by Sharon Young

Created on: August 14, 2010   Last Updated: August 16, 2010

Psalm 106 is a history of the nation of Israel from the human perspective. It recounts a few of the travails of the Hebrews after they finally were allowed to leave the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

As in so many of the Psalms, Psalm 106 begins with praising God, and giving thanks, “for he is good; and his love endures forever“. It goes on to remind the reader that God has done so much for mankind that no one can name all of the marvels and wonders that he has created. The wonders of the laws nature, the faithfulness of God, and the perfect consistency of God's grace toward human beings are too often ignored, and worse, taken for granted.

The condition of planet earth has been on a decline since the discovery of fossil fuels, especially coal and oil. Strip mining in the United States has created flood conditions because of the damage done to the vegetation and landscape; thereby destroying lives, and testing the tenacity of the people who must reclaim their water-drenched lives and homes, time after time.

In April of 2010, man's carelessness cost eleven oil platform workers their lives, thus causing hardship and heartbreak to their families and other loved-ones. The American Gulf Coast waters were deluged with crude oil, mercilessly flooding into the gulf, and onto the shore, from the broken underwater pipeline. In addition, thousands of people lost their livelihood for an indeterminate amount of years. God's grace had provided the lives of men and means of maintaining them, while man's greed, carelessness, and wastefulness rejected those gifts of God.

There is a prevalence of an “it's all about me and what I want” syndrome in the world, and especially the United States, which began as a Christian nation. It's time to recall that the Bible's precepts do not deprive an individual of enjoyment and abundance of the good things in life; they just invite the individual to lovingly share his or her joy and abundance with others.

If the majority of the population, in any given geographic area, would consider offering themselves to the service of each other, they would find that doing so would be mutually beneficial. Then the relatively few who did not feel the need to share might eventually come to see that there is a better way to live. In Psalm 106:3, there is the challenge to “maintain justice“, and to “constantly do what is right”.

Maintaining justice may sound like it's an all-consuming effort; however, it quite

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>