Scripture Daily

Context No. 1182 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 106:17-32: in context

17The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. 18A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. 19They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. 20Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. 21They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. 23Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them. 24Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word, 25but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to the LORD’s voice. 26Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness, 27that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations, and scatter them in the lands. 28They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. 29Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them. 30Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped. 31That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come. 32They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes;

This psalm is a confession of Israel's long history of rebellion. It recounts the earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram, the golden calf at Horeb where they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox, their forgetting of God who had saved them, their refusal to believe his word, their joining themselves to Baal of Peor. And through it all, two intercessors appear: Moses, God's chosen, who stood in the breach before him to turn away his wrath so he would not destroy them, and Phinehas, who stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

In a passage cataloging Israel's repeated rebellions, the striking figures are the two who stood in the breach. Moses stood before God in the breach to turn away his wrath, that he would not destroy them. The image is of a broken wall with an enemy pouring through, and Moses planting himself in the gap between a guilty people and the judgment about to overwhelm them, interceding, pleading, absorbing the danger so the people would not be destroyed. That the psalm singles this out, in the middle of the record of sin, says something about the power and the calling of intercession. Israel survived not because they deserved to but because someone stood in the gap for them and turned away the wrath. It is the same picture Ezekiel used when God searched for someone to stand in the breach and found no one. Here, at least, there was Moses, and the whole nation lived because of it. It points forward to the great Intercessor who would stand in the ultimate breach with his own body. And it presses the question onto us: when judgment threatens people we love, will we be the ones who stand in the gap and plead, or will we let them face it alone?

When those I love stand under the threat of ruin, will I stand in the breach and intercede for them as Moses did, or leave the gap unmanned?

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