How Quickly We Forget

in Psalm 106. Psalm 106. We concluded Psalm 105

last week. Psalm 106. We've gotten to some longer

psalms, way more than we could cover in a night.

Especially, we probably are going to be pretty

slow getting through Psalm 106. It's a lot of

passages that are referenced in there that we'll

probably go back and revisit some of those stories

as we get to them. But tonight we're going to

get a pretty good chunk. We're going to try to

get through 13 verses. This is likely a Psalm

of David. At least the beginning words of it

are words that are written by David. And so it's

possible he wrote the whole thing. It's possible

somebody else wrote parts of it. We really don't

know for sure. It doesn't matter too much. We

can understand what's going on regardless of

who wrote it. The last psalm we looked at was

a psalm that really talked about God's faithfulness.

Psalm 105 talked about how God was faithful to

fulfill the promises that he had made to his

people, that he promised to bless Abraham, and

he did, and he created the nation of Israel,

and he promised to take them into the... a land

that was their own, and he did. And he was faithful

to bring them out of Egypt. He provided for them

in the famine. And even when they got in Egypt

and things got tough, he was faithful to deliver

them. And so Psalm 105 tells us about the faithfulness

of God. And then when we shift to Psalm 106,

it's kind of just the opposite. It tells us about

the unfaithfulness of God's people. and that's

what we're going to see a little bit of tonight.

So let's pray, and then we'll get started. God,

we come to you. We thank you for your good word,

and I pray that we would get something from it,

that you would help us not to be worried or distracted

thinking about things of the world, but just

for a few moments we can think about you. I pray

that you'd hide me behind the cross, that I'd

preach and teach in a way that brings glory and

honor to you, that this word would be a word

that calls us to praise you. that causes us to

examine our own life, dear Lord, that maybe we

can learn something from the Israelites, dear

Lord, that we're not much better than they are.

And I pray, God, that we might see areas where

we're not trusting you and praising you as we

should and maybe start trusting you a little

more. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, this psalm starts off very similar

to Psalm 105. It starts off with words of praise.

Verse 1, Psalm 106, verse 1. Hallelujah, give

Psalms 106:1

thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His faithful

love endures forever. Who can declare the Lord's

mighty acts or proclaim all the praise due his

name? How happy are those who uphold justice,

who practice righteousness. At all times. Okay,

so we're Pretty basic praise language here. Praise

the Lord, he's good. That's what the psalm is

telling us. Again, that's the same thing we saw

at the beginning of Psalm 105. It's something

that we see plenty of people do throughout Scripture,

but it's a good reminder for us that we need

to praise the Lord. Life gets hard, it gets stressful,

things are really difficult, and sometime in

the midst of our struggles and our pains and

all the stuff that we're up against in this world,

Sometimes we forget to praise the Lord, but we

need to remember to do that, that even when things

are tough, God's worthy of our praise. Continuing

on in verse 4, Remember me, Lord, when you show

favor to your people. Come to me with your salvation,

so that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen

ones. Rejoice in the joy of your nation, and

boast about your heritage. Okay, a call to remembrance.

Lord, remember me. Remember me, Lord. We want

to remember the Lord to praise him. But there

are plenty of times that we ask the Lord to remember

us. Show me favor, Lord. Let me experience your

salvation. That's a good prayer. That's a prayer

that we all need. Okay, God, don't forget me.

I cannot do anything without you. I need your

strength, God. I'm doomed without you. I need

you to come to my rescue. I need you to be my

salvation. Just good language of, God, I want

to remember you, and God, I want to ask you that

you remember me. All right? Verse 6. Both we

and our fathers have sinned. We have done wrong

and have acted wickedly. Okay, so now we see

a shift. We see a praise of God, a call to God,

hey, remember me, be my salvation. And why is

that? Well, because we sin. And that's what's

being acknowledged in the psalm. He says, look,

I've sinned, we've sinned. As a nation, Israel

has sinned. The ones that came before us sinned.

And we've done all kinds of wrongs. And so here's

the problem that we have too. That we pray to

God, we praise God, but we have to come to God

because we are sinners. We're not deserving of

God's grace. And we have to acknowledge our sin.

And that's exactly what the psalmist does here.

He acknowledges not just his sin, but really

the sin of the nation as a whole. That he acknowledges,

look, God, I know we have not done right by you.

And not just once or twice, but time and again,

over a long period of time. Now, I believe that

that's true of plenty of nations throughout the

world. There are plenty of nations in this world.

How many of them seek to serve the Lord and live

according to his will? Well, not many. Maybe

at one point we would say the United States did,

but I don't even know that we can say that now.

There's a lot of people in this country that

don't seek the Lord, that don't seek his will,

that don't care about his word in the least.

And so when we pray not only over our sins, perhaps

this is a good reminder for us to pray over the

sins of our land. that God would have mercy on

us because Lord knows we are deserving of God's

wrath. And if God pulled out and said, hey, I'm

going to take any protection or blessing off

of you, then he'd be right to do so. And we see

occasion in Scripture where he does that. And

perhaps he will do that one day. He's been good

to us. He's blessed us as a nation. But how long

will God continue to bless us when we continue

to promote sin and celebrate sin? I don't know

the answer to that question. Here in this psalm,

the psalmist recognizes not only that he was

a sinner, but that the people were a sinner.

And this is nothing new, that God's people had

sinned for a long time before him and will continue

to sin for a long time after. But he calls out

and he acknowledges that sin. God, we've sinned

against you. And I believe that we could all

agree that... that that's the case for us here.

And not just us. I mean, there's plenty of nations

in the world that sinned against God. But I believe

any people that would call out to God, wherever

they are, that if they would call out to God

and seek Him, that they would experience His

blessings. Because when you take God out of everything,

there's no good that's going to come from it.

Because God is good, and when God is removed,

all that's left is the bad. But any people, no

matter how small or how large, that would seek

God and call out to Him, You instantly experience

the blessings of God. When you seek his wisdom

and you begin to live according to his ways,

then life gets better. We could probably all

acknowledge that in our own life. When we're

living in obedience to God, man, our life's going

better. We feel better. Things just work better.

And when we start living for ourself and living

in disobedience, things are not good. Our relationships

aren't good. Our attitude's not good. The things

we do aren't good. And so all that's a result

of disobedience. And we see plenty of that, not

only in our own lives sometimes, but we see it

in our nation. And Lord willing, maybe there'll

be a change. That should be our prayer, that

God will pour out His Spirit on us, that there'd

be a revival in the land, that people in this

country would realize, hey, what we need more

than anything is God. Verse 7. Our fathers in

Egypt did not grasp, Isn't that something? He

says that my descendants came before me. They

didn't understand the wonderful works of God.

They didn't appreciate all that God had done.

God had come in, and he had delivered them and

provided for them, and he had taken care of them

in every way, and they failed to realize that.

But what does it say in verse 8? Yet he saved

them because of his name to make his power known.

Now, we see that when God is bringing punishment

on the Egyptians, he says, look. I'm doing this

so that you'll know me, so that everybody will

know me, so that his own people would know him,

so the people of Egypt would know he is God.

All those plagues he sent, it should have been

abundantly clear to the Egyptians and to the

people of God that he was God. And you would

think, after seeing such amazing things with

their own eyes, that they would have been like,

holy smokes, whatever this God says, I ain't

questioning him. But they didn't. They failed

to really appreciate the wonders of his works.

But even still, God was faithful. Now, God was

ready after he delivered them out. They made

the golden calf. He was ready to wipe them out.

And Moses says, hold up, God. Have patience with

them. Don't wipe them out or else the other nations

will see you and they'll say, well, what kind

of God is this that brought them out just to

destroy them? And so God showed restraint and

didn't give them the punishment that they deserved.

And praise the Lord that He's a God of restraint.

That He doesn't give us the punishment that we

deserve. Because we're no better. Because we've

experienced the works of God. We've seen His

wonderful grace and we've seen how He's worked

in our life. And sometimes we too, we just, we

kind of think, we don't appreciate it, we don't

think much about it, we don't celebrate it. We

praise Him today and then tomorrow, the next

day's troubles comes and we quickly... Forget

about God, and that's exactly what Israel did,

and that's what we do too sometimes. Verse 9.

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up. He led

them through the depths as through a desert.

He saved them from the hand of the adversary.

He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

Water covered their foes. Not one of them remained.

That had to have been a marvelous sight for them

to have experienced. Now, they had already seen

God do a lot of stuff while they were in Egypt.

I mean, those plagues, that was no joke. And

that God was able to protect them and deliver

them, that was pretty phenomenal. But then a

whole group of people, possibly a couple of million,

it would have been a lot at this point in time.

We don't know the exact number, but you have

a lot of people that are standing there in front

of a sea. And they're trapped. There is nowhere

for them to go. They have been enslaved all these

years. They finally get away from their enemy

only to have their backs against the wall. Egyptians

coming toward them on one side. The Red Sea is

in front of them on the other side. There's really

no hope for them except for God, who does a miraculous

thing. He parts the Red Sea so that they cross

on dry land. Now, how God did that, it's a...

It's a miracle. It's unexplainable. I've seen

people before say, oh, maybe he did this, and

maybe he sent this wind, and maybe he sent that.

Well, I don't know that there's any ordinary

explanation that God would have been able to

dry up a sea rather quickly and there be dry

ground to cross on. But yet that's the power

of God, and the people of God got to witness

that. They got to witness that. That's pretty

phenomenal. that they got to see that, and they

walked through the Red Sea on dry land, and as

their enemies chased them, and they got into

the Red Sea, as Israel was coming out of the

other side, and God released the waters, and

they covered up their enemies, boom, his people

were delivered just that quick. That's a phenomenal

thing for somebody to experience. And so what

did they do? What we see when we go back and

read in Exodus, I believe chapter 15, that there's

a song of praise, that they are praising the

Lord. Listen to what it says we see in the next

verse, verse 12. Then they believed his promises

and sang his praise. Well, praise the Lord. Shouldn't

we do that? When we have seen the Lord work and

experienced how he loves us and has given us

grace and we see even miracles today, maybe not

see his part, but I believe we see God heal people

and I believe we see God work and work things

together in ways that we just know that it's

God looking out for us. And shouldn't we rejoice

and praise the Lord? And that's exactly what

they do. What a beautiful example. I believe

it's in verse 21 that they are praising the Lord

in Exodus chapter 15. And then you go and you

Exodus 15 · chapter mention

flip down to verse 24. And guess what they're

doing by verse 23 verses. They just saw him part

a sea. And then they say, we ain't got no water

to drink. I don't know what we're going to do.

Now they should have just said, hey, we just

saw God part a red sea. We ain't got no water,

but it doesn't matter. Well, he probably got

some Coca -Colas over there for us under a rock.

Whatever it is, we're not going to worry. But

instead, they complain because I don't know what

we're going to do now. We was in Egypt. Things

were really good. Now look at us. We're over

this sea. We ain't got nothing to drink. And

they're praising God one minute, and it doesn't

take very long, and they start to complain. And

we see that shift here in this passage too in

verse 12. Then they believed his promises and

sang his praise. And then what's the next verse

say? They soon forgot his works and would not

wait for his counsel. Now, holy smokes. Now,

we look at that and we think about what they

did and we laugh and it would be funny if we

didn't do the same thing. But the fact of the

matter is, are we not guilty of that sometimes?

Maybe we are. Maybe we sang God's praises today.

And then something happens in our life tomorrow

and all of a sudden we start fretting. Like we

just, we get amnesia. Like we get, we get like

blessing amnesia. Like we forget how much God

has blessed us and all of a sudden it's like,

I don't know what I'm going to do. And we got

a lifetime full of ways that God has delivered

us. But oh how quickly we forget. And that's

exactly what God's people Israel did. It says

that they soon forgot his works. and would not

wait on his counsel. They were so impatient.

Moses goes up the mountain. They say, where's

he at? He's not coming back. Well, I guess we

need to make a god. Boom. Get all their gold

jewelry. They make a gold calf. They say, here

it is. This is the god that brought us out of

Egypt. Oh, really? Well, where was that gold

calf when the water split? He was non -existent.

And how quickly they got impatient because God

wasn't doing things the way that they wanted

him to do it. You read through the story of them

as they come out of Egypt. Well, they ain't got

water to drink. Well, they get tired of the food

that they're eating. Oh, Moses is taking too

long on the mountain. Everything. We want it

now. We want it now. We want it now. We want

it now. And see, we think that's the result of

having smartphones and fast internet that we

just get used to having and wanting everything

now. But they didn't have a single smartphone

or a single internet. And guess what? They were

impatient and didn't want to wait on anything.

And we need to learn from that. Because maybe

we say, I do the same thing. Okay, well, it's

good for us to acknowledge that. But we don't

ever want to be okay with that. We want to look

at this and we want to say, okay, I need you

to check me, dear Lord. I need you to look at

my heart. I need you to help me to look at my

heart and at my actions. And God, if that's in

my life, I don't want to be that way. And help

me to remember. And I think that's why stories

like this and psalms like this are good. It's

just a reminder of past events that we can learn

from, good or bad sometimes in the Bible. It's

a reminder sometimes of good things that God

has praised for and then a reminder of bad things

that God's people do. And that's what we see

here is that they too quickly forgot of God's

power, of his work, and they didn't wait for

his counsel. Now maybe there's... Just that one

little thing right there, that one little last

part of that verse, that might be enough for

us to chew on this week and really think about.

Like, is there something going on in our life

right now that maybe we need to wait on the counsel

of the Lord? It seems like every decision in

my life, it's like you've got to make it right

now. This deal's not going to be here if you

don't get it now, if you don't do this thing

now. The decision has to be made today. It's

like... So many decisions in our life, we feel

like they have to be right now, and maybe sometimes

they do. But maybe sometimes we just need to

say, okay, have I sought the counsel of the Lord

in this? And we really don't want to do that

because sometimes it takes a while. Because we

like to just say, okay, God, should I do X, Y,

and Z? Amen. And we want within five seconds

God to say, Yes or no. Like either one, we just

want to know. But it usually doesn't work that

quick. It's usually some waiting, some seeking

of the Lord's counsel. And God's people, Israel,

didn't do that. They didn't wait on the counsel

of the Lord. Instead, they did it their way.

And doing it our way usually fails. I will say

it always fails, I suppose. So maybe today we

need to pause for a second and we need to say,

okay, even in these first few verses, we have

some great reminders here, some great example

here to praise the Lord, to seek His forgiveness

in our life and seek His mercy for us as a people,

for us to recall the ways that He's worked in

our life and for us not to be so quick to forget

those ways but to continue to seek His counsel

in everything. Let's pray. God, we come to you.

We thank you for your word. I pray that you would

help us to listen to this word and take it to

heart, dear Lord, that we would live by it. We

thank you today, dear Lord, that we can praise

you, that you are worthy of our praise, dear

Lord, that you have blessed us and taken care

of us in so many ways. And the greatest way is

through Jesus Christ, that you've sent Jesus

Christ to... Be our Savior to die on the cross

for the forgiveness of our sins, dear Lord, that

we can have grace and we can have mercy. And

that alone, dear Lord, is worthy of praise. But

dear Lord, you do so much more. Not only do you

give us salvation for eternity, but you just,

you bless us in so many ways in this life and

you take care of us and I pray that you help

us not to miss those ways and to praise you in

those ways and not to be quick to forget how

you've worked and what you've done. And God,

help us to be patient and to wait on your counsel.

And that's hard to do, dear Lord. And I pray

that you'd help me to do that and help each one

of us to do that. And I ask these things in Jesus'

name. Amen.