Introduction
Psalm 106:24–48: The second half of this psalm describes Israel’s idolatrous acts, God’s punishment, and God’s mercy.
Today’s Key Verse: Psalm 106:48
Praise the LORD, the God of Israel; praise him now and forever! Let everyone say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD!
Reading
24 Then they rejected the pleasant land,
because they did not believe God’s promise.
25 They stayed in their tents and grumbled
and would not listen to the Lord.
26 So he have them a solemn warning
that he would make them die in the desert
27 and scatter their descendants among the heathen,
letting them die in foreign countries.
28 Then at Peor, God’s people joined in the worship of Baal
and ate sacrifices offered to dead gods.
29 They stirred up the Lord’s anger by their actions,
and a terrible disease broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,
and the plague was stopped.
31 This has been remembered in his favor ever since
and will be for all time to come.
32 At the springs of Meribah the people made the Lord angry,
and Moses was in trouble on their account.
33 They made him so bitter
that he spoke without stopping to think.
34 They did not kill the heathen,
as the Lord had commanded them to do,
35 but they intermarried with them
and adopted their pagan ways.
36 God’s people worshiped idols,
and this caused their destruction.
37 They offered their own sons and daughters
as sacrifices to the idols of Canaan.
38 They killed those innocent children,
and the land was defiled by those murders.
39 They made themselves impure by their actions
and were unfaithful to God.
40 So the Lord was angry with his people;
he was disgusted with them.
41 He abandoned them to the power of the heathen,
and their enemies ruled over them.
42 They were oppressed by their enemies
and were in complete subjection to them.
43 Many times the Lord rescued his people,
but they chose to rebel against him
and sank deeper into sin.
44 Yet the Lord heard them when they cried out,
and he took notice of their distress.
45 For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and because of his great love he relented.
46 He made all their oppressors
feel sorry for them.
47 Save us, O Lord our God,
and bring us back from among the nations,
so that we may be thankful
and praise your holy name.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel;
praise him now and forever!
Let everyone say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Reflect
In what ways did the people provoke God’s anger? Reread verses 28–31. Phinehas, the grandson of Moses’s brother Aaron, was a priest. What sins had the people committed and what did Phinehas do? Reread verses 43–46. What do these verses teach you about God? In verse 47, what is being asked of God? In what ways will you praise God’s name today?
Pray
O Lord my God, I praise your holy name, and I will praise you now and forever. Because of your great love, you forgive me whenever I turn to you with a repentant heart and confess my sins. Thank you, Lord God, for your mercy and steadfast care. Amen.
Tomorrow’s Reading
Psalm 111: A psalm in praise of the LORD’s kindness and mercy.
