Psalms 104 through 106 are interesting in their comparisons. Psalm 104 is about God as the creator and provider for everything on earth. Psalm 105 is about God’s faithfulness in providing for His people Israel from going to Egypt through the wilderness and into Canaan. But then Psalm 106 turns right around and using the same stories, shows how unfaithful Israel was to this provider God!
Psalm 104 follows the days of creation found in Genesis.
1 – 4
The psalmist looks at the sky and pictures a very great God mounted on a giant chariot in the form of a thunderstorm with pillars of clouds going up, heavy rainstorms coming down along with lightning and fierce winds. It’s a great word picture. On the first day, God created light. On the second He created the heavens.
5 – 13
On the third day, God created earth and the seas. This portion of the psalm also alludes to the time of Noah and the flood when God send a deluge to cover the earth, and then promised never again to destroy the earth with water. Instead now He uses water to supply and nourish His created beings.
14 – 15
These verses talk about the efforts of man to grow livestock and crops—but it is all God providing.
16 – 18
Here he describes the wild places, full of forests and craggy cliffs where only mountain goats can find a footing. But again, they all belong to God!
19 – 23
Here the psalmist turns to the diurnal cycle of day and night, and how God created the planets on day four. He ordered it so His creation finds balance between the creatures of the day and those of the night.
24 – 26
On Day 5 God created the animals and fish in the sea. As for Leviathan—there are many opinions as to this creature’s identity. I tend to think that in this instance it may refer to whales, spouting and breeching.
27 – 30
On the sixth day He created man. The point here is that not only did God create them all, but they are all dependent on Him for food and life. God’s creation happily submits to its creator.
31 – 35
All day, every day, everyone should praise the Lord!
The psalm also serves as an argument against the worship of the sun and the natural elements, which was common in that day. Today, though we claim to be rationalists, many scientists worship nature as if it were a god. That is a mistake. We must start with God creating the heavens and the earth and then go from there.
Psalm 105
1 – 7
There are ten commands to God’s people in the first seven verses:
Give thanks
Call on His name
Proclaim His deeds
Sing to Him
Tell what He’s done
Honor Him
Rejoice in Him
Search for Him
Seek His face
10.Remember the great things He has done.
What a great to-do list for us today as well! Now the psalmist moves into detailing all the different ways we can employ these imperatives in remembering what God did for Israel:
8 – 11
God promised to Abram that He would make a great nation from him in Genesis 12:1-3, 13:16. He also promised to him the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:8).
12 – 15
Abram and his family travelled about from Ur to Haran, Canaan, and Egypt, but God did not allow them to be harmed (Genesis 12:17, 20:3-7). By the way, verses 1-15 of this psalm reoccur in 1 Chronicles 16:8-22 as David ushers the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.
16 – 25
Now we come to Genesis 37 – 50 with the story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, but then became the second in command in Egypt and rescued his family. What started out as a wonderful welcoming became slavery over time.
26 – 38
These verses detail the Exodus from Egypt under Moses—all the plagues and finally the last plague with the death of the first born, where the Egyptians begged the Israelites to leave and gave them gifts that they later used to make the Tabernacle.
39 – 41
Following the Exodus, God was a cloud by day and a fire by night as He led His people through the wilderness (Exodus 14), providing food and water when they needed it.
42 – 45
The psalmist circles back to the promise made to Abraham of the land of Canaan and how He brought them in to “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
All this occurred “so they might keep His statutes and obey His instructions.” He married Israel and simply wanted His wife to be faithful.
Note too that as believers in Jesus Christ we have been grafted into that Abrahamic covenant (Romans 10-11), which is a covenant not of obedience by law but grace by trust in God’s faithfulness.
Yet, as we see in the next psalm—during the very times when God was so faithful, Israel was not!
Psalm 106
Even as we saw how faithful God was to Israel in Psalm 105, Psalm 106 offers us a different perspective—how unfaithful God’s people were in some of the exact same situations! This psalm emphasizes repentance. This also ends Book IV of the Psalms.
1 – 5
We begin with a call to give thanks to the faithful God. God is all good all the time, and as we mirror that character we are blessed. The psalmist desires for God to remember him with that same faithfulness and salvation. He wants the joy coming to those who belong to Yahweh, but in the next verses he recognizes that Israel herself does not deserve it. He makes his case in nine different scenarios.
6 – 12 Fear: Crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 4:1, 8; Exodus 6:9; Exodus 14:11)
God performed many miracles to get them out of the slavery in Egypt, but the Israelis “did not grasp the significance” of what God was up to. When the first sign of trouble met them (Exodus 14:10) they acted as if they had never wanted to leave Egypt and complained to Moses.
Despite this, God parted the Red Sea and drowned all the Egyptians.
13 – 15 Greed: Quail (Numbers 11)
God had provided Manna for His people to eat while travelling in the wilderness. But it wasn’t enough. They demanded meat so God provided quail—so much quail that it came out of their nostrils and became nauseating (Numbers 11:20). While they were still eating it, the Lord sent a plague among them that killed many.
16 – 18 Jealousy: over Moses’ leadership (Numbers 16:1-14, 31-39)
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had had enough of Moses being the leader. They said: “You have gone too far! Everyone in the entire community is holy, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?”
They offered incense and God, in rejecting them, opened up the earth and swallowed them and their families.
19 – 23 Idolatry (Exodus 32)
God had no sooner said “I do” in a wedding ceremony on Mt Horeb than the people, led by Aaron, started worshipping a golden calf. Had Moses not intervened, God would have destroyed them right then and there.
24 – 27 Unbelief (Numbers 14)
God sent spies into the Promised Land. All of them except Joshua and Caleb said that it was too much for them to conquer. The people refused to obey the Lord and walk by faith, trusting in Him to win the battles for them.
So Yahweh determined that the entire generation would wander in the wilderness until they died. He also hints at the dispersion of Israel into other nations, which occurred much later, but was still the result of unfaithfulness to God.
28 – 31 Adultery (Numbers 25:1-9)
This followed the account of Balaam who tried to curse Israel but could only bless them. A frontal assault would not work, but enticing the nation to commit physical and spiritual adultery worked like a charm. The people started sleeping with the Moabite women and a plague killed 24,000 until Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, killed an Israelite leader and the Moabite daughter of a chief.
32 – 33 Complaining (Exodus 17:1-7)
The people got thirsty and started questioning why they’d ever left Egypt. This happened at Meribah and resulted in Moses striking the rock twice, thus making him ineligible to come personally into the Promised Land.
34 – 39 Sanctification (Exodus 34:11 Leviticus 18:21, 2Kings 16:13)
Israel made a huge mistake when they did not follow God’s instructions to destroy the people of Canaan. They became a snare to them so much so that they worshiped Molech and offered their children as live sacrifices.
40 – 46 Rebellion (Judges 2:14, Judges 3:1)
The book of Judges is almost entirely the story of a rebellious people who “did what was right in their own eyes”. God sent other nations to enslave them, then judges to rescue them, but they never learned.
47 – 48
So we see here that the psalmist is probably in Babylon, begging God to rescue them once again, despite their rebellion. He did, of course, and the people returned to Israel and did indeed praise the name of the Lord.
What’s the take-away from these psalms? Psalms 105 and 106 tell different stories. In the one we see God’s faithfulness to provide water at Meribah but in Psalm 106 we see that it was the result of complaining by the people.
How does God want us to feel about this? I would like to point us to a verse in the second letter Paul wrote to Timothy:
2Tim. 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
We will fail often. But God did not look for the best in us or amongst us.
Rom. 5:8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
Don’t think that complaining is the only way to get God to move or that rebellion is somehow okay. The Israelis suffered consequences for their rebellion. But, in the end, trust Him. Know that He has good in store for you, even if that means going through suffering. He has made a covenant with you through His Son—a covenant of love that He will not break and one in which He has provided for you by His efforts, not yours!
