Psalm 106 might be one of the most complex and nuanced psalms in the book of Psalms, so much so that I hardly know where to begin. Certainly, by the way in which I concluded my comments on Psalm 105, I believe it’s the final piece in a progression of psalms leading to a better understanding of God’s nature and works. And as such, it asks us to remember God’s great mercy in the face of Israel’s great rebellion. Yet, Psalm 106 is much more than a recollection of those themes.
Psalm 106 causes us to remember Psalm 89, the concluding chapter of Book III which is, I believe, a collection of psalms written during the time following when Israel had placed their hope in earthly kings. While Psalm 72, the last psalm in Book II, is a prayer written about Solomon, the King in whom David placed his hope, the whole of Book III bemoans the fact that the wicked people seem to have won the day. Book III, filled with songs longing for God’s return to his people, culminates with God seemingly abandoning his covenant and withholding his steadfast love but Book IV, in Psalm 106, concludes with a prayer for God to remember his covenant and gather his people. But there is more to Psalm 106.
Psalm 106 also serves as a transition between Book IV and Book V. Book IV ends with Psalm 106’s appeal for God to gather the people of Israel who have become captives and have been scattered throughout the nations. But Book V begins in Psalm 107 by telling how God has gathered his people from the four corners of the earth, (I know I’m jumping ahead, but this is important to see. We will discuss this in more detail when we get to Psalm 107 next time.) But this is still not all: there is yet more to Psalm 106. If we pay close attention we might just see a strong connection between Psalm 106 and the book of Romans.
Note, if you will, the major points of Psalm 106 and the order in which they come. First, since it is talking about the Jews, we already know them as the people to whom God had chosen to reveal himself. Secondly, even though they knew God they still chose to rebel. And even though God’s power was obviously on display during the ten plagues in Egypt, they rejected God and fabricated an idol. Notice specifically, if you will, the words in Psalm 106:20, “They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.”
Take a closer look at Romans 1 and you will find that God has made himself known to the world through his physical creation. While this revelation is plain to all, they chose to ignore him and, according to Romans 1:23, they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Just as the Jews did after leaving Egypt, all of humanity, when confronted with God’s revelation, chooses to worship something else, usually a fabrication of our hands molded in the image of something we have seen in creation.
Returning to Psalm 106 and looking at verses 14, 27, and 41, we find that God gave the Israelites over to their passions and their enemies. And if this sounds familiar, it’s because you read something very much like it in Romans 1:24, 26, and 28 where God gave the Gentiles up to their own sinful desires. God clearly, whether in Psalms 106 or Romans 1, tires of man’s constant rebellion so he gives us up to what we seem to want: our own sinful passions.
But the similarities do not stop here. The last couple of verses of Psalm 106 begs God to remember his covenant and his steadfast love so that he would overcome Israel’s enemies and finally gather his people to him, a claim which the psalmist says will result in praise. Jumping back to Romans we find that even though Romans 1 does not end with God’s covenant, the rest of the book, from chapter 2 to chapter 11, explains God’s work of mercy and how he overcomes our real enemies, sin and death, so as to bring us back into proper communion with him.
Finally, Psalm 106 ends with the psalmist praising the God of Israel for all he has done. In like manner, Romans chapter 12 to chapter 16 tells how we should live our lives praise God for the work he has done to redeem us.
You might recall that I ended the last entry on Psalm 105 with the words “but we must remember more.” What Psalm 106 tells us is that we must remember the pathways of those who have gone before us and how they persisted in their sin. We are told to remember that even though they rejected him at every turn, God’s love was ever present. We are told to remember how God allowed his people, both Jews and Gentiles, to be given over to the object of their desire, and we are told to remember how this resulted in receiving some quite awful consequences. But, we are also told to remember how God’s love prevails over our enemies, stays his hand of justice, and brings us back to him. Yes, we are told to remember these things so that we will not repeat the sins of our fathers and fall into gross idolatry. But even if we do, we must remember that God’s steadfast love is always there waiting to redeem us from our sins.
