“Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story…” – Psalm 107:2
My reading for today took me through Psalm 106-110, and Proverbs 22. Psalm 110 is one of my favorites, a psalm about Jesus our Messiah. But I’ll be teaching on that one soon enough since we’re working our way through Hebrews on Sunday mornings.
What stood out to me most this morning at the end of Book IV and the beginning of Book V of the psalms was the need to tell the story.
For some people in these psalms, the story is one of blessing and God’s rescue.
“They cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.” – Psalm 107:13-14
For others it’s a story of all the wrong they had committed.
Psalm 106, the final psalm in Book IV, begins by praising the LORD, and again calling Israel to tell the story of God’s power, acknowledging that we cannot even begin to describe the fullness of God’s workings in our world.
“Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise?” – Psalm 106:2
And from there, we find the psalmist confessing the sins of the people, telling the story of their unfaithfulness to a faithful God.
“We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.” – Psalm 106:6
From there, the psalmist recounts the Exodus, how God had rescued his people, yet his people didn’t appreciate it. Time and time again he worked miracles and showed his kindness to them. Yet how did they respond?
“But they soon forgot what he had done and did not with for his plan to unfold.” – Psalm 106:13
“They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.” – Psalm 106:21-22
Over and over again, the psalmist confesses the sins of the people, and then ends with a plea for God’s salvation.
“Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.” – Psalm 106:47
Just before sitting down to do my daily reading today, I finished setting up and getting ready for Celebrate Recovery tonight. CR teaches the very action the psalmist of 106 is doing on the behalf of himself and his people—confessing.
Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Therefore, confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. (James 5:16)
So often we just want to gloss over the bad times. We only want to sing God’s praises for the good he’s done in our lives.
But it’s important we tell the whole story. We need to talk about the stupid we’ve done and the consequences God brought upon us because of it. We need to talk about our failures, and how God allowed us to experience the pain of our rebellion.
This type of confession teaches us that God is not a cosmic bellhop, simply going along with whatever we want to do, there to serve our wants and wishes at all times.
Instead, he is the God who “works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28), and sometimes that “good” is correcting our destructive behavior by defeating us, and allowing us to experience enough discomfort that we pay attention to our sin and change our ways.
“God works for the good of those who love him.” Telling the truth, and the whole truth, of what God has done in our lives helps us fully understand what Paul meant. All things, both blessings and punishments, help us be the people God has called us to be.
And when we fully understand that, then we can truly begin to give our God the praise he is due.
“Praise be to the LORD, the God if Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD.” – Psalm 106:48
Living in the Word 