Today we will finish our chats
on Psalm 106. We need to remember that this psalm is a summary of the history of
Israel written by an anonymous writer after their captivity in Babylon. It was
to encourage the current generation of Jews to trust the LORD and live for Him
by reminding them that when their forefathers obeyed God and lived by His
commandments and His Word they were blessed and enjoyed His protection, prosperity,
peace, and security. But when they forgot God and disobeyed His Word, they were
chastened, afflicted, and became slaves and servants to surrounding enemy
nations.
What is true of Israel and its
history is also true of any nation. “The wicked shall be cast into hell and
all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). According to 1 Corinthians
10, this history lesson for the Jewish nation can also be applied to our own
individual lives and families, and even to our churches. If we love and obey
the Lord, we will be blessed with His presence and His peace, despite what
might be going on around us! But if we disobey Him and His Word, we will face
His discipline and be chastened and afflicted so that we might repent and return
back to Him.
I believe that verses 41-44 refer
to the events of the book of Judges when the Israelites would disobey God, and begin
to practice evil like the nations around them, and God would allow the
surrounding enemy nations to afflict them and make them servants in their own
land. This was repeated over and over again, but each time when they cried out
to God for help, He would send a judge who would deliver them.
But in verses 45-47, the psalmist also reminded
them that in His covenant, the Lord warned that if Israel continued to resist
and disobey, even after experiencing His chastening, He would take them out of
their land and scatter them. Leviticus 26:27-39 spells this out specifically:
“And
after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also
will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times
for your sins…. I will scatter you among the nations and draw
out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." This warning is repeated in Deuteronomy 28:48-68.
This happened first, when the kingdom was
divided between the ten tribes of Israel (the northern kingdom) and the two
tribes of Benjamin and Judah (the southern kingdom). Then In 722 BC., the
Assyrians captured Israel and absorbed the ten tribes into their own empire.
But in 606-586 B.C., the Babylonians invaded Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and the
temple, and took the best of the people captive to Babylon. The Jewish people
were rooted out of their own "beautiful land" and scattered among the
nations. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that they would be in
captivity in Babylon for 70 years.
The Medes and Persians conquered Babylon in 539
B.C. and the next year Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return to their land.
However, the Davidic dynasty was not restored in their kingdom. The psalmist
closed with a prayer that the scattered children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
would one day be gathered together so that they might worship Jehovah and give
glory to His name. This will be ultimately fulfilled at the Second Coming of Jesus
at the end of the Seven-Year Tribulation and Jesus sits on the throne of David
in Jerusalem and reigns with Israel and the Church over all the earth for a
thousand years!
The psalmist closes this psalm
with a prayer. “Save us, O LORD our God”. But not just so that we will
feel better, but that “we might give thanks to His holy name and to triumph
in His praise.” Also note, verse 48 closes the fourth book of Psalms, and
does so with the characteristic doxology which marks the close of the other
four books.
May the Lord help us all to
learn and take heed to this great history lesson in Psalm 106!
God bless!
