Years ago when I was a seminary student, I was given some tickets to a Texas Rangers baseball game. I checked the newspaper and was pleasantly surprised to see Nolan Ryan would be pitching.
I still remember our tiny daughters cheering in their sweet little voices for “Olan” Ryan. As the game progressed, it was evident something special was happening. The visitors had no runs and no hits.
By the sixth inning, the crowd stood for every pitch Ryan made. By the eighth inning, every strike was wildly celebrated. In the ninth inning, outs were greeted with thunderous accolades. Finally the last out came and Nolan Ryan had successfully completed his seventh no-hitter. The crowd was ecstatic. I treasure the memory of being in a place where a unique piece of sports history was made.
Memory of great events is the core distinctive of Psalms 105 and 106. The word “remember” is the key feature that drives the message and content of both psalms. This word occurs three times in each psalm. The psalms are laid out similarly, each with three subsections, yet making strikingly contrasting messages.
Together these two psalms want us to remember God’s tremendous faithfulness which contrasts with our regretful lack of faithfulness. God’s faithfulness never is more profoundly understood than when it is contrasted with the unfaithfulness of his people.
One of the great moments in a life walk with Christ occurs when one returns to the Lord after a sinful lapse to find not a vindictive Lord, but a remarkably forgiving and faithful Lord. We have heard about the Lord’s forgiveness, and we have read about it, but personally experiencing the Lord’s faithfulness is priceless. In such a moment hallelujahs gush forth from a grateful heart.
Jeremiah wrote about such an occasion in Lamentations 3:22-23: “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
God is faithful! The psalms echo this message, including Psalms 105 and 106. These two are companion psalms, each written in contrast to the other. Psalm 105 celebrates the grand faithfulness of the Lord. Psalm 106 confesses the unfaithfulness of God’s people amid a prayer for salvation. Together, these psalms have much to teach us about our relationship with the Lord.
The outlines of these psalms are as follows: Psalm 105—A call to remember to worship the Lord of wonders (vv. 1-6); a litany of the wonders the Lord performed while remembering his covenant (vv. 7-41); a restatement that the Lord has remembered ais promise (vv. 42-45). Psalm 106—A plea that the Lord remember the worshipper (vv.1-5); a confession of a people who did not remember the Lord’s kindness (vv. 6-46); a renewed plea that the Lord save his people (47-48).
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The first section of Psalm 105 delivers a call to worship the Lord. Note the several commands in verses 1 through 6 which indicate several elements of worship. Giving thanks and singing praise are common elements of worship. The other elements of worship enjoined in this section will help the believer to stretch their worship experience. Calling on the Lord’s name (v. 1) is the core activity of seeking the Lord for salvation (Joel 2:32) and is the central worshipful practice of God’s people.
Making the Lord known among the nations extends the believer’s worship into the world and makes evangelism an act of worship. The telling of God’s wonderful acts (v. 2) foreshadows the lengthy middle of the psalm. To glory in and rejoice in the name of the Lord (v. 3) after reciting the Lord’s great acts, especially those specifically related to salvation, raises worship to a level that emulates to a degree the type of worship expressed in heaven (Revelation 15:3-4).
Notice the three “seeking” words in verses 3 and 4. A believer must seek the Lord “always.” This continual seeking is the preventative for the error confessed in Psalm 106—instead of continually seeking the Lord, they did not remember his many kindnesses (v. 7).
The high act of worship in this psalm is the remembering of the Lord’s wondrous acts of kindness. Remembering must become an important part of worship. Recounting the Lord’s gracious acts in one’s life makes the Lord’s work personal and alive for the worshipper.
One of the great exercises every serious believer should do is to mimic the middle section of this psalm by compiling a list of grand acts the Lord has performed in one’s life. Take the time to notice the Lord’s movement in your life.
The “judgments” of verse 5 are not merely court actions, but are the Lord’s decisions declared in his personal action in the lives of his people. The second section of Psalm 105 recounts these actions.
The prose story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is found in the books of Moses. The elements of this story will be familiar to any student of the Bible. The psalm recounts numerous stories where God’s faithfulness to his covenant was demonstrated. The psalm writer did not mean to be brief. The force of numerous examples bears out the point that God is repeatedly and perfectly faithful to his people. Because of his covenant with Israel, God performed one great wonder after another to bring his people out of Egypt and give them a homeland in Canaan. God’s activity is portrayed against a backdrop of harsh circumstances. God ably navigated these circumstances to keep his word to his people.
The third section of Psalm 105 summarizes the lengthy middle section by re-emphasizing that the Lord remembered his promise to Abraham and thus to Israel. The purpose of all God’s wondrous activity is to establish his people in their own land so that they may obey his laws. This thought concludes Psalm 105 but also foreshadows the error confessed in Psalm 106.
Whereas Psalm 105 calls the believer to worship because the Lord has been faithful to his covenant promise in every way, Psalm 106 confesses that the Lord’s people have been contrastingly unfaithful in their covenant with God because they have not remembered the great wonders he performed among them. The catalogue of marvelous wonders in Psalm 105 have been ignored.
The first section of Psalm 106 also calls the believer to worship, echoing the thanks enjoined in Psalm 105 by using an opening stanza repeated in Psalms 107 and 136.
Verse 2, perhaps reflecting back to Psalm 105, and certainly anticipating the coming confession, asks rhetorically how all of God’s acts can be recited so they may be fully acknowledged. The point is God’s wonderful activity for his people is too massive to recite in full. Yet the paradoxical counterpoint is that God’s people have been lacking in acknowledging and remembering God’s activity among them. Current believers certainly need to made aware of this tendency so that they may take the appropriate steps to counter it in their lives.
Verse 3 declares the principle of conduct that governs God’s actions and likewise must saturate those of his people: maintaining justice and constantly doing right. God will be blessed by those who worship him, but his people will be found stumbling in this area.
The wording of verse 4 hauntingly parallels the words of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42: “Remember me Jesus, when you come into your kingdom”). The thief’s words and the words here are both pleas for salvation. This is the first of the three occurrences of “remember” in Psalm 106.
Verse 4 is a request for favor, just as the thief asked for, and is equivalent to a request for salvation and pardon. Such a request is an essential component of repentance. Repentance is to be a regular part of the believer’s walk with Christ and is therefore an appropriate element of worship. The three-fold reason for the request is given in verse 5.
Section two of Psalm 106 opens with a confession in verse 6. Confession, too, is an important part of worship and an essential part of one’s walk with the Lord. Two major aspects are included in the psalm writer’s confession: admission of individual guilt in the order of the fathers’ wickedness, and the admission of solidarity and participation in the corporate guilt of the nation. This latter point is not clear until verse 47.
The sinful actions confessed in the lengthy second section which parallels the lengthy middle section of Psalm 105 by listing numerous behaviors contradictory to the Lord’s faithfulness.
Verse 7 begins the list of confession by explaining that no thought was given to the Lord’s miracles in Egypt. The word “remember” occurs again to establish the character of Israel’s sin from the days of the exodus from Egypt down to the days of their oppression by numerous nations. Israel failed to remember and learn from the multitude of God’s acts of kindness toward them.
Now is understood the importance of remembering the Lord’s great activities as Psalm 105 has done. Equally important is identifying one’s own lack of “remembering.” Remembering the Lord’s great activities in one’s life greatly helps a person see the Lord’s work and interest in one’s life. Likewise remembering the notable places of error in one’s life where one should have been responding correctly to God’s activity is equally instructive.
The point is not to perpetuate feelings of guilt, or loss, or despair, but to instruct the believer in how to examine and confess their shortcomings and thereby see the Lord’s faithfulness extend to them through his forgiveness. Take time to notice your own places of resistance to God’s work and presence in your life. Then confess those errors of judgment and discover the Lord’s gracious response!
A long litany of sinful actions on the part of Israel, God’s covenant people are listed. Verse 45 declares the Lord again remembered his covenant with Israel. This memory prompts the Lord to act toward Israel on the basis of his love and relent from punishing the nation.
In view of the implied promise of grace and hope, section three opens with an appeal for salvation. Because God is perfectly faithful to his covenant with his people, he will also save his people so they may return to covenant living. Such a thought issues forth in more worship which includes thanks, glorification, and praise that extends to everlasting.
May we study out the Lord’s faithfulness in our lives. Let us follow the pattern of these two psalms to remember and state the Lord’s great work in our lives despite our colossal and repeated failures in faith. In the end may we be found remembering our Lord so that we may follow him always.
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