and sang his praise.
But they soon forgot what he had done
and did not wait for his plan to unfold. (Psalm 106:12-13)
This Psalm starts with a simple and profound “Praise the Lord.” The psalmist then goes on to tell of the history of the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt and beyond. We read of the mighty miracles that God performed for them to extract them from this land of misery – the plagues on Pharoah, parting the sea, destroying their enemies, pillars of fire – and wonder how they could have so quickly forgotten their Lord.
When God was fellowshipping with their leader Moses, the people got bored and decided to make and worship a golden calf. It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? We would never do that, would we? Maybe not a statue of a cow, but we do worship gold/money or another human, expecting them to protect and save us, when only God can do that.
At Horeb they made a calf
and worshiped an idol cast from metal.
They exchanged their glorious God
for an image of a bull, which eats grass. (Psalm 106:19-20)
The people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even got so twisted up that they sacrificed their own children – the greatest blessing we can have - on the altar and in the fires of Baal. We would never do that, would we? Maybe not, but we do sacrifice our children on the altar of selfishness and political correctness – we call it our ‘right’ to kill these precious children after, through our own selfishness, we procreated and gave them life.
They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to false gods.
They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters (Psalm 106:37-38a)
Are we really more advanced than they were? It seems that we just call the same old evil gods by different names. But even when we commit the most egregious sins, we can come to our senses and cry out to our Lord, and He will show mercy – oh, what a merciful God we serve!
Yet he took note of their distress
when he heard their cry (Psalm 106:44)
#LoveMatters