Psalm 106 is rather long. This article will be rather short. This will give the reader more time to examine the psalm to see if what the article says is true. Please do so.
We know that we should praise the Lord, and we know that we should confess our sins; but does it ever occur to us that confession is itself a form of praise? Do we ever face the fact that, apart from confession, it is not possible to praise the Lord?
This psalm is a fine example of confession as praise. It opens as any psalm of praise might, with a call to worship (1-3). It quickly turns to a recounting of the national sins in general terms (6-7): sin, iniquity, wickedness, failure to remember his works.
After a bit more praise (8-11), the sins of the nation are confessed more specifically (12-39):
- Failure to remember or to wait for his counsel (12-15),
- Jealousy and unwillingness to submit to his leaders (16-18),
- Idolatry (19-22),
- Lack of faith in God’s promise (24-25),
- More idolatry (28-29),
- Troubling their leader (32-33),
- Failure to carry out the Lord’s commands … etc. (34-39).
The point here is that without confession, we cannot praise the Lord, for it is only in our confession that the goodness of God can be seen.
In admitting their sin, the goodness of the Lord is made evident.
Confession admits that his periodic punishment was fully justified (40-42).Christians today have bought into a lie of Satan. We often justify our sin rather than confessing it. We deserve punishment and have nothing to complain of when we receive it (Rom 1:18-20). When we admit this, we justify God rather than justifying ourselves.
Confession shows that his deliverance was undeserved (43-46), that when we receive blessings, these are undeserved.
The psalm closes with a request for salvation. This salvation is requested without a claim of meriting it in any way (47-48).
Let us beware of stealing God’s glory by sounding as if we have earned our salvation. Let us confess our unworthiness, individually and as a people. Let us allow honesty about ourselves to be a form of praise to God. May our lives be a request for salvation, without a claim of merit.
Eswatini