Psalm 106:1-12 NKJV
106 Praise the Lord!
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?
Who can declare all His praise?
3 Blessed are those who keep justice,
And he who does righteousness at all times!
4 Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people.
Oh, visit me with Your salvation,
5 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.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,
We have committed iniquity,
We have done wickedly.
7 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.
8 Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,
That He might make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up;
So He led them through the depths,
As through the wilderness.
10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 The waters covered their enemies;
There was not one of them left.
12 Then they believed His words;
Throughout this psalm the Holy Spirit records Israel’s unfaithfulness in the wilderness. His goal is to teach God’s people in every age to see Israel’s sins in themselves so that they ask God to remember them in mercy and visit them with His salvation. This should lead us to confess with the psalmist, “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly” (6).
The first sin the psalmist recalls is Israel’s rebellion at the Red Sea. Forgetting how the Lord had brought Pharaoh and all Egypt to submission with the ten plagues, Israel rebelled when they doubted God’s mercy and said, “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Ex 14:12). The suggestion that life under Pharaoh was better than life under the Lord’s leadership was the height of unbelief. Yet, the Lord saved them for His name’s sake. He dried up the Rea Sea and led them through it safely. He saved them from Pharoah by covering his army so that not one of Israel’s enemies were left. Seeing so great a salvation, “Then they believed His words; They sang His praise” (12).
The Holy Spirit teaches us to recognize Israel’s rebellion in our own hearts. Do we fail to remember the multitude of God’s mercies toward us? Do we look at our current trials and hardships and forget Paul’s words, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Ro 8:32). Do we imagine that life would be better if we were not under God’s leadership, forgetting that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us?” (Ro 8:18). Like Israel at the banks of the Red Sea, we are tempted to forget what God has done for us in Christ and what He has promised He will do for those who place their trust in Him. These temptations should lead us to pray with the psalmist that God would remember us in mercy.
Let us pray: Remember us in Your mercy, O Lord, and teach us to see the benefit of Your chosen ones, so that we rejoice in gladness of being Your people and glory with those whom You have called to be Your inheritance. Amen.