Latest / Reformed Thinking / Remembering Israel’s Sin and God’s Mercy (Psalm 106) | Charles Spurgeon

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Remembering Israel’s Sin and God’s Mercy (Psalm 106) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, where we take a deep dive into
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  the theological classics and the historic texts that shape our
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  faith. I'm your host and I'm so glad
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  you could join us today. And I am the resident expert
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  here and I'm really looking forward to what we are covering
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  today. It's a massive topic.
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  Yeah, it really is. So our mission for this deep
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  dive is to examine a monumental piece of theological literature.
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  We are going to be looking at excerpts from Charles Spurgeon's
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  The Treasury of David, specifically focusing on his
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  exposition of Psalm 106. Right, which is just an
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  incredible text. It is.
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  This text gives us a tremendous shortcut to understanding the
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  entire historical narrative of the Old Testament.
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  It acts as a national confession of Israel's sin, set directly
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  against the backdrop of God's astonishing grace and covenant
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  faithfulness. So OK, let's unpack this,
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  because reading this Psalm through the lens of Reformed
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  theology gives you a clear window into the biblical
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  narrative. Since we adhere to the
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  Westminster Confession, we look at texts like this and see the
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  stark contrast between human depravity and divine
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  sovereignty. It shows us how those grand
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  doctrines play out in the well, the dirt and dust of actual
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  human history. It really is a stunning contrast
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  to observe, and we are going to trace Israel's history
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  chronologically today, just as the Psalm itself does, and
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  connect this ancient text directly to your daily spiritual
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  life. Yeah, that's the goal.
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  The text beautifully balances the tension between man's
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  persistent rebellion and God's steadfast mercy.
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  We see the realities of the Westminster Confession vividly
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  illustrated here. When we talk about concepts like
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  unconditional election or the total inability of man to save
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  himself. We we're not just dealing with
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  abstract academic theories. We are looking at the historical
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  record of a people who repeatedly failed, repeatedly
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  rebelled, and were repeatedly saved by a God who binds Himself
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  to his covenant promises. Let us begin right at the top,
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  but verses one through 5, which established the posture of
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  praise and the petitions of grace.
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  The Psalm begins and ends with the word Hallelujah, which means
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  praise ye the Lord. It's a great bookend.
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  Spurgeon points out how fitting it is that the mournful details
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  of Israel's sin are bookended by praise.
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  The text asserts that God is good and His mercy is forever.
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  Then in verse 2, it asks a massive question.
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  Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?
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  It moves from there into a prayer for God to visit the
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  psalmist with the salvation of His chosen people.
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  That question in verse 2 is quite arresting and it forces us
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  to confront our own limitations. I I I want to bring in John
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  Calvin's commentary on this specific point.
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  Please do. Calvin argues that no human
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  being actually has the capacity to fully praise God.
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  The vastness of God's attributes completely eclipses human
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  ability. Our minds are just overpowered
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  by the splendor of His ways. It's overwhelming if you think
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  about it. To fully articulate the might of
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  God would require a vocabulary and a comprehension that is
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  infinite, which we obviously lack.
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  But Calvin is careful to note that this should not deter us
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  from trying. That's a huge relief.
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  Yeah, even though we cannot attain perfection in our praise,
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  our humble, sincere attempts are still pleasing to God.
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  Furthermore, in verse 5 we see a brilliant flash of the doctrine
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  of election. The Psalmist specifically prays
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  to see the good of I chosen and to glory with thine inheritance.
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  I love that you brought that up, because it is crucial to explain
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  what that actually means for the person listening right now.
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  When we talk about the Reformed doctrine of election or
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  predestinating grace, it can sometimes sound like a heavy,
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  intimidating theological term. It definitely can.
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  But let's break it down simply. It means that salvation is
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  initiated by God, not by man. It is God looking at a world of
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  people running the opposite direction and mercifully
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  choosing to pull some of them back.
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  The psalmist is asking to participate in the specific
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  blessings that flow to the people of God through that
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  gracious choice. He wants to see the good of the
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  chosen. And that focus on living
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  righteously and seeking God's specific favor brings to mind a
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  fantastic anecdote about Louis, King of France, shared by the
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  Puritan writer Thomas Brooks. Oh right, the unjust suit story.
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  Yes, King Louis had inadvertently granted an unjust
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  suit, but as soon as he remembered the third verse of
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  this Psalm, blessed is he that do with righteousness at all
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  times, he immediately recollected himself, reversed
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  his judgement, and did the right thing.
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  It shows how holding these truths in your mind can alter
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  your actions in real time. What's fascinating here is how
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  the historical theologian analyzed the psychological and
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  spiritual dimensions of these verses.
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  Albertus Magnus, a medieval scholar, looked at verse 5 and
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  considered the threefold nature of man in prayer also Well, he
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  suggested that the body desires the open vision of God, which is
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  why the psalmist says that I may see the soul desires gladness,
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  matching the phrase. Rejoice in the gladness, and the
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  Spirit pours itself out in worship, aiming to glory with
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  fine inheritance. That's a highly perceptive way
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  to break down the anatomy of prayer.
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  It is, and it leads us to ask you to consider your own
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  prayers. Do you ask God to visit you with
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  salvation daily? As the commentators point out,
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  using the word visit is a recognition that you are
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  entirely too spiritually sick to go to the Great Physician on
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  your own strength. He must come to your house.
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  You must be visited by him, just as Jesus visited the House of
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  Zacchaeus. Exactly.
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  Without that divine visitation, there is no salvation
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  whatsoever. We see that absolute need for
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  divine intervention play out disastrously in the next section
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  of our text, covering verses 6 through 12, where the cycle of
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  rebellion begins in Egypt and at the Red Sea.
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  For six hits hard, we have sinned with our fathers.
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  A brutal admission. The text details how the
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  Israelites did not understand God's wonders in Egypt and how
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  they provoked Him at the Red Sea, yet God saved them for His
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  name's sake so that His might could be known.
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  This isn't just a slight misunderstanding.
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  This is an active, willful blindness to the miraculous
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  events happening right in front of their eyes.
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  The phrase we have sinned with our Fathers is a direct
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  invocation of original sin and corporate guilt.
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  This ties directly back to the Westminster Confessions teaching
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  on Adam as our federal head. Thomas Adams provides A striking
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  commentary here. What does he say?
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  He says that we can trace the age of sin back far beyond our
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  recent ancestors. We can trace it past Cain, past
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  Noah, straight back to Adam. Adam says that there is no sin,
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  but hath white hairs upon it, and is exceeding old.
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  Exceeding old Wow. The Israelites were not
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  inventing a new category of rebellion.
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  They were participating in the ancient inherited depravity of
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  mankind. They were spiritually slayish,
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  ground down by slavery and idolatry, which dulled their
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  understanding of the wonders they witnessed in Egypt.
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  They saw the plagues, they saw the Nile turn to blood, they saw
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  the darkness. But they did not actually
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  perceive the spiritual reality behind those physical.
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  Events, right? They just saw the physical
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  phenomena without grasping the theological weight.
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  Here's where it gets really interesting, because right after
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  detailing that staggering rebellion at the sea, the text
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  says nevertheless he saved them. I love the commentary by William
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  Bridge on this word nevertheless.
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  Oh, it's brilliant. Bridge points out that God's
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  grace is magnified precisely because he saves the people who
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  are actively rebelling against him.
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  They were not rebelling before they left Egypt, but right there
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  at the sea, even at the Red Sea, with the walls of water standing
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  on either side of them. At the exact moment of
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  deliverance. Yes, if God only cured people
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  who are slightly unwell, He would not show much skill.
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  But saving a people who are in the very act of defying Him
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  displays the absolute zenith of His mercy.
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  The text even gives a vivid picture of this deliverance,
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  noting that the Red Sea was rebuked.
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  It fled like a slave, hearing the voice of its master.
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  The physical creation obeys God instantly, while the crown of
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  his creation, humanity, argues and complaints.
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  It's such a sad irony. It is the sea obeyed, but the
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  people's hearts remain incredibly stubborn.
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  This brings us to the concept of temporary faith, which is highly
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  relevant here. The text says that after the sea
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  swallowed their enemies, then believed they his words, they
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  sang his praise. But they only sang his praises
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  after they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.
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  That is the key issue. John Calvin has a sharp critique
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  of this. He points out that true faith
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  receives God's Word spontaneously and rests on His
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  promise before the outcome is visible force.
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  Temporary faith, however, is just a reaction to
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  circumstances. It's totally.
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  Reactive. It evaporates the moment the
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  immediate relief fades. They did not have a deep rooted
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  trust in the character of God, they just had a momentary
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  emotional high because their lives were no longer in
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  immediate danger. Wait, let me push back on that a
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  bit for the sake of the listener.
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  Calvin says true faith receives God's word before the outcome is
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  visible. But isn't it human nature to
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  need proof? It feels incredibly harsh to
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  condemn them for wanting to see the Egyptians defeated before
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  they celebrated. I see where you're going with
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  that. They had an army of Chariots
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  bearing down on them. How does Calvin reconcile that
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  very human visceral terror with the expectation of perfect
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  faith? That is a fair question.
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  Calvin would likely respond that the terror itself is
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  understandable, but the reaction to it expose their complete lack
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  of spiritual memory. They had just witnessed 10
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  miraculous plagues. They had literally they just
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  watched the Angel of death Passover their homes because of
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  the blood of the Lamb. God had given them overwhelming
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  proof of his ability to save them just days prior.
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  The condemnation isn't about their initial fear, it is about
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  their immediate jump to accusing God of bringing them out into
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  the wilderness to murder them. So they assumed the worst about
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  God's motives. Precisely.
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  They assumed the worst about God's character.
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  The second things got difficult, and that is why their subsequent
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  praise was so hollow. It makes you think about your
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  own gratitude. How often is your gratitude just
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  the gratitude of sinners? That's a convicting phrase.
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  Edward Payson uses a brilliant analogy for this.
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  He likens our temporary gratitude to an infant receiving
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  a glittering toy. The child is ecstatic for an
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  hour, totally captivated by the gift, but soon tosses it aside
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  when the novelty wears off, completely forgetting the hand
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  that bestowed it. We often treat God's deliverance
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  the precise same way. We absolutely do.
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  It's amazing how quickly that temporary phase evaporates.
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  You see them singing on the shores of the Red Sea, but the
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  second their stomachs start rumbling in the wilderness, that
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  song turns into a demand for meat.
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  It really does. This was just right into verses
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  13 through 15. The text says.
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  They soon forget his works and waited not for his counsel.
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  Instead, they lusted exceedingly for meat in the wilderness.
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  They demanded that God satisfy their carnal appetites.
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  And this is right after the sea parted.
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  They literally just watched the Red Sea swallow an entire army
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  and three days later they're basically leaving a one star
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  Yelp review because the catering isn't up to their standards.
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  It's ridiculous, but honestly it's what I do when the Wi-Fi
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  goes down. Yeah.
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  I forget every good thing that has ever happened to me and just
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  get furious about the immediate inconvenience.
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  We all do it. The danger of impatience is
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  glaringly obvious here. The people absolutely refused to
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  wait for God's provision. They decided to dictate terms to
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  the Almighty, acting as if they possessed superior wisdom
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  regarding what they needed. They thought they knew better
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  than God. God was providing them with
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  manna, which is perfectly suited to sustain them in the desert,
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  but they wanted the heavy, rich foods of Egypt.
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  They allowed their physical appetites to completely override
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  their spiritual sense. And the terrifying part is how
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  God responded. He did give them their request,
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  but He sent leanness into their soul.
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  That phrase, soon forget, is so convicting.
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  There's this great image from the Puritan writer Thomas
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  Watson. He basically likens our brains
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  to a colander or great. That's a great visual.
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  The pure water of Divine instruction runs right through
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  and is lost, but the mud, sticks, and filth of worldly
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  trifles are retained. We hold on to the vain things
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  and let the spiritual truths leak out.
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  And because of this, the Israelites received the severe
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  judgement of an answered prayer. An answered prayer as a
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  judgement? That's a chilling thought.
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  Think about how scary that concept is.
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  God's silence is sometimes mercy, and his immediate
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  provision can be a judgement. They wanted quail, and God gave
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  them quail in abundance, but the physical fattening LED directly
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  to spiritual starvation. It forces us to ask what a lean
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  soul looks like today. Matthew Lawrence provides some
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  excellent commentary on this. He compares it to Pharaoh's lean
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  kind from the book of Genesis. Skinny cows from the dream.
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  Right. You can have access to abundant
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  spiritual resources. You can sit under sound
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  preaching, partake in the sacraments, read the best
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  Reformed theology books, and be surrounded by Christian
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  fellowship, but still remain spiritually emaciated.
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  You are feeding in a lush pasture, yet your goal is
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  starving because your affections are entirely fixed on worldly
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  desires. You are consuming the word, but
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  your body is metaphorically rejecting the nutrients because
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  your heart is craving the garlic and leeks of Egypt, so to speak.
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  Which leads to a critical question for you to consider.
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  Are you pursuing worldly success at the expense of your spiritual
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  health? Gaining silver but losing gold
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  is a terrible exchange. It is far better to have a lean
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  body and a prospering soul than to be physically or financially
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  fat while your soul starves. Absolutely.
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  This carnal focus inevitably breeds contempt for authority,
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  because when you are entirely focused on what you want right
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  now, anyone telling you to wait or trust God becomes the enemy.
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  And that brings us to verses 16 through 18.
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  Here we see the rebellion against authority where the camp
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  envied Moses and Aaron. Dathan and Abraham.
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  Yes. As a result, the earth opened
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  and swallowed Dathan and Abraham, while a fire consumed
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  the wicked Levites. If we connect this to the bigger
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  picture, the dual method of divine justice deployed against
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  the rebels is fascinating. The rebellion had two distinct
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  facets, a political mutiny against Moses and a spiritual
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  intrusion against Aaron's priesthood.
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  So God dealt with him separately.
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  God met both with highly tailored judgments.
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  The earth opened to deal with the political rebels Dathan and
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  Abraham. The fire came down to deal with
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  the spiritual intruders, the Levites, who offered strange
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  fire. Joseph Hall makes a chilling
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  observation about this. What does Hall say?
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  He notes that it was a marvel at the Red Sea, open because water
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  naturally flows back together. But it is far more terrifying
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  that the solid earth cleaved apart and then shut its jaws
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  again. The earth has no natural
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  disposition to close. Once divided.
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  It was a deliberate, unnatural act of creation, obeying its
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  Maker to execute justice on those who defied His appointed
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  leaders. The unreasonableness of their
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  sin is staggering. They envied Moses, who was the
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  meekest man on earth and the hardest working man in the camp.
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  He bore the entire burden of their complaints, yet they
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  resented. Him.
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  It makes no logical sense. It stands as a massive warning
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  against envying those whom God has placed in authority or
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  leadership within the church. Being a leader among God's
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  people is often a thankless, grueling task, and envying that
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  position shows a complete misunderstanding of the burden
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  it carries. Leadership is a heavy yoke.
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  And their rebellion wasn't just against human leadership, it was
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  against God Himself, which we see fully manifested in the
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  instant with the golden calf in verses 19 through 23.
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  At Horeb, the very place they received the law, they traded
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  the glory of God for the image of a grass eating ox.
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  God threatened to destroy them, but Moses stood in the breach to
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  turn away his wrath. We really need to pause and
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  examine the psychology of the Israelites here, because this is
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  a textbook example of what theologians call total
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  depravity. It doesn't mean humans are as
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  evil as they could possibly be at all times, but rather that
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  the rot of sin effects every single part of us, our minds,
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  our desires, our actions. It touches everything.
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  Left entirely to our own devices, without God hitting the
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  brakes, we see how far the Israelites slid.
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  Thomas Fuller details the historical context of that
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  golden calf and is crucial. This wasn't just a generic calf
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  they decided to forge out of nowhere.
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  They were copying the Egyptian APIs Bowl.
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  This is a really vital piece of history.
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  It was a specific Egyptian deity, a live black bowl with a
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  white Half Moon mark, which the Egyptians worshipped
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  extensively. The Israelites had lived in
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  Egypt for over 400 years. They had absorbed the idolatrous
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  atmosphere of that culture deep into their bones.
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  To give the listeners some context, think about what it was
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  like living in Egypt. Egyptian worship was a massive,
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  highly visual spectacle. Huge temples, massive statues,
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  tangible gods you could see in touch.
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  Then God brings the Israelites out into the desert.
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  He brings them to Mount Sinai. And it is a radically different
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  experience. Totally different.
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  What do they experience? Thunder, lightning, smoke and a
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  terrifying invisible voice that shakes the mountain.
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  God is invisible and holy and it terrifies them.
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  So the minute Moses disappears up the mountain for a few weeks,
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  their anxiety peaks. They panic.
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  They regress to what they know. They demand a God they can see,
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  a God they can manage, a God that doesn't scream at them from
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  a fiery mountain. The contrast between the
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  terrifying, invisible God at Sinai and a manageable, visible
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  cow is the key to understanding this failure.
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  Precisely. They took the visual, sensuous
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  worship they were accustomed to and tried to apply it to
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  Jehovah. The text says They changed their
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  glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
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  The sheer absurdity of reducing the infinite creator of the
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  universe to a bovine creature is mind boggling.
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  It is absurd when you say it out loud.
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  Yeah, this transition from spiritual worship to sensuous
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  visual worship is a constant human temptation because our
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  flesh strongly prefers what it can see and touch.
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  We want a deity we can put in a box, or in this case, cast in
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  gold. We want a God we can control.
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  The invisible God demands faith. The visible idol only demands
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  gold and a party. Thomas Westfield quotes a great
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  proverb about going to Rome that illustrates this gradual
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  infection perfectly. The proverb says the first time
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  you go to Rome you see a wicked man.
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  The second time you get acquainted with him, the third
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  time you bring him home. That is so.
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  True, that is exactly how proximity to the world idols
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  works. You observe it, you tolerate it,
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  and eventually it infects your heart.
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  The Israelites had seen the APIs bull for generations.
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  They thought they had left Egypt behind, but Egypt was still
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  thoroughly lodged in their hearts.
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  You can take the people out of Egypt, but taking Egypt out of
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  the people is the real challenge.
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  But in the midst of this horrific idolatry, we see the
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  mediation of Moses. Moses stands in the breach like
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  a soldier defending a broken city wall.
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  He's a clear Old Testament type of Christ.
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  Moses, the elect leader, interposes himself between the
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  righteous wrath of God and a guilty people renouncing his own
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  privilege to save them, he put. Himself on the line.
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  It makes you examine your own life.
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  What visible, tangible things do you use to replace the invisible
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  God in your affections? That preference for the tangible
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  over the invisible LED directly to their next massive failure,
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  found in verses 24 through 27. They despise the pleasant land.
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  They did not believe God's word, and they murmured in their
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  tents. As a consequence, God swore they
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  would fall in the wilderness. The roots in there is pretty
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  clear. Unmistakable unbelief.
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  Because they did not actually believe God's promise about
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  Canaan, they drastically undervalued the reward.
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  They sent the spies in, heard about the giants and the walled
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  cities, and immediately decided it was entirely too much trouble
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  to conquer. Murmuring in this context is not
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  just a personality weakness or a bad habit.
• 19:44
  It is a serious combination of pride, rebellion and a
• 19:47
  fundamental distrust of God's character.
• 19:50
  There's this great image from Thomas Watson again, and we tell
• 19:52
  the story about lazy Spaniards who live near abundant fish but
• 19:55
  preferred to buy them rather than put in the effort to catch
• 19:58
  them. He uses this to illustrate
• 20:00
  spiritual sloth. Oh, that's a brilliant
• 20:03
  illustration. People say they want heaven, but
• 20:05
  they absolutely refuse the sweat of sanctification.
• 20:08
  They despise the pleasant land because of the battles required
• 20:11
  to occupy it. They want the crown without the
• 20:13
  cross and notice the social nature of this sin.
• 20:16
  The text explicitly says they murmured in their tents.
• 20:19
  The location of the sin matters. It's the ancient equivalent of
• 20:23
  the group chat. They weren't staging a protest
• 20:25
  in the town square initially. They were sitting in their tents
• 20:28
  complaining about Moses's leadership and God's plan.
• 20:30
  And that private cynicism is exactly what poisoned the whole
• 20:34
  community. That detail about the tents is
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  highly instructive. It highlights how private
• 20:39
  conversations foster public apostasy.
• 20:42
  When you complain in the privacy of your own home, you are
• 20:44
  watering the seas of unbelief in your family's hearts.
• 20:47
  You might think you are just venting, but you are actively
• 20:51
  training your children and your spouse to doubt the goodness of
• 20:54
  God. So what does this all mean?
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  It means we must rigorously guard our private conversations.
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  Do you foster a culture of complaining in your own home
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  that secretly undermines your trust in God's sovereignty?
• 21:07
  If you do, you are participating in the exact same sin that kept
• 21:10
  Israel out of the Promised Land. A sobering reality.
• 21:13
  And this downward spiral only accelerates in verses 28 through
• 21:17
  31, which covers the abomination of Bill Pior and the zeal of
• 21:21
  Phineas. Israel joined themselves to Bill
• 21:24
  Pior, ate sacrifices of the dead, and provoked God.
• 21:28
  A deadly plague broke out, but Phineas stood up, executed
• 21:31
  judgement, and the plague was stayed.
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  The cult of Belpier was exceptionally vile, and
• 21:35
  understanding the history here adds massive weight to the text.
• 21:39
  Involved highly licentious rights and necromancy, which is
• 21:42
  a practice of trying to communicate with the dead.
• 21:44
  The Israelites were eating sacrifices offered to dead men,
• 21:47
  deified heroes of the heathen. He just threw the law right out
• 21:50
  the window. They completely abandoned the
• 21:52
  holiness required by God's law in the midst of this gross
• 21:56
  apostasy and the resulting plague.
• 21:58
  The contrast of Phineas is incredibly striking.
• 22:01
  The entire camp, including Moses, was weeping passively at
• 22:05
  the door of the Tabernacle. They were paralyzed by the sheer
• 22:08
  brazenness of the sin. Everyone was just frozen.
• 22:11
  But Phineas did not just weep. He took a javelin and dealt
• 22:14
  decisively with the blatant sin of the Israelite Prince Zimri
• 22:17
  and the Midianite woman. Henry Law provides an excellent
• 22:21
  commentary on this action. He points out that Phineas zeal
• 22:24
  was not a wild hurricane or a fit of unhinged fanaticism.
• 22:27
  It wasn't just blind rage. Right.
• 22:29
  It was sound minded. It was a precise execution of
• 22:32
  God's will in God's way, according to the civil law given
• 22:35
  to Israel. We see another type of mediation
• 22:37
  here, but it looks very different from Moses at the
• 22:39
  golden calf. Moses stood in the breach by
• 22:42
  praying and pleading. Phineas stood in the breach by
• 22:45
  acting with holy righteous indignation.
• 22:47
  Both men stayed the wrath of God, but through vastly
• 22:51
  different methods. Two different responses to the
• 22:53
  breach. It really challenges the
• 22:54
  listener. Does the blatant sin in your
• 22:57
  culture provoke you to holy righteous indignation, or have
• 23:00
  you become passively accepting of it, just weeping at the tent
• 23:04
  door while the plague rages? There is a time for weeping,
• 23:06
  absolutely, but there is also a time for decisive, sound minded
• 23:10
  action against sin in our own lives and communities.
• 23:13
  That is a highly convicting challenge.
• 23:16
  And Speaking of Moses, our next section, verses 32 and 33,
• 23:19
  details his tragic stumble at Meribah.
• 23:22
  The people angered God at the waters of strife, and it went
• 23:26
  I'll with Moses. They provoked his spirit, so he
• 23:29
  spoke unadvisedly with his lips. This part is always so hard to
• 23:32
  read. If we connect this to the bigger
• 23:34
  picture, the tragedy of this moment is intense.
• 23:37
  Moses had born with this stubborn, rebellious people.
• 23:39
  For 40 years he was the meekest man on the face of the earth.
• 23:42
  Yet at the very end of his life, his temper finally gave way.
• 23:45
  And his sin was subtle but severe.
• 23:49
  When the people demanded water, Moses said, Must we fetch you
• 23:52
  water? He took the credit instead of
• 23:55
  giving the glory to God. And instead of speaking to the
• 23:57
  rock as God commanded, he struck it twice with his rod.
• 24:01
  In that brief moment, Self eclipsed God in his response.
• 24:04
  Self crept right in. James Hamilton has a brilliant
• 24:07
  observation about this. He compares it to a man who
• 24:09
  hasn't had a burglary in 40 years, yet he still meticulously
• 24:13
  locks his doors every night. Moses had successfully conquered
• 24:17
  his hot temper for decades. He had mastered it since the day
• 24:20
  he struck down the Egyptian and his youth.
• 24:22
  He had it under locked and key. But near the very end of his
• 24:24
  life, that old vulnerability flared up and caught him off
• 24:28
  guard. It shows how the enemy will
• 24:30
  exploit the oldest weaknesses in our armor if we let our guard
• 24:33
  down for even a second. It demonstrates the incredibly
• 24:36
  strict standard God holds for spiritual leaders.
• 24:39
  It is a terrifying passage in many ways.
• 24:41
  Notice that God still provided the water for the congregation.
• 24:44
  He showed grace to the murmuring rebels, but he punished the
• 24:48
  leader. He held Moses to a higher
• 24:50
  standard. Because Moses failed to sanctify
• 24:53
  the Lord in the eyes of the people, he was strictly
• 24:55
  forbidden from entering Canaan. He could only look at it from
• 24:59
  the top of Pisgah. God's holiness will not be
• 25:01
  mocked, even by His most facial servants.
• 25:04
  It shows that you are never too old or too experienced to fall.
• 25:08
  A single moment of lost self command can cost you dearly.
• 25:12
  It is a sobering thought, but as we look at verses 34 through 43,
• 25:17
  we see that the people's entrance into Canaan did not
• 25:19
  solve their heart problems. Not even a little bit.
• 25:22
  A change of geography does not change the human heart.
• 25:25
  The text outlines their assimilation and the atrocities
• 25:28
  they committed. Once in Canaan, they failed to
• 25:31
  destroy the wicked nations as God explicitly commanded.
• 25:35
  They mingled with them, learned their works, served their idols,
• 25:38
  and eventually fell so far that they sacrificed their own sons
• 25:41
  and daughters to devils. The downward slope of compromise
• 25:44
  outlined here is terrifyingly clear.
• 25:46
  It begins with an incomplete obedience.
• 25:49
  They spared the Canaanite nations, likely out of a false
• 25:52
  sense of pity or perhaps your laziness.
• 25:54
  They wanted the Canaanites as forced labor.
• 25:56
  It started so practically for them.
• 25:58
  That initial compromise leads seamlessly to friendly mingling.
• 26:03
  From mingling, they adopt the habits and customs of the
• 26:05
  heathen, and they begin worshipping their idols.
• 26:09
  Finally, it culminates in the ultimate unnatural horror,
• 26:12
  shedding innocent blood by sacrificing their own babies to
• 26:16
  Moloch. It's just unthinkable.
• 26:18
  We must examine the historical reality of these sacrifices to
• 26:21
  grasp the depth of this depravity.
• 26:24
  Deodorus, the ancient historian, describes the massive hollow
• 26:28
  bronze statue of Saturn or Moloch used in these rituals.
• 26:32
  This is rough to hear, but we need to hear.
• 26:34
  It it was heated from below by a roaring fire, and the children
• 26:37
  were placed into its mechanical sloped arms, from which they
• 26:40
  rolled down into the blazing furnace to drown out the screams
• 26:43
  of the children and the parents, they would beat loudly on drums.
• 26:47
  It is almost impossible to comprehend that God's covenant
• 26:49
  people could sink to that level. The Reformed view of total
• 26:52
  depravity, which we discussed earlier, reaches its darkest
• 26:55
  depths here. Left to their own devices,
• 26:57
  without the restraining grace of God, even the covenant people
• 27:00
  are capable of the most abhorrent evils imaginable.
• 27:02
  Total depravity on full display. John Calvin offers a sharp
• 27:06
  insight here regarding religious zeal.
• 27:08
  He points out that inconsiderate, unguided
• 27:11
  religious zeal is incredibly dangerous.
• 27:14
  When Abraham offered Isaac, it was an act of faith-based on
• 27:17
  God's specific, explicit command.
• 27:20
  God initiated that command. Right.
• 27:22
  But when the Israelites offered their children, it was an act of
• 27:24
  intemperate demonic zeal, based entirely on their own inventions
• 27:29
  and the customs of the heathen. They cast off all natural
• 27:32
  affection to satisfy an idol they created in their own minds.
• 27:36
  It provides a stark warning about the nature of sin.
• 27:39
  Sin is a slippery slope. You cannot make alliances with
• 27:43
  it. The Israelites thought they
• 27:45
  could spare the nations and remain unaffected, but the rot
• 27:48
  inevitably spread. What small compromises are you
• 27:51
  making today that might lead to disastrous moral failures
• 27:54
  tomorrow? The small things matter.
• 27:55
  You cannot keep a pet sin without it eventually consuming
• 27:58
  you. It starts with tolerating
• 28:00
  something small, and it ends with the destruction of
• 28:02
  everything you hold dear. But thankfully, the story does
• 28:05
  not end with human depravity. Our final section, verses 44
• 28:09
  through 48, focuses on covenant, mercy and the final Amen.
• 28:14
  Despite God's absolute abhorrence of their sin and
• 28:16
  their unnatural crimes, the text says He regarded their
• 28:19
  affliction, heard their cry, and remembered His covenant.
• 28:22
  The turning point. The Psalm ends with a prayer to
• 28:24
  be gathered from the heathen, a massive doxology and the word
• 28:29
  Amen. This is the absolute bedrock of
• 28:31
  Reformed theology. God's mercy is anchored entirely
• 28:34
  in His covenant, not in human behavior.
• 28:37
  The outward fabric of grace in Israel was completely ruined by
• 28:41
  their idolatry and bloodshed, but the fundamental basis of
• 28:44
  God's covenant love remain absolutely unmoved.
• 28:47
  Unmoved, despite everything we just talked about.
• 28:49
  He repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
• 28:51
  When he heard their cry, his fatherly heart was touched, not
• 28:54
  because they deserved it, but because He is bound by His own
• 28:57
  promises. His grace is unilateral.
• 28:59
  And that leads to the final word of the Psalm.
• 29:02
  Amen. Adolf Saffer provides excellent
• 29:05
  historical commentary on this word.
• 29:07
  He traces it back to Moses and the blessings and curses
• 29:10
  pronounced on Mount Ebal and Gerizem.
• 29:13
  It means, so be it. So be it.
• 29:16
  It is a word of solemn agreement and ratification.
• 29:19
  When you say Amen, you are signing your name to the bottom
• 29:22
  of the contract. You are declaring that God's
• 29:24
  Word is true and His promises are secure.
• 29:28
  This raises an important question regarding how we use
• 29:30
  the word Amen today. Martin Luther once noted that
• 29:33
  the Lord's Prayer is the greatest martyr on earth because
• 29:35
  it is repeated so frequently without any thought or feeling.
• 29:38
  The greatest martyr on earth. That's a strong phrase.
• 29:41
  The exact same thing applies to the word Amen.
• 29:43
  It is a robust, solemn word steeped in history that often
• 29:47
  lies totally dormant in our minds.
• 29:49
  We say it reflexively at the end of a prayer without considering
• 29:52
  its massive weight. We treat it like the spiritual
• 29:54
  equivalent of hitting the send button on an e-mail rather than
• 29:57
  a profound declaration of faith. When you say Amen, are you fully
• 30:02
  aligning your heart with the sovereign will and covenant
• 30:04
  promises of God? It is something we should all
• 30:07
  consider carefully. To summarize our deep dive
• 30:10
  today, we have seen a continuous dark background of human
• 30:14
  rebellion from the shores of the Red Sea, through the wilderness
• 30:18
  and into the Promised Land. The human heart produces nothing
• 30:21
  but idolatry and murmuring. Nothing but failure.
• 30:23
  Yet that dark background only makes the brilliant light of
• 30:27
  God's electing covenant grace shine more clearly.
• 30:30
  He saves them for his name's sake.
• 30:32
  I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over as we
• 30:34
  conclude. We've seen how Israel's history
• 30:36
  of idolatry was heavily influenced by the visual,
• 30:39
  sensuous worship of Egypt and Canaan.
• 30:41
  They constantly wanted something they could see, like the golden
• 30:44
  calf, rather than trusting the invisible God.
• 30:46
  The visual versus the invisible. In our modern, highly visual
• 30:50
  digital age, algorithms constantly feed us images
• 30:53
  meticulously designed to capture our affections and desires.
• 30:57
  Are we unwittingly building new golden calves in our minds?
• 31:01
  How does a believer maintain invisible spiritual worship in a
• 31:04
  world entirely dominated by the visual?
• 31:06
  It requires constant vigilance and a heavy reliance on the very
• 31:09
  covenant grace we have discussed today.
• 31:12
  That is a phenomenal question to carry with us.
• 31:14
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into the Word.
• 31:16
  Keep resting in His sovereign grace, and we will see you next
• 31:19
  time on Reformed thinking.