And covered the faction of Abiram. A fire was kindled in their company; The flame burned up the wicked.

This was the sin of Korah and those who followed him; they rebelled against God. Did they rebel because the leaders were doing wrong or because they were jealous?

4th sin

v19-23
They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory Into 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, Awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.

This sin was committed at the foot of mount Sinai where they worshipped the golden calf. Will we exchange the glorious God for the image of an ox that eats grass?

5th sin

v24-27
Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe His word, But complained in their tents, And did not heed the voice of the Lord. Therefore He raised His hand in an oath against them, To overthrow them in the wilderness, To overthrow their descendants among the nations, And to scatter them in the lands.

This was the sin they committed when they listened to the words of the spies, lost their faith and didn’t want to enter Canaan. Today do we listen to the words of men and lose faith, or the words of God and become strengthened in faith?

6th sin

v28-31
They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor, And ate sacrifices made to the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, And the plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, And the plague was stopped. And that was accounted to him for righteousness To all generations forevermore.

This was the sin of worshipping Baal and adultery. Although we may not have worshipped idols or committed physical acts of adultery, in our minds have we worshipped idols and committed adultery?

7th sin

v32-33
They angered Him also at the waters of strife, So that it went ill with Moses on account of them; Because they rebelled against His Spirit, So that he spoke rashly with his lips.

This was the sin at Meribah where they didn’t have water and murmured against God. Moses also ended up sinning. Do we have a part in the sin of others? We must preserve ourselves and not join the sins of others, getting stained just like Moses.

8th sin

v34-39
They did not destroy the peoples, Concerning whom the Lord had commanded them, But they mingled with the Gentiles And learned their works; They served their idols, Which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons, And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood. Thus they were defiled by their own works, And played the harlot by their own deeds.

After they entered Canaan, they intermingled with the Gentiles and learnt from them. Today as we live along gentiles, do we imitate their behaviour or that of Christ’s?

The psalmist’s main aim wasn’t to speak of these 8 sins; the psalm is a hallelujah psalm (as it starts and ends with ‘hallelujah’ v1, 48)!

To praise the Lord in the original language, the word is ‘hallelujah’.

The psalmist starts and ends the psalm with ‘hallelujah’ because he wanted the people to praise God. The reason for praising God is because God is good! And His mercy endures forever.

v2
Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise?

The people of God should be uttering the mighty acts of the Lord and declaring all His praise. Why? Because they have personally seen and experienced God’s goodness and Him saving them. Sadly, many believers of the Lord aren’t willing to do so. Why? Because they feel God is sometimes good, sometimes not good; that God is not good all the time. They question: “If God is good, why doesn’t God destroy evil?” They also feel God is sometimes love, sometimes not love. They feel God’s love is not enduring. They question: “If God’s lovingkindness is eternal, why do His children suffer?” They misunderstand the love of God. So when they suffer, they murmur and leave God. They say, “Under such circumstances who then can utter the mighty acts of the Lord and declare all His praise?”

Actually, God is good. God’s goodness is absolute! He’s always good. He’s not sometimes good, sometimes bad. God’s goodness lasts forever! It’s unchanging at all times, not one that changes all the time. If men can understand God is good and unchanging, he’ll be able to utter the mighty acts of God and declare all His praise even in suffering.

Consider Job who said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

When God gives, we’d naturally praise the Lord. But when God takes away, will we still continue to praise God? “If God takes half away, I’ll still praise God! If God takes more than half away, I will still praise God. But if God takes EVERYTHING I have, how can you expect me to praise God??”

But Job was one who had everything taken away from him and yet, he could still praise God. Why? Because He believed God is good. God will never do things that are not good. He believed the lovingkindness of God endures forever. God will never perform acts that are not love.

Hence he understood: When God gives, that is how God loves and shows His care for me. But even when God takes away, that is another way God loves and shows His care for me. So when God gives or takes away, Job was similarly able to praise God.

The people of God should be like Job, to completely believe God is good; that His lovingkindness endures forever. Such a faith becomes a source of strength in our lives. It’ll enable us to pass through all kinds of trials and tribulations. The failure of many Christians is doubting God’s goodness and lovingkindness. This won’t edify but harm us.

When the psalmist talked about the 8 sins of Israelites, he first asked the people to praise. Why? Because God is good and His mercy endures forever! This isn’t just his faith. It’s also a fact he saw through history. The people of Israel were chosen out of His great love to become His people. But they rebelled against the will of God and committed sins against Him. Their evil acts incurred His wrath. We see how God severely reprimanded them.

v40-46
Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, So that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, And those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, And they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times He delivered them; But they rebelled in their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, When He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, And relented according to the multitude of His mercies. He also made them to be pitied By all those who carried them away captive.

God handed them over to the hand of the Gentiles. They were oppressed by the enemies and subject to them. But when they called out to God for salvation, God heeded their prayers and saved them.

v43
Many times He delivered them; But they rebelled in their counsel, And were brought low for their iniquity.

Especially in the times of the Judges. When they were bullied by the enemies and called out to God, God raised judges up to save them. Then they sinned again. So the enemies bullied them again. When they called out again, God raised judges to save them again. They were people who committed sin time and time again.

Normally, we would feel they shouldn’t be given another chance! But what does the psalmist say?

v44-45
Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, When He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.

God is not like us who wouldn’t give another chance because we cannot endure it anymore. Truly, men’s endurance has its limits. We are willing to give others a chance. But how many chances will we give them? The Israelites should’ve been annihilated by the enemies already.

The psalmist brings up these 8 sins not to accuse them but to proclaim the goodness and enduring mercy of God.

From history we can clearly see that if God wasn’t good, He wouldn’t have saved them and allowed them to be killed off by enemies. If God‘s mercies didn’t endure forever, He would have abandoned them long ago. But in reality, God didn’t abandon them nor let their enemies destroy them. When they turned back and called out to God, He stretched out His hand and saved them.

All these facts tell us our God is truly good and His mercy endures forever.

Isa 54:7-8
“For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,”

His wrath is indeed for a moment but His everlasting kindness is forever. For a mere moment He forsakes you, but with great mercies He gathers you.

The Israelites sinned and refused to repent out of hard hearts and so God, out of righteous judgement, had to punish them. From His wrath, we can see how severe their sins were! God even forsakes them! But actually while it seems God forsook them at face value, ‘behind their backs’ He was following them the whole while. God’s love for them was steadfastly loyal 不离不弃.

The temple was destroyed and the people were taken captive to Babylon. This looked like a clear sign God had abandoned His people. God even allowed enemies to humiliate and destroy His temple! Wasn’t this a clear sign of His abandonment? But the fact was while they were in Babylon, we can see God was with them.

Throughout all this history, we can see while it seems God has abandoned them at face value, He was always following them behind.

This is the main point the psalmist wants to tell us: The love God has for us is steadfastly loyal 不离不弃. Even when He seems to have left us, it’s only for a moment.

To see God is good, we must be able to see His mercies endure forever. Then we who have committed sins will have faith and boldness to come before God to ask for His mercy and salvation.

Num 14:11-12, 20
Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word

We see God’s wrath was once again incurred.

God asked, “How long will these people reject Me?”
In other words, God was saying, “How long more will I need to endure these people?” God didn’t want to bear and be patient with them anymore. God wanted to destroy them and raise a new people from Moses to be a nation greater than they.

Even so, when Moses pleaded with God, He heeded Moses and didn’t destroy them.

Why was Moses’ words so effective? Moses was truly eloquent. Many people are eloquent, but only before men, but before God don’t want to say anything or say the wrong things. But Moses was very eloquent before God. His words convinced God to forgive the people.

We must understand why his words were so effective that God heeded then.

Num 15:17-19
And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

Moses said, “According to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

Moses’ prayer was heard by God not because Moses was a good person but because God is good. Even though the people continually committed sins from Egypt to that point, God continually forgave their sins. Moses could see this clearly. That’s why he said, “According to the greatness of Your mercy, forgive these people.”

Moses’ prayer was heard not because He could speak very well but because He spoke according to the words of God.

v17 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying
What has the Lord spoken?

v18 The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ This was the proclamation by God on mount Sinai when He revealed Himself.

Moses prayed using the words of God, and so the Lord forgave the people according to these words, because God can’t go against His own words; His own goodness and mercy. The main point of prayers is to realise God is good and His mercies endure forever. We have many weaknesses and commit many sins. But as long as we are willing to repent according to the words God spoke, He will forgive us.

Psa 106
v4-6
Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people. Oh, visit me with Your salvation, That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones, That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, That I may glory with Your inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers, We have committed iniquity, We have done wickedly.

v6 We have sinned with our fathers
The psalmist wasn’t self righteous to only accuse their fathers of sin. He says the sins were committed WITH their fathers. They may not have committed the same sin but since he had committed sin, he used ‘with’. This is because ALL need the forgiveness of God and His salvation.

v4 Oh, visit me with Your salvation

We must learn from the spirit of the psalmist to have the understanding that we have all committed sins, so we don’t only see sins committed by others but also see our own. To not just accuse others of their sins but to also realise our sins accuse us. We all need to acknowledge we have all sinned and need the forgiveness of God. We ask God to visit with His salvation.

Often when we find the path difficult, we ask God to open a way for us. Especially during this COVID period. Some have lost jobs. Some face financial pressures. These have caused unhappiness in families. Sometimes we really feel there’s no way out and it’s a dead end ahead of us. Some believers say: “If this continues, what can we do? There’s no road to walk anymore!” All this may cause us to murmur, worry and doubt.

This is also our test. God is looking at us. When we come to the Red Sea; when there is no way ahead of us, do we murmur or trust in God? Do we believe or doubt God is good and that His mercy endures forever? Do we believe God will never leave us or think that God has already left? What we think and believe will affect us and our whole family. When we think wrongly or astray, it will bring a lot of troubles and sorrow. But if we think correctly, we will be able to be like Job; able to sustain our faith. Ultimately, we will see the salvation of God coming to us. But if we are not able to persevere, when salvation comes, won’t we regret that it’s too late?

Actually what’s important for men isn’t for God to open a way for us. Even if our way is smooth and easy going, isn’t the end of the road still death? We still need to meet the judgement of God. What will you do then? What’s most important is to ask God to open the door of grace to forgive our sins and have mercy on us. We must learn from the psalmist and ask God to have mercy on, to strengthen and save us. We must believe in the great love of the Lord, come before Him, seek and rely on Him. God’s love will save us.