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Psalm 106 (ESV)

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

⁶ Both we and our fathers have sinned;
we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.
⁷ Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
⁸ Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
that he might make known his mighty power.
⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry,
and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
¹⁰ So he saved them from the hand of the foe
and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.
¹¹ And the waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them was left.
¹² Then they believed his words;
they sang his praise.

¹³ But they soon forgot his works;
they did not wait for his counsel.
¹⁴ But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness,
and put God to the test in the desert;
¹⁵ he gave them what they asked,
but sent a wasting disease among them.

¹⁶ When men in the camp were jealous of Moses
and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,
¹⁷ the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
¹⁸ Fire also broke out in their company;
the flame burned up the wicked.

¹⁹ They made a calf in Horeb
and worshiped a metal image.
²⁰ They exchanged the glory of God
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
²¹ They forgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,
²² wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
²³ Therefore he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him,
to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

REFLECTION:

1. While Psalm 105 stressed God’s faithfulness to the nation, this psalm both confesses Israel’s blatant failure to trust God, and proclaims God’s compassion. Even though God’s people proved unfaithful to Him, He remained faithful to them because of His covenant promises.
2. Prayers of confession such as this one, a deliberate remembering, help us to maintain a realistic knowledge of our vulnerability and the need for total dependence on God’s grace. They remind us that God is faithful—even though His people have not been—and thus they encourage faithfulness in us.
3. Invite the Holy Spirit to search your heart and bring to mind things that you need to confess. Bring them one by one to God and ask for His forgiveness. And commit yourself once again to trust and obey God in all things.

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

HYMN:

Give Thanks to the Lord – www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRWCCbN7yJw