Reading the condensed versions of history in the historical psalms helps us to see an overview of history which is both shocking and sobering. Ps 106 tells us of incidents of rebellion against leadership (Ps 106:16-18, referring back to Numbers 16), idolatry (when Moses’ absence to receive the Ten Commandments led to the people making a golden calf in Exodus 32) and depravity (after the deaths of Moses and Joshua, Israel married foreigners and even sacrificed sons and daughters to idols, resorting to prostitution as part of their ‘worship’.) These sins were directly responsible for Israel’s exile (see 2 Kings 17:7-12, 2 Kings 24:2-4) and it is hard for us to comprehend how this slide into pagan worship could have happened.
But if we are honest, we can see that we too live in a society which has largely forgotten God. In our country, 1 in 6 pregnancies ends in abortion and we barely register that fact. The elderly are often forgotten in care homes which do not all meet the standards of care we would hope for, but we are too busy to notice. The news is full of scandals which ought to drive us to prayer, but so often, we are indifferent and uncaring, more concerned with our own lives than with national sin – which in effect becomes our own sin, for sin can be not doing right things as well as doing wrong things. The Book of Common Prayer says, ‘Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us.’ That is a fair summary of the historical psalms.
But these psalms were not written simply to depress us and leave us feeling hopeless and helpless. They show us big sins indeed (one commentator remarks that all the seven deadly sins – pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, anger and sloth – are mentioned in the potted history these psalms contain), but they show us also an almighty God whose plans and purposes may take a long time to unfold but these plans and purposes will not be thwarted. God remembers His covenant (Ps 105:8—11, 42; Ps 106:45). As Lam 3:22-23 puts it, ‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’
