Psalms 106-108
Let’s take a closer look at Psalm 106 today.
Do you pray for people who are lost and far from God, to be saved by God? In this psalm we see two people, who in the midst of a corrupt nation, pray that God would forgive them.
This psalm is a recap of the history of a rebellious nation (known as Israel) and God’s faithfulness even though they live in sin and rebel against Him.
In verse 1, the psalmist calls the people to, “praise the Lord for his steadfast love that endures forever.”
Verses 6-46 are a recap of the rebelliousness of Israel and God’s salvation and grace. Starting with verse 6 it says, “both we and our fathers have sinned.” This is an honest confession to God that all are guilty of sin.
In Verse 8, we see that God saved them for his own name sake! Did you know that God saves you and me so that His name can be glorified as the only one who can save us from our sins? It’s for God’s glory!
Verse 12 says that, “then they believed Gods words and sang praises to God.” But then verse 13 says that they soon forgot God’s works and followed their own desires in the desert. They made idols to worship (vs. 19, and 28), they forget God as their savior (vs. 21), they complained against God, (vs.25) and they even sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons (vs. 36).
Look at verses 23 and 30. There are two men that are faithful to God in the midst of this corrupt nation. It says in verse 23 that Moses (His chosen one) took in the breach before God and asked God to turn His wrath away from the nation of Israel. And in verse 30 we see Phinehas (who is Aaron’s son) who stood up and intervened and the plague was stopped.
I want us to take two things away from this psalm. One, is that we are called, like Phinehas, to stand up in the midst of a corrupt nation and pray for a lost and rebellious people! Phinehas was no one special; he wasn’t a prophet, he wasn’t “God’s chosen one” like it says about Moses. But his act of faithfulness, to stand up against a corrupt culture and pray for them, caused God to say these words about him in verse 31 “and that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.” Are you praying right now like you have never prayed before? Are you on your knees (figuratively or even literally) praying for our culture to see God’s hand and to turn and trust in him as savior? We are called as believers to pray for those who are lost that they would turn from their sin and trust in Jesus!
The second thing I want you to see, is a picture of Jesus. Moses was a prophet of God. Prophets were said to be a foreshadow of Jesus. In verse 23 it says that, “Moses his chosen one stood in the breech before God to turn away his wrath from destroying them.”
This is a picture of what Jesus has done for us! Because of our sin and rebellion against God, the Bible tells us that, “we are children of wrath” in Ephesians 2:3, but because of God’s great love for us, He sent His one and only son to stand between us and God’s wrath and take all of it on Himself!
Do you see this in this psalm? Jesus stands in the breach and intercedes on our behalf! Jesus took the punishment of our sin onto himself so that we can be set free from the consequences of sin and death!
This is why we praise the Lord like it says in verse 48! Because “he that knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that we may become the righteousness of God in him!” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
I just wish it wouldn’t take a pandemic for God’s children to be on their knees in prayer daily for the lost. I wish it didn’t take hardship and discipline for God to get our attention to turn and trust him again. I wish we would seek God in every season! That we would pray and not “forget his works” (verse 13) and turn to our idols.
Let us be a church that is faithful to pray for the lost in every season! Let us be a church that is faithful to trust, praise, and worship the one true God who stands in the breach on our behalf!