May 1st

Psalm 106

Failure and Faithfulness

'He brought his people out with joy,                                                 

his chosen ones with singing.                                          

He gave them land . . .                                                                 

that they might keep his statutes                                       

and observe his laws.'   

That’s the surprise ending to Psalm 105.  All of God’s saving actions on behalf of Israel were aimed at their obedience—“that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws (verse 45).” 

Rather than overwhelm the world with his glory and power, God started small in his campaign to overcome sin and save the world—with one man, one family, one little nation.  He created a “colony of obedience, an enclave of those who represented and displayed his reign.”  (James Luther Mays)

But if Psalm 105 is about the priority of God’s grace, Psalm 106 is about the perseverance of God’s grace!  Here is another telling of the story, this time with all the warts.  This is a sermon on not remembering God’s work and consequently not trusting God’s word. 

This psalm is quite astonishing in the way it begins:

Praise the Lord!
    Give thanks to the Lord because he is good,
    because his faithful love endures forever.
² Who could possibly repeat all of the Lord’s mighty acts
    or publicly recount all his praise?

³ The people who uphold justice,

who always do what is right, are truly happy!

But the tone quickly changes.  Israel is reminded of the many ways it has been disobedient to her calling.  However, this long account of the failure of the people of God can become the dominant theme of the prayer because the account of failure and faithlessness actually accentuates God's faithfulness and mercy.  God may chastise his people but God does not abandon them! 

This sermon is meant to invite gratitude, renewed faithfulness, and obedience in the present as the prelude to a transformed future.  Psalm 106 grounds the hope of a transformed future not in people’s willingness or ability to be faithful and obedient but in God’s abundant love. 

This psalm speaks to the church in any age,  In the words of Jesus, they/we are a “city set on a hill, a light set on a bushel,” so that “people may see your good works and glory your Father who is in heaven.”  Sadly, the church often fails here.

British theologian, John Goldingay tells the following story of one such failure.  Several years ago when people were 'occupying Wall Street in the U.S.A., and Bay Street in Canada, the same movement happened in his home city of London.  It involved protestors camping out at St Paul's Cathedral.  He writes, 'I was not surprised to discover that the cathedral is going to court to get the protestors removed, though I was glad to know that some cathedral staff resigned in their own protest, in the conviction that the cathedral should self-evidently be on the side of the protestors.  I share their conviction and take the cathedral's action as sadly typical of the church's capacity to shoot itself in the foot on such occasions.'

In Philippians, the apostle Pauls encourages the people of God, individually and as a community, to focus:

From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise.  (4.8)

Our psalmist's answer to the question that moves this sermon 'Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or declare all his praise?'  is clear: the community that remembers the past - both human failure and God's steadfast love - and who seeks to live faithully at all times.

NOTE:  This ends Book 4 of the Psalter; Book 5 - psalms 107 to 150 will bring it to conclusion.