Our God is great and mighty, caring and merciful! Our God allows us to come before Him in prayer and gives us every opportunity to trust Him! Our God shows us what He is able to do and promises what He is willing to do! These are amazing and humbling thoughts to ponder! And yet…
And yet, “They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.” (Psalm 106: 13 & 14, NKJV)
This describes the people of God in the Old Testament. It is a recurring struggle throughout the pages of scripture. Sometimes we shake our heads at their weakness, at their blundering. We are, however, very alike. While we see their mistakes, we are often, seemingly, blind to how the very same attitudes in our lives are hindering our own relationship with God! In our personal wildernesses and deserts, we soon forget His works. We do not wait for His counsel. We do not humble ourselves and approach Him with thanksgiving in prayer.
Outlined in Psalms 106 and 107, God’s people of old struggled with very real wildernesses. Their difficulties were many. Their fears, their pain, their consequences, and their battles were real. Digging into these verses, we begin to see the same weaknesses hidden in our own hearts and lives. At the same time, may we discover (or rediscover) having honest conversations with our God through the power of prayer.
The wildernesses reviewed in Psalm 106 were both physical and spiritual…their envy of Moses and Aaron in the camp (v6), their design of idolatry at Mt. Horeb (v19), their disbelief in the land (v24), their complaining in the tents (v25), their devotion to foreign idols in Peor (v28), their rebellion and rash words at the waters (v32-33), their mingling with the foreign peoples (v34-35), their defiling works against their own (v36-39).
Our wildernesses are more similar than they are different. We face struggles in the physical world where we live and serve, battling both elements and ‘foreign’ influences. We also face spiritual struggles from the world and from the consequences of our own decisions or forgetfulness. We forget what God has done, and we forget to turn to God in prayer!
Psalm 106 is a prayer of joy in the forgiveness of Israel’s sins. Through these verses, the writer offers praise to the LORD, speaking in specific terms of His wonders and goodness. Let us also uplift our faces to the LORD and speak of His wonderful goodness!
Within this prayer of joy and thanksgiving, the writer of this Psalm recognizes that the pattern of recent sin follows the pattern of those who were gone before. Here, while talking to God, sin is called sin, and the consequences experienced in God’s wrath are remembered. Understanding the depths of our sin will heighten our praise at salvation. Accepting the reality of our sin brings us to implore God for His mercies and salvation. Praising God for ALL of it should be a most meaningful part of our prayer time.
Psalm 107 continues in this thought, giving repeated examples of God’s people experiencing hardships in their wildernesses:
“They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way…hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them” (v4-5, NKJV). “Similarly, they sat in darkness…”(v10, NKJV), “…because of their iniquities, were afflicted…” (v17, NKJV), “They go down again to the depths. Their souls melt because of trouble. They reel to and fro…” (v26-27, NKJV).
Searching these scriptures, we discover two causes of these struggles. The reason they are in a wilderness is either due to external influences or to their own wandering. These verses describe four distinct wilderness scenarios: lost in the desert, bound in prison, suffering in illness, and storms at sea.
God redeems them from the hand of the enemy (v2) and from trials in the storms of this world (v29). He also saves them from themselves, as many times they are experiencing God inflicted consequences to their rebellion:
“Because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High” (v11, NKJV), “Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, were afflicted” (v17, NKJV).
The benefit of this suffering is to redirect their attention to their God:
“Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He delivered them...and He led them…” (v6-7, NKJV). “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses” (v13, NKJV), “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses” (v19, NKJV), “Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses” (v28, NKJV).
Every time He brought them down and they turned back to Him, God provided! “For He is good, and His mercy endures forever!”(v1, NKJV). The cry of the writer is that all will be thankful:
“Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works…” (v 8, NKJV), “Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works…” (v15, NKJV), “Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works...Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing” (v21-22, NKJV). “Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works...Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people, and praise Him in the company of the elders” (v31-32, NKJV).
Oh, that WE today would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works!! Do you remember to give thanks once the crisis has passed? Go to God in prayer and remember what He has done for you, for others, and in scripture! When your wildernesses are difficult and your deserts are dry…Call out to the LORD! When you forget God and turn away from Him, remember and pray!
Consider Jonah, who experienced such consequences and once humbled, turned to prayer. The first 10 verses of Jonah chapter two share with us his heartfelt prayer. Chapter one tells us Jonah attempted to literally flee “from the presence of the LORD” (v3, NKJV). In Jonah’s experience, he faces desperate situations. He is given a difficult task and, after fleeing in the other direction, he must then own the consequences of that poor choice before his shipmates.
Through the struggles of Jonah’s wilderness in the sea, he turns to God in prayer. He experiences recommitment and salvation. Does Jonah’s desperation mirror our own experiences? Is the task at hand inconvenient? Feel trapped by consequences? Do we turn to God when all else fails? The power of prayer is in experiencing God’s rescue after repentance.
What does it take for us to turn to God with that kind of honesty? Look at Jonah’s prayer inside the fish. What stands out? Honest confession of guilt. Praise in the middle of distress. Recognition that salvation comes from God alone. Jonah turns back to God in the midst of his wilderness. “I cried out to the LORD…Out of the belly of Sheol I cried…” (v2, NKJV), “Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (v4, NKJV), “I remembered the LORD and my prayer went up to You, into your holy temple” (v7, NKJV).
Most of us have a point at which we will turn to God in trouble. When we cry out to the LORD in prayer. Where and when we reach that point varies from person to person and experience to experience. For some of us, it takes us longer to remember God and turn to Him. For others, it is the first thought. Likely, we are somewhere in between. Do you immediately give it all to God when trials begin to surface? Do you get lost in your personal wilderness before remembering what He has done and what He has promised to do? Oh, that we shorten our reaction time and be quick to humble ourselves before Him! We need to be sensitized to going to God in prayer more quickly.
Each of these scriptures highlights God’s faithfulness and enduring mercy despite human unfaithfulness. You may be finding yourself in the wilderness of worldly temptations or in the desert of disbelief… maybe in the waves of illness, or the prison of selfishness. Remember God! Remember what He has done! Humble yourself and pray! Praise your God and be thankful!