Psalms 105 & 106 - Praise God for Both His Power & Enduring Love

As we come to the close of Book 4 in the Psalms, we have a beautiful tag-team history lesson in Psalms 105 & 106.  These combine to bring praise, honor, and blessing to the Lord for the way He has acted in the past with an awareness of these traits being His ongoing character as well.  In Psalm 105, we see a gracious theme of His Great Power in the midst of Israel’s weakness.  Then, with both a contrasting and complimentary reflection, in Psalm 106, God’s merciful, enduring love is displayed throughout Israel’s repeated rebellious decisions.

Truly, we should “give thanks to,”  “sing to,” “glory in,” and “praise” the Lord as we consider the way He has shown Himself powerful and enduringly loving on our behalf.  As ones who have the privilege to hold the Scriptures in our hands we can enjoy multiplied rejoicing.  We can retrace the history of the Israelites, walking through how God’s power was displayed through the call of Abraham, the entire Exodus series of events, and the conquering of nations both while wandering and once entering the promise land.  Their victories were clearly not due to their own power, but directly from the Lord.  We can also rejoice as we see early in Psalm 105, their own recognition of their praise and proclamation of these works being a present tense activity.  In addition, we have our own past, whether we are looking back to the cross and the resurrection, where Christ powerfully conquered our sin debt and the grave, or times in our own life where we have seen His work.  We also recognize that this power is still His character and draws our praise, glory and awe.  

I would much rather leave the human activity of Psalm 106 in the past, but am ever so delighted that His enduring love … endures.  Psalm 106, openly lays out several blatant rebellious times when Israel went against the Lord’s will for them.  It is actually a little hard to read, especially after enjoying so much identification with Psalm 105.  Now, as I read Psalm 106, I find myself shrinking into my seat more and more.  I want you to see, first, that this is a good response, seeing that their and our rebellions are wrong, unacceptable, and shameful.  However, the beautiful nature and focus of the Psalm is not the rebellion, but rather the wonder of God’s glorious everlasting lovingkindness.   The better we can get an appropriate view of our rebellion, the greater our, “Praise the Lord!” for His continued merciful involvement in our lives.

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”