God’s forgiveness actually changes the past—from shameful tragedies into glorious triumphs of grace.
“Hallelujah!” So begins the last of the 17 psalms in Book IV of the Psalter. It may surprise you, since Psalm 106 features Israel’s failures, that the psalm also ends with “Hallelujah!” (v 48). How is this possible? As Paul writes, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom 5:20). Do you commonly use the word “abound”? Let alone hyper-abound! The word “abound” is used for the baskets left over after the crowd was fed. But this means more than more-than-enough! It may seem unhappy to recount Israel’s sins, but you can’t do it without also recalling God’s overflowing grace, forgiving them again and again. “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever” (Ps 106:1). We must never think it’s good to sin so grace abounds (Rom 6:1)! Instead, “Blessed are those who keep justice, and he who does righteousness at all times!” (Ps 106:3). But that’s not the case here! “We have sinned with our fathers,…we have done wickedly” (v 6). See the list: They provoked God at the Red Sea (vv 7-12), lusted for meat in the desert (vv 13-15), rebelled with Korah against Moses and Aaron (vv 16-18), worshipped the golden calf (vv 19-23), and “despised” the Promised Land (vv 24-27). Then it’s physical and spiritual adultery with Baal-Peor (vv 28-31), petulance at Meribah, where, to put it mildly, “it went ill with Moses on account of them” (vv 32-33), and an unwillingness to rid Canaan of demon-worshipers, leading to their own idolatry (vv 34-39). Suffocating, isn’t it! Oh, but the grace of God! As Charles Wesley wrote, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!” The psalmist adds, “Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’” (v 48).