Salvation History
Notes
Transcript
History
History
Psalm 106:1-
Introduction: Watershed, continental divide, oceans, there are multiple watershed points. At the end you can zoom out and trace back and get to the source. In the moment you might not realize what path the water is going. Likewise with “watershed moments” in our life, it’s upon reflection that we can look back.
Psalm 106
Psalm 106
Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise?
Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.
Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them,
that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise.
We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.
Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known.
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 foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.
The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived.
Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.
But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.
In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test.
So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.
In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram.
Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked.
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.
They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,
miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
So he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.
Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise.
They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord.
So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.
They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked.
This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.
By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord, and trouble came to Moses because of them;
for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses’ lips.
They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,
but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.
They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods.
They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.
They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.
Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance.
He gave them into the hands of the nations, and their foes ruled over them.
Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power.
Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.
Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry;
for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented.
He caused all who held them captive to show them mercy.
Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord.
Verse 47 is instrumental in understanding this psalm. Verse 47 tells us that psalm was written most likely in Babylon.
-It helps if we know a little bit of the history of Israel, but if you don’t, that’s OK, we’re going to walk through it together.
-One of the Major watershed moments in the history of israel was when God allowed the Babylonians to come in and destroy the city ofJerusalem and haul the israelites off into captivity. That was in 597 BC.
-597 BC is one of those historical moments. It’s like December 7th 1941. or September 11 2001.
-597 BC was the tipping point.
So the nation of israel is in Babylon. They’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost their livelyhoods. Snatched up from their homes and over 600 miles away.
600 miles in the year 597 BC you might as well be on another planet.
Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise? Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right. Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them, that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise.
In a lot of ways this is a praise psalm. In a lot of ways it’s a lament.
-More than that, this is what you would call a salvation history psalm. Or simply a History psalm.
It’s a reflection, it’s a psalmist at a particular point in time, and he’s looking back on the entire history of the nation of israel, and he’s trying to figure out what went wrong toget them to this point.
And verse 6 really just hits it right on the head
We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
As an aside I want you to notice how the psalmist says “We” here.
-This isn’t an exercise in finger pointing. They have sinned, our ancestors sinned.
-This is full inclusion here. We, collectively have sinned.
The psalmist is repenting for things that he wasn’t even alive for. He’s taking the full weight of the history of the sins of Irasel, and not saying “they” did this, he’s saying “we” did this, and I am a part of we.
-When’s the last time you prayed to God and asked for forgiveness for something someone else did?
-We live in a culture that is rooted in individualism. I’m responsible for me, you’re responsible for you.
but the bible, both old testament and new, often talks about the community as a whole. We rise together, and we fall together.
But he says “We” have sinned, and then he starts to go back and identify those watershed moments.
When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.
This is from the book of Exodus here.
And what you’ll notice is that when the psalmist goes back, he goes back to a rather benign sin.
Think about what the Israelite did at the red sea. At that watershed moment all they really did was was act out of fear.
-I’m not saying that it’s good, but.
- in the grand scheme of things, and as we go along in the psalm, this one’s rather benign. They got scared. They had seen how powerful God was, they made it down to the red sea, they turned around and saw pharaoh’s armies, and they fogot God because they were afraid.
Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known.
God acts in the lives of the nation of israel anyway, depsite their unwillingness to trust Him.
In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.
This is from the book of Numbers. The israelites weren’t content with the manna the bread from heaven that God was sending down. and they complained and asked for meat.
So God sends them meat, but they end up suffering a plague because of it.
So their fear, and unwillingness to trust God turns into ingrattitude.
-they don’t like what God has provided. And God says OK, you want meat, I’ll give you meat.
-And he gives them what they ask for, and it comes around to bite them.
In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord. The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram.
Now their fear leads to ingrattitude, and their ingrattitude leads to envy. To greed.
The sins of the nation of israel are starting to compound.
And I bet in the moment the israelites felt justified. In the moment they felt like, who the heck is this moses guy, why does he get all the authority. What’s so special about him?
and I bet in the moment, when God punished the israelites they probably wondered why God had acted so harshly.
-God is able to see the entire watershed happening. God is punishing them, desperately trying to convince them to choose the right path.
But God allows them to choose.
At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal.
fear, and an uwillingness to trust god led to ingratitude, which led to envy and greed, which led to a full on rejection of the God who had saved them, and idolatry.
It’s compounding interest on sin.
And it says Moses “stood in the breach” before them.
This is a military metaphor. If you’re in a walled city and the enemy is attacking through the gate, that means there is only one entrypoint.
The psalmist here describes moses as standing in the doorway between God and the descruction of israel and standing before God saying punish me instead. taking the sins and punishment of the people he was sent to lead.
But it didn’t stop there.
God relents, and he gives them the land, and they “despised the pleasant land”
what started out as simple fear and uwillingness to trust god has now escalated to all out despising the good things God has given them.
So God punishes them again, and says if your’e going to despise what I have to give you, then I’m not going to give it to you.
-There’s times where I’ll buy my kids icecream and they’ll say “I didn’t want chocolate, I wanted vanilla”
and I say cool, don’t eat it. If you despise chocolate ice cream that much, I’ll eat it.
But that didn’t stop it. The snowball of sin continued.
Again and again they rebelled against God, they disobeyed God,
and each time it got worse and worse and worse.
And then you get to the ultimate watershed moment.
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.
They sacrificed their sons and daughters.
I honestly have a hard time understanding how you get to that point.
-Any time there’s a horrific event, or someone does something on the news that’s just unfathomable, I always have this moment where I think to myself , how does a person get to that point.
-Last week in Gering, I’m not sure if you followed the news or not, but last week in Gering there was a gentleman who ended up in a hostage situation with the police right in town in Gering.
He was speeding through town and the police tried to pull him over for a traffic stop. Apparently the man had warrants. And so he raced through town, crashed his car into the side of a house. Fired shots at the police, and then baricaded himself inside the house with three hostages for over 24 hours.
And this was right by the school.
-So they had to lock down all of the schools, they had to cancel school the next day.
Police had to work extensive shifts, they brought in Federal agents to negotiate.
He put the lives of children in danger, he put an entire community on high alert.
-And stuff like that always makes me think , how does a person get to that point. How does a person get to the point where that’s the option?
And the truth is, you don’t get there overnight.
people don’t just wake up one morning and decide to get into a shootout with the FBI.
people don’t just wake up one morning and decide to rob a bank.
People don’t just wake up one morning and decide to commit infanticide.
but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
-The little sins that we give in to give way for bigger and bigger sins.
-I’m not trying to scare anyone or shame anyone, that’s not my goal here.
-My goal is for us to zoom all the way out on this watershed map and trace back exactly how they got to his point.
-and the way they got to that point is simply one sin at a time.
-Let’s be clear here. Does that mean that every single little sin that we give into will lead to bigger and bigger sins, not neccecarily.
-but what I am saying is that virtually all “big” sins started out as small ones.
-anybody ever pulled weeds? or sprayed for weeds in the garden?
-When’s the best time to pull weeds? is it early in the spring when they’re tiny? or is it late in the summer when the weeds are big enough you could hang a tire swing from them?
-and the terrifying part of all of it. is that you and I are just as capable of going down that path as they were.
-There’s a reason why all sin is equal in the sense that the wages of all sin is death.
-and that’s because of this compounding cascading effect that sin has on our life.
-We have sins that we know are wrong, but in the moment we think yeah but it’s not that big of a deal.
-It’s not so bad. It’s not that terrible.
-It’s not like I’m performing child sacrifices or anything.
-God knows. God sees the big picture of everything. He sees the snowball effect.
-In God’s eyes the benign sin of not trusting him when your’e afraid, God looks at that and says I know where this train is headed.
-I know exactly where this train is headed.
-My mother in law has a saying that she likes to say.
And that’s that your entire life boiled down, distilled down, your entire life is a series of choices.
-Every second of every day, every breath you breath, every movement you make, when you boil it all down is simply a series of choices.
-this road, or that road. left or right.
-and almost every situation you’re in you can probably look back and trace back the choices that get you there.
-do we always have perfect knowledge to make the perfect choice every single time? of course not. Much like the israelites at the red sea.
-Did they have perfect knowledge? no. Would people say they were maybe a little bit justified in being afraid of the massive egyptian army rolling down the hill at them? yeah. In that moment, yes.
-We can look back in hindsight and say wow they shouldn’t have been afraid. but in the moment we can at least say, yeah, I can understand how that choice was made.
-But what we can do, is constantly seek the choices that bring us closer to God.
-Because then at least the aggregation of all of our choices are leading us closer to God and farther from Babylon.
-We can do that, even if we don’t have perfect knowledge and don’t make perfect choices, we can at least choose the path that is in the general direction of a relationship with God.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
We can choose God.
Because just like the sins add up and compound interest, and snowball.
-Our choices of obedience do the same thing.
-and what happens is the aggregation of choices that you make toward obedience to God help to transform you into the type of person who makes the right choice more often than not.
-and the only reason this is possible is because we have a mediator who stood in the breach.
-Remember moses, standing in the gap, standing the doorway between the israelites and death, and offering himself up.
-We have that in Christ.
If you look at this psalm, you’ll see that there are 7 different sins that the israelites commited. That’s not an accident, 7 is a very symbolic number , it represents completeness. In this case it’s the completeness ofthe sins of israel.
-And you might have heard me say this before, but in hebrew literature, one of the ways taht they expres that something is important is that they put in the middle.
-So in this case we can think of the psalm like climbing up a mountain, where the sins get progressively worse and worse til you get to the one in the middle. And the one in the middle is like the peak, it’s the ultimate watershed moment. Past this point it’s just going to be a snowball rolling down hill.
-And if you count the sins, the fourth one, the one right in the middle is the worshipping of the golden calf.
-Rejecting God, and serving Idols.
But notice that’s also the sin where Moses stands in the breach.
He offers to take on the punishment of God for the sake of God’s people.
-God sees the watershed moments for the entirety of history.
-God sees what happens after that point of no retrun.
And right in the middle of it, he took on flesh.
-He dwelt among us.
He stood in the breach between us and death. and he took on the sins of the world.
] Xerxes and his barbarians attacked, but Leonidas and his Greeks, knowing they were going to their deaths, advanced now much farther than before into the wider part of the pass. In all the previous days they had sallied out into the narrow way and fought there, guarding the defensive wall. [3] Now, however, they joined battle outside the narrows and many of the barbarians fell, … Since the Greeks knew that they must die at the hands of those who had come around the mountain, they displayed the greatest strength they had against the barbarians, fighting recklessly and desperately. [224] [1] By this time most of them had had their spears broken and were killing the Persians with swords….The battle went on until the men with Epialtes arrived. [2] When the Greeks saw that they had come, the contest turned, for they retired to the narrow part of the way, passed behind the wall, and took their position crowded together on the hill… In that place they defended themselves with swords, if they still had them, and with hands and teeth. The barbarians buried them with missiles, some attacking from the front and throwing down the defensive wall, others surrounding them on all sides….There is an inscription written over these men, who were buried where they fell,[1]Foreigner, go tell the Spartans that we lie here obedient to their commands[2]