Psalm 105-106

June 29

Psalm 105-106

What is in it for me? What have you done for me lately? Sounds like the attitude of most people doesn’t it? That was the attitude of the Israelites. One minute they were singing His praises as He delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. But before long they were crying the blues wondering why he had taken them into the desert. He provided food and water, but they were not thankful. They saw God’s mighty works in their presence, the plagues that came upon the Egyptians; the Red Sea opened up and allowed them to pass then drowned the Egyptian army. They saw the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night. But rebellion was in their blood.

While Moses was on the mountain meeting with God, they grew impatient and had Aaron form an idol of a calf out of gold. The psalmist wrote; “"They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass." (Psalm 106:20, NIV) Most of us probably do not struggle with exchanging God’s presence for the image of a bull. But like the Israelites, we get impatient waiting on God and take things in our own hands. We may not make a calf, but we take things into our own hands. We may not of seen God move in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, but we have seen His Spirit move in our lives. We experience salvation and the forgiveness of sin and turn around and follow the advice of the world instead of obeying God’s Word.

Fortunately God is patient with us. The only way to stop the rollercoaster ride of our spiritual lives is to surrender our lives to Jesus and to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and guide us. The Israelites had the Spirit with them, we have Him in us. “Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." (Psalm 106:1, NIV)