Today we have back-to-back psalms of praise that call us to consider the things God has done. 106 is all about Israel’s history with Yahweh while 107 is more general and maybe even a little prophetic in scope.
Let’s see what treasures we can find. 💎
PSALM 106
First word: Hallelujah. Whenever you see “Praise the Lord” in the text that is the Hebrew word Hallelujah.
Did you know that there are two universal words that are pronounced the same in every language? One is Hallelujah. It is the universal word of praise to Yahweh. If you ever find yourself among Christians in another country and you do not speak the language, Hallelujah is a word we can all understand.
🤔 What’s the other word that everyone pronounces the same way?
Oh… Coca Cola. 🥤
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Psalm 106 is a history review as the psalmist considers how bad Israel has a been and how faithful and merciful Yahweh has been. The outline goeth thusly:
- Praise & Petition, v1-6
- Exodus, v7-12
- Wilderness, v13-33
- Judges, v34-46
- Petition & Praise, v47-48
There are 3 things I’d like to drill down into.
“He saved them for His name’s sake,” v8.
Let’s not get any silly ideas about humanity being so cute and adorable that God simply overlooks sin because He’s like some desperate lover in the sky who can’t live without us. 🙄 Pu-leeze… (And if any worship song-writers ever see this – can we please stop implying or outright saying this kind of mess in worship songs? Run down to Walmart and pick ya up some Biblical Theology before writing worship songs for the Church cuz you fresh out.)
The Creator needs nothing outside Himself to maintain existence or experience completion. He is eternally whole. He doesn’t save people because He needs us. He saves people because He is good and He wants to share Himself with His creation.
“Then they believed his words; they sang his praise,” v12.
As a worship leader I can tell you that this is spot-on. People might sing in church, but they don’t really praise until “they believe His words.”
I remember doing this as an exercise with a congregation once. I think we used the song Our God by Chris Tomlin. We sang it. It was ok. Then we took some time to really remember personal times where God met us, how He saved us from sin, how he answered prayer. We talked about some key lyrics in the song and what they meant and how we could connect our personal praise and testimony to them. It was an exercise that stirred our faith together. Then we sang the song again and y’all, it was a WHOLE different experience. There were tears. There was intensity. There was PRAISE.
If you want to light up your worship time, you have to engage your brain.
Meditate on the Word of God and His faithfulness. Think about how His Word has proved true for you and others you know. Think about where you’d be if not for God’s mercy.
Faith doesn’t arise from feelings. Faith comes by hearing (obedient listening) the Word of God.
- Hear the Lord
- Think & connect it to your experience
- Feelings will follow
Verse 13 connects forgetting God’s works and becoming impatient for God to act. The implication is people just going and doing what they wanted in rebellion. Why? They stopped thinking and remembering.
I try really hard to not be judgy while leading worship. But I can tell ya that the people who are bored with worship – their brains? The lights are off and everyone’s gone to bed. You will not emote yourself into the presence of the Living God. But you can faith yourself there IF you get your brain engaged.
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“They also attached themselves to Baal of Peor, and they ate sacrifices offered to the dead,” v28.
Remember how we’ve talked about the connection of idolatry and the Fallen Angels of Genesis 6 and their offspring, the Nephilim, who perished in the Flood? This is yet another detail that shows the practice of dead ancestor worship. And this eating of a sacrificial fellowship meal is a way of tying them to the god Baal. It’s a perverted parody of holy communion – which is also a sacrificial fellowship meal that unites the recipient to our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Look what Miriam-Webster online said about the origin of the word “companion,” –
The word “companion” comes from the Latin “companio,” which means “one who eats with another,” derived from “com-” meaning “with” and “panis,” meaning “bread.” This reflects the original idea of companionship as sharing meals together.
The sharing of meals is a fundamental act of building unity. It’s important who you eat bread with. 🥖
PSALM 107
This psalm has a fascinating structure. If I transposed it into modern worship song structure it would look like this….
If you’re not a musician that reads charts, here’s your Glossary of Terms:
Intro and Outro are musical hooks that often mirror one another and set the tone for the song, V means verse, Pre-cho means pre-chorus which is usually a short transition into the chorus. A turn is a short musical interlude with a repeated or extended idea from the intro, the chorus, or both. A bridge is new musical material with triumphant or powerful lyric content that builds on concepts already introduced.
Ok. Everybody ready? 😁 1…2… 1..2..3..4..
Intro (v1)
V1 (v2-5) / Pre-cho (v6-7) / Chorus (v8)
Turn (v9)
V2 (v10-12) / Pre-cho (v13-14) / Chorus (v15)
Turn (v16)
V3 (v17-18) / Pre-cho (v19-20) / Chorus (v21)
Turn (v22)
V4 (v23-27) / Pre-cho (v28-30) / Chorus (v31)
Turn (v32)
Bridge 1a (v33-34)
Bridge 2 (v35-38)
Bridge 1b (v39-41)
Outro (v42-43)
Each part also has a clear content structure.
- Intro/Outro: Respond to God’s works
- Verse: Bad things happening
- Pre-chorus: Cry out, the Lord resecues
- Chorus: “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men!”
- Turn: Praise Him because…
- Bridge: God does xyz
There are several types of people groups in this psalm. Let’s look at them.
- The Wanderers (v2-9)
- Yahweh gives direction and a home
- The Rebels (v10-16)
- Yahweh gives true freedom
- The Fools (v17-22)
- Yahweh gives healing from their self-inflicted stupidity-wounds
- The Seafarers (v23-32)
- Yahweh gives calm and safe harbor
- I also think this is prophetic of Jesus calming the stormy sea in the Gospels.
- The Righteous & Wise Observers (v42-43)
- Their observation causes them to rejoice and ponder the hesed (loving-merciful-kindness) of Yahweh.
“The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth.”
Psalms 107:42 LEB
Observing the merciful acts of God causes the righteous to rejoice and it shuts up the God-haters. The anti-God people online always harp on the texts that record violence or infringe on the rights of women and such. They never want to talk about the texts where God displays His mercy- where He would’ve been completely justified in destroying people, and didn’t. They never mention those. They can’t. It would disprove their assertion that “God is a monster.” The mercy of God does indeed shut the mouth of wickedness.
I think many of us may struggle to really rest in the loving-kindness of the LORD. It doesn’t make a lot of earthly sense. We’re used to being transactional. And His hesed isn’t transactional. We don’t earn it.
Being worthy was never a factor in God’s love for you.
This psalm invites us to observe and ponder God’s enduring mercies:
“Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.” Psalm 107:43 ESV
Just like Psalm 133 from yesterday, this is another one that feels like it should end with President Trump’s “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
😏If you put that on a shirt, I bet it would sell.
😎 I bet you’re right.
To The Reader 