Covenant Breakers

Covenant Breakers

Palm 106

Psalm 105 exalted God as the great covenant keeper. I mentioned on Wednesday night that Psalms 105 & 106 go together. Psalm 105 shows the faithfulness of God. Psalm 106 shows the unfaithfulness of man. This Psalm, for the most part, documents the sins of Israel from her time in Egypt until her captivity. Interestingly the Psalm begins with Israel in bondage and ends with them in bondage again. Sin always leads to bondage.

1. The Introduction (1-5).

A call to worship (1-3).

Praise the Lord!

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

This is the most important thing for the sinner to remember. Do not forget God in your sin! He is our only hope.

Notice how good God is:

He is so good one cannot utter how good He is! (2).

He has done so many good things no one could list them all (2).

When you think of the goodness of God don’t forget His love (1). It endured forever. The devil would have the sinner forget that God loves them. If we forget that we will never seek God’s forgiveness.

In verses 4-5 he gets personal.

Remember me.

Help me.

This Psalm was probably written during the Babylonian captivity. The Psalmist wanted to be among those whom the Lord delivered.

Notice the faith of the Psalmist- “when You save them.” Not “if” but “when”.

He wants to:

Look upon the prosperity of Your chosen ones.

Rejoice in the gladness of Your nation.

Glory with Your inheritance.

This is a sign of a true believer. It’s not about me. It’s about God. It’s about God’s people. His desire was not to be a lone ranger in some desert for God. His desire was to be a part of the chosen people that would glory in God.

When you think of your relationship with God do you think of God’s people? In salvation God does not just bring us to himself. God brings us together.

2.There are eight different episodes of sin listed.

They represent three different time periods of Israel: The Exodus, the wilderness, and the Promised Land.

A. Sins during the exodus (6-12).

Before we look at this notice something. The writer includes his sins with the sins of his fathers.

We have sinned

We have committed iniquity

We have done wickedness

Remember, he is in captivity. The nation was taken into captivity because of its sin. His point is he and his generation have repeated the sins of their ancestors. Therefore, they are reaping the same consequences.

Now let’s look at the sins.

“they rebelled by the Red Sea”.

Two errors they made:

1)They did not consider the wondrous love of God. They doubted God’s love.

As soon as Israel faced resistance from Pharaoh, they doubted God and Moses. They accused Moses of bringing them to the desert to kill them. They wanted to go back to Egypt (Exodus 14).

2) They did not consider the wondrous works of God (7).

God had struck Egypt with ten plagues. They had no reason to doubt God. He had proven Himself ten times already.

Even though they rebelled at the Red Sea God delivered them. Notice verse 12.

“then they believed His words and sang His praise.” They are sinning in chapter 14 and singing in chapter 15. This is a reminder for us. We should not have to wait and see before we obey and worship God. We should trust God. God has given us His Word. That should be enough.

B. Sins in the wilderness (13-33).

1) Complaining about food (13-15).

The specific incident seems to be found in Numbers 11. The people complained about their food. They wanted to go back to Egypt because they said the food was better. They demanded meat. God sent them more quail than they could even eat. While they were chewing it the Lord sent a plague among them and many died.

This sin was committed because “they forgot His works, they did not wait for His counsel.”

They forgot that God had provided for them already.

They were too impatient.

2) The rebellion of Korah (16-18).

Many of the people did not want Moses to be the leader any longer. They were jealous of Moses. I don’t know why. The man had a hard job. I’m sure if the Lord had allowed it he would have given it up quickly. Numbers 16 records the story. Interestingly Korah is not mentioned her. His accomplices are: Dathan and Abiram. Those who rebelled against Moses and sought to take the priesthood for themselves were killed by fire and others b y the earth opening up and swallowing them.

3) The sin of idolatry (19-23).

When Moses was on the mountain communing with God the people of Israel grew weary waiting for him to return. They told Aaron to make them gods to worship. They wanted a god like they had in Egypt. They gave Aaron some of their gold and he crafted a calf out of it.

Notice it says they exchanged the glory of God for an animal that eats grass. This is foolish! In Egypt one of their many gods was worshipped in the form of a bull. They are showing allegiance to the gods of Egypt and breaking allegiance to the God of glory.

They forgot what God did in Egypt- the plagues.

They forgot the Lord split the Red Sea.

The Lord was about to take them all out. Moses prayed for them. Moses was their mediator. Because Moses begged for mercy the Lord spared the people.

4) The sin of unbelief (24-27).

When Israel initially cam to the brink of the Promised Land they were too afraid to enter it. They said the people were too strong and large. They doubted God.

They murmured in their tents.

They did not obey the voice of God.

There were two who believed they could take the land. But no one wanted to listen to Joshua and Caleb.

God made a judgment o the people. No one in the generation over 20 years old would enter the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb would be the only exceptions. For forty years they would wander in the wilderness.

There is another judgment in verse 27. This refers to the exile and dispersion of the Jews. Even the descendants of these people would reap the consequences of their ancestors’ decisions.

5) The sin of being unequally yoked (28-31).

Numbers 25 records this incident. Israelite men began to cohabit with Moabite women. They also began to worship their gods. The Baal of Peor was a Moabite god. A plague fell upon the people killing 24,000 Jewish people. Outraged by this sin one of Aaron’s grandsons, Phineas, took drastic measures. He killed a Jewish man and Moabite woman who were flaunting themselves in front of the people. They engaged in immorality at the door of the Tent of Meeting. The Bible says Phineas took a spear and it pierced both at the same time, implying they were engaged in an unbelievable action at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

The plague was stopped, and Phineas was rewarded by God with a priesthood for himself and his descendants.

6) The sin at Meribah (32-33).

Numbers 20:1-13 records an event that forever changed Moses’ life. The people were complaining about not having water.

We wished we had died in Egypt!

Why did you bring us to the wilderness?

Why did you bring us to this evil place?

Moses prayed. The Lord told him to speak to the rock and water would flow.

It appears Moses was having a bad day. He said :

‘hear now you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”

Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock. God gave the people water. But the Lord had harsh words for Moses. He told him he would not enter the Promised Land.

I’m not giving Moses any slack. He was wrong. He paid the price. But notice what the text says. It says, “they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.”

They provoked him to sin. It was still his fault, but they played a part too. Don’t provoke people to sin. Don’t poke them. Don’t push them.

C. Sin in the Promised Land (34-39).

The Lord told them to destroy the ungodly nations. They didn’t. As a result they began to mix with them. They worshipped their gods. They married them.

They even engaged in child sacrifice. Notice it says they sacrificed their children to demons. Behind every false god is a demon. You can’t see it, but its there.

3. The exile (40-43).

God eventually had enough. He let the Assyrians take the Northern kingdom. He let the Babylonians take the Southern kingdom. The people who ruled over them showed them little mercy. They hated them.

They oppressed them.

They brought them into subjection.

There were times in Israel’s history when God delivered them. Read the book of Judges and you will see this. Even when God delivered them, they returned to their sin. God brought them low because of their sin.

This is where the Psalmist sat when he penned this Psalm. A slave in a foreign land. He was far away from his land. The sins of himself and his people brought him to this place.

4. The mercy of God (44-48).

“Nevertheless” What a wonderful word!

He looked upon their distress. We are never out of God’s sight.

He heard their cry. They prayed. Repentance is implied.

He remembered His covenant. Not that He forgot it. The language is used to show that God is going to continue with the actions He has promised to complete.

He relented- He turned His wrath away.

He caused them to be pitied by those who held them captive. When the Persians overtook Babylon God gave Israel mercy in his sight. He allowed them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it (Ezra 1).

The Psalmist knows that God is merciful. This is why he prays. Look at the prayer in verse 47.

Save us

Gather us from among the nations

For what purpose?

That we may give thanks to Your Holy Name and glory in your praise.

This is the purpose of our salvation. Rejoice in God. Give Him glory.

We have gone though a sin list this evening. It was ugly. What about my sin list? What about yours? When we think of all God has forgiven us of we should praise God.

Look at how the Psalm ends:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting!

It says “Let all the people say Amen!”

Praise the Lord.

This Psalm ends with excitement.

This is the last Psalm I what is called book four of the Psalms. This section of Psalms ends fittingly.

Sinners saved by God’s grace should praise Him. The believer should look to the cross daily. We should see our ugly sin and then look to the beautiful cross. Through Christ we have forgiveness.

We are covenant breakers. God is a covenant keeper. Thank God He let’s us come back to Himself.