October 9: Psalm 106

Psalm 106

Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise? 3 Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right. 4 Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them, 5 that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise. 6 We have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

7 When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea. 8 Yet he saved them for his name's sake, to make his mighty power known. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert. 10 He saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them. 11 The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived. 12 Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.
13 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. 14 In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. 15 So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them. 16 In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the LORD. 17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram. 18 Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked. 19 At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. 20 They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. 21 They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. 23 So he said he would destroy them-- had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them. 24 Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. 25 They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD. 26 So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, 27 make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. 28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; 29 they provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. 31 This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come. 32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; 33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses' lips. 34 They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, 35 but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. 36 They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. 38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. 39 They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. 40 Therefore the LORD was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. 41 He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.

44 But he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; 45 for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented. 46 He caused them to be pitied by all who held them captive. 47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 48 Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, "Amen!" Praise the LORD.

The way in…

Have you ever felt forgotten? My mom was often late, but never this late. Football practice had ended at 5:00 after which I’d sat and watched friend after friend get picked up by their parents. Finally, it was down to Aaron Godfrey (who was almost always the last one picked up) and me. When even Aaron’s dad showed up before my mom, I began to wonder if something was wrong. Five, ten, fifteen minutes and with each passing minute my frustration grew. Finally, I decided to ‘take matters into my own hands’ and I started to walk.

Have you ever felt forgotten? If so, then you can identify with our Psalmist this morning and not only him, but his community. “Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them…” Remember me, O Lord… Why would the Psalmist feel forgotten? To find the answer to that, we have to jump all the way to the end of the Psalm where we read an echo of the opening request, “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations…” So, why did the Psalmist feel forgotten? Because he and his people were spread out, away from their home, feeling abandoned in other countries. Do you ever feel forgotten?

Leadership

I am not a person who’s too big on leadership seminars. They often seem like get rich quick schemes. However, early in my time here at Manitou I was invited to attend one at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church. I went with a fair amount of skepticism, more enticed by the free lunch than anything. And yet, for some reason, I still remember the facilitator’s definition of leadership. After having us create a list of leaders that ranged from Mother Theresa to Adolf Hitler, he stepped back and asked people what it was about these people that made them effective leaders. We named various things such as charisma, intelligence and passion. After which he offered his assessment. The brilliance of each of these people was not in getting the people to attempt to be like him or her and it was not even in getting the people to follow them through the flames and to the goal. Rather, what made these folks effective leaders was their ability to ‘help the people name and confront their collective challenge.’ Leaders help the people name and confront their challenge. Well, if such is the case, then our psalmist is a leader.

In his opening prayer we hear the challenge named, we feel forgotten because we are scattered throughout the nations. In this case, naming the challenge was the easy part, confronting it would prove a bit more difficult and that is what he spends the next 40 verses doing and wastes no time doing so.

“We have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.” Alright then. You have to appreciate how the Psalmist wastes no time getting to the point. He doesn’t mince words. Okay God, I’ll just say it up front, we, like our ancestors have messed up. I’ve realized from my kids, how much time I spend avoiding saying these words. Well, you see, yes there are markings on the wall, but I was just holding the pen and I didn’t know the wall was there and… is it almost dinner time? Benjamin hasn’t yet reached this stage, he is more like the Psalmist. He fesses up right from the start. I came home yesterday and Erin encouraged me to look at the paper towels where I brand new roll had been pulled completely out. Benjamin, what happened here? Without batting his eye and no remorse he replied, “I pulled it out.” And like my youngest son, the Psalmist gets it out there from the start, “We have sinned…” But she doesn’t an interesting thing, she doesn’t stop with herself and her own people. No, she points back to her ancestors. “We have sinned, even as our fathers did.” And just how did they sin? That is what the Psalmist spends the next 30 something verses recounting, the ways Israel had messed up and oh were they many.

By the Red Sea, in the desert when they were thirsty, in the camp when they didn’t trust the leadership, at Horeb where they built the golden calf, on the edge of the Promised Land when we didn’t believe God would protect us, by the waters of Meribah and even when we entered the Promised Land our sinning did not stop. You’ve heard of greatest hits albums. Psalm 106 is like a bands “worst hits album.” Imagine trying to sell that? You know all the good songs by this band, but what about the horrible ones? Now, for only $19.95 you can too can own Israel’s worst hits. No one would buy that, yet here is the Psalmist pointing back to all of their failed moments. Why? Why is he doing this? Perhaps there is something in these failings that might help them meet their current challenge. Let’s look at the first.

By the Red Sea

‘When our Fathers were in Egypt…’ The Psalmist goes all the way back to Egypt, which is a good place to start. You may remember Egypt as the place where Joseph settled his brothers after they’d tried to sell him. This family grew and grew over the years until they became so large that the Pharaoh decided to make them slaves and that was their status for almost 400 years; slaves in Egypt. But God heard their groaning and their cries and raised up a liberator for them named Moses who, reluctantly and with the aid of his brother Aaron and a few plagues, led the people out of Egypt to the edge of the Red Sea. Well, it just so happened that right behind them came the Egyptian army who’d had a change of heart. And right in front of them was this sea, for which they had no boats. Talk about challenges, this was a heck of one to start with. And what did the people do? We find the account in Exodus 14 where we read, “The people were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ’Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to sere the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” One thing I love about the Bible is its affinity for sarcasm. Can’t you just hear the people saying in a good Brooklyn accent, “Ehh, Moshea, what the graves in Egypt weren’t good enough you bring us out here to die?” Now, given their situation, water on one side, army on the other, I can’t say I blame them for their fear. But no so the Psalmist, no this is his first example of a people not facing their challenge faithfully. And what does he point to as the source of their sin? Three things.

“When our fathers were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your steadfast love, and the rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.” They gave no thought to God’s miracles, what one might call impossibilities. They did not remember God’s steadfast love, his hesed and so, they rebelled. So, in short, they didn’t think and they had a poor memory. Am I alone or does this cause anyone else to be a little nervous? Let’s start with the first.

No thought to miracles

My Old Testament professor, Walter Breuggemann translated this word ‘miracles’ as ‘impossibilities.’ I like that. It gets to the core of what a miracle is, something that is not possible…according to human standards. Certainly the Israelites felt themselves to be in an impossible situation; army on one side, water on the other. What the Psalmist is saying here, is that there first mistake was in failing to think, to give thought, to have meditated upon the impossibilities God had already done. Well, what were those?

Let’s start in the beginning where there was only darkness into which God brought the impossible; light and then the heavens and then the land which produced vegetation and on and on it went. God creating the possible out of the impossible. In the great flood, God told Noah to build a boat who all mocked as ridiculous, impossible in its worth, yet it saved humanity from destruction. And to make things more personal, when Abraham and Sarah were elderly and close to death, God too Sarah and made placed a child in her ancient womb, the impossible made possible. These things and many more, God had done yet it had been so long since the people thought about them. To be fair, they had been enslaved for 400 years.

Did not remember your hesed

Not only did the people give no thought to God’s impossibilities, but they also had poor memories for ‘…they did not remember your steadfast love.’ The NIV translates this as ‘many kindnesses’ which is okay, but it loses its connection with all the other times this word is mentioned, which just so happens to be all over the place. In fact, it is right there in the first verse. “Praise the LORD, give thanks to the LORd, for he is good; and his steadfast love endures forever.” The Hebrew word here is hesed which is the word used to describe the love that God offers humanity irrespective of our behavior. God’s love remains through thick and thin, in fact as the Psalmist reminds us, it endures forever. We got a reminder of this love last week in Romans 8, do you remember that? No? Uh oh, you don’t remember God’s steadfast love from last week, you’re in good company because such was the case with the Israelites. And this is why it is so important for us to gather, so that we can remind one another of God’s steadfast love, that Paul reminded the Romans of when he asked, “What can separate us from the love of God? He goes on to list a number of things before he stops and says, “No, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all cration can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It is when we forget this love, brothers and sisters, that we get in danger. The Israelites had forgotten, they needed to be reminded that neither army nor seas will separate us from the love of God. But, at the time they did not and so what did they do? The got bitter.

Rebellion by the Sea

Actually, the NIV says they rebelled, but I took a look at this word rebelled which is ‘marah.’ You may remember the book of Ruth, in which Naomi loses her husband and her sons to death. In grief, she changes her name to Marah, which means bitter. And this is what happens when we fail to meditate on God’s miracles and remember his love, we get bitter. You know this stage, right?

I remember my friend Gary’s wedding rehearsal dinner. Gary knew I was preparing to be a Presbyterian minister and so he introduced me to his uncle Hugh who had just retired from the ministry. Gary introduced us and informed him of my plans, to which Hugh replied, “My condolences.” At first I thought he was joking, but as it turns out, he was not. The conversation didn’t last long after which Gary sort of chuckled and said, “Yeah, I think he’s a little bitter about a few things.”

Bitterness causes everything we eat to taste sour and if our mouths aren’t cleaned out, it can ruin everything. This was the place the Israelites were, there, at the edge of the Red Sea. How about us?

Us

Where do you find yourself this morning? What challenges are before you? Do you feel as if Pharaoh’s army is behind you and the Red Sea in front of you? Do you feel forgotten in some way? Do you find yourself in what seems to be an impossible situation? There is no way out of this debt. There is no way this person will ever quit using. There is no way this marriage will ever be saved. There is no way this denomination will keep from splitting. There is just no way. Do you find yourself between an army and the Red Sea? If so, listen to what happens, think about it, remember it.

Despite their thoughts, despite their poor memory and despite their bitterness, the Psalmist writes, “…yet he saved them…he rebuked the Red Sea…he led them through…he saved them…the waters covered their adversaries…” Even when we are faithless, God is faithful. And just like that, their mouths were cleaned of all bitterness. They believed God’s promises and sang his praise.

The way out…

I walked for about a mile which wouldn’t have been too bad if not for the fact I was wearing football cleats. As I passed A&J’s gas station a large white 1975 Chevy Impala pulled up beside me. It was my mother. I got in and slammed the door and folded my arms. “Where were you?” “I’m sorry I was late, one of the kids parents didn’t come until late.” And then there was a pause. “Honey, I’m sometimes late, but you know I always show up.” And I knew in that moment that I was the one in the wrong. Mom was right, she always showed up, even if it seemed late to me. Had I only remembered this, it would’ve saved me some sweat, some blisters and a whole lot of bitterness.