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This Psalm draws from several incidents in the history of God's people, showing us some valuable insight into what is happening all around us even today.
Just like the Israelites, we in the 21st century have already been given the message and direction from the LORD, our God, as to what we need to do with patience.
We have been told to wait for Jesus return, just as the people were instructed to wait for Moses when he went to the mountain. Many in this supposedly "post-Christian world" seem to be doing what the Israelites did:
13 Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!
They wouldn’t wait for his counsel!
14 In the wilderness their desires ran wild,
testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.
15 So he gave them what they asked for,
but he sent a plague along with it.
Instead of patiently trusting in God and following Him, many have cast the one true God off. Turning back to our own ideas and ways and creating false gods of own devising, that may look good, but can't save us:
19 The people made a calf at Mount Sinai;
they bowed before an image made of gold.
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull.
21 They forgot God, their savior,
who had done such great things in Egypt
God gives us what we need to live life as He instructs and to enjoy the world He has set before us while we wait for the final fulfillment of His promises. Even amidst the destruction that man is causing to the planet, we are still blessed with abundance in this world, just waiting to be wisely enjoyed and used, yet human beings still suffer because of our own selfishness, foolishness and unbelief:
24 The people refused to enter the pleasant land,
for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.
When we rebel against God, when we follow our own pride and are not the path of God who made us, there will only be bitterness and sorrow. Israel turned from God again and again and suffered for it. If we stand up courageously and do what pleases God, it doesn't have to be that way!
28 Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor;
they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead!
29 They angered the Lord with all these things,
so a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas had the courage to intervene,
and the plague was stopped.
31 So he has been regarded as a righteous man
ever since that time.
Heavenly Father,
We pray that we would follow You LORD, the Creator, only. That our walk with You would be stable and not drifting back to the gods of our own creation. May we all be regarded as righteous because we had the courage to intervene in our own lives and the lives of others. May we be given the courage to do Your will, LORD. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
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