Slices
Prepare
‘You took all my shame away, there defeated my sin; opened up the gates of heav’n and have beckoned me in.’* Echo verse 48 of the psalm for all God offers us through Christ.
*Matt Redman, copyright © 1994, Thankyou
Bible passage
Praise the Lord.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures for ever.
2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord
or fully declare his praise?
3 Blessed are those who act justly,
who always do what is right.
4 Remember me, Lord, when you show favour to your people,
come to my aid when you save them,
5 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.
6 We have sinned, even as our ancestors did;
we have done wrong and acted wickedly.
7 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.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
to make his mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
he led them through the depths as through a desert.
10 He saved them from the hand of the foe;
from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.
11 The waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them survived.
12 Then they believed his promises
and sang his praise.
13 But they soon forgot what he had done
and did not wait for his plan to unfold.
14 In the desert they gave in to their craving;
in the wilderness they put God to the test.
15 So he gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
16 In the camp they grew envious of Moses
and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it buried the company of Abiram.
18 Fire blazed among their followers;
a flame consumed the wicked.
19 At Horeb they made a calf
and worshipped an idol cast from metal.
20 They exchanged their glorious God
for an image of a bull, which eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 miracles in the land of Ham
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23 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.
24 Then they despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe his promise.
25 They grumbled in their tents
and did not obey the Lord.
26 So he swore to them with uplifted hand
that he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 make their descendants fall among the nations
and scatter them throughout the lands.
28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor
and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods;
29 they aroused the Lord’s anger by their wicked deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was checked.
31 This was credited to him as righteousness
for endless generations to come.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,
and trouble came to Moses because of them;
33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
and rash words came from Moses’ lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations
and adopted their customs.
36 They worshipped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to false gods.
38 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.
39 They defiled themselves by what they did;
by their deeds they prostituted themselves.
40 Therefore the Lord was angry with his people
and abhorred his inheritance.
41 He gave them into the hands of the nations,
and their foes ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them
and subjected them to their power.
43 Many times he delivered them,
but they were bent on rebellion
and they wasted away in their sin.
44 Yet he took note of their distress
when he heard their cry;
45 for their sake he remembered his covenant
and out of his great love he relented.
46 He caused all who held them captive
to show them mercy.
47 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.
48 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Praise the Lord.
Explore
I wrote last Sunday that this and last week’s psalms are companions – but really, they’re more like two sides of the same coin. Last week’s extolled the Lord’s mighty acts for his people; this week we read, sadly, of the abject failure of the people to follow and obey.
The psalm writer openly acknowledges their sinfulness (v 6). It’s not covered up or glossed over. Some of the words and phrases used are striking: ‘gave no thought’; ‘did not remember’; ‘soon forgot’; ‘despised’; ‘grumbled’; ‘aroused the Lord’s anger’. There are more. It’s a sorry tale of forgetfulness, ingratitude and rebellion. And of course, God was rightly angered (vs 40–43).
Yet look at the Lord’s response in verses 44 to 46: ‘heard’; ‘remembered’; ‘relented’. He allowed his people to suffer the consequences of their sin, but time after time, ‘out of his great love’, they were forgiven and restored. And that cycle continued until the blood of Christ opened a new and living way – for everyone. In the new covenant, God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness are extended to all who will believe.
Respond
Pray today for anyone you know who has forgotten God, who ignores or rejects the love he has for them. Ask the Lord to walk beside them, even though they may not recognise his presence, and pray for their return to knowing his love.
Deeper Bible study
‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!”’1
The bulk of this psalm recounts the rebellion of God’s people in Egypt (v 7), in the desert (vs 13–33), in the Promised Land (vs 34–43) and in the Exile. It is from Exile that they call, ‘Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations’ (v 47). It is a long story of repeated rebellion, as the lines beginning with ‘They’ indicate. There are also lines beginning with ‘He’ – God. In this psalm, God’s love and mercy do not come to the fore: the focus is on God’s discipline for their faithlessness.
More remarkable, then, are the verses surrounding this litany of rebellion. The psalm begins and ends with a call to praise the Lord.2 Verses 1–3 celebrate God’s goodness, love and mighty acts, and pronounce a blessing on those who do what is right. Verses 4 and 5 are a personal appeal to God to save the psalmist and verse 6 is a communal confession of sin. All this contrasts with the people’s rebellion and God’s discipline throughout their history.
It is not until we reach the end that we see why the psalmist can be so confident in these opening verses. In verse 44 we find that God took note of their distress, and in verse 45 that ‘he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented’. In the Bible, when God remembers he acts. This is particularly so when he remembers his covenant. God had made a solemn commitment to be their God and they had committed to be God’s people. Despite their ongoing rebellion, God was committed to them. Therefore, they confidently pray, ‘Save us Lord our God … that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise’ (v 47).
The appeal in verse 47 is to enable them to give thanks to God. Either alone or with others, remember that God also saved you for this and respond accordingly.
1 Ps 106:48 2 Technically, verse 48 is a conclusion to the Fourth Book of Psalms (Pss 90–106), but it is also a conclusion to this psalm
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Proverbs 25,26; 1 Thessalonians 4
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for SU Hong Kong as they prepare an audio version of their Chinese Daily Bread app. They need a new group of volunteers to help in reciting, recording, and producing in both Cantonese and Mandarin.
