Context No. 2354 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 106:1-16: in context

1Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. 2Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD, or fully declare all his praise? 3Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times. 4Remember me, LORD, with the favor that you show to your people. Visit me with your salvation, 5that I may see the prosperity of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance. 6We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. 7Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea. 8Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known. 9He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert. 10He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11The waters covered their adversaries. There was not one of them left. 12Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. 13They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel, 14but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. 15He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. 16They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, the LORD’s saint.

Psalm 106 opens with praise but quickly turns into a confession of the nation's history: we have sinned with our fathers. It recalls how, even at the Red Sea, the rescued people rebelled, and how quickly they forgot. They soon forgot his works, it says, and in the desert they gave in to craving and tested God. One verse lingers: he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.

That line names a particular danger. God sometimes grants what we insist on, and the getting hollows us out. The craving was met and the soul went thin. The psalm does not blame God for the leanness; it traces it to a heart that wanted the gift more than the giver and could not wait for his counsel. Forgetting comes fast, faster than we expect, and appetite fills the gap that memory leaves.

Is there something I am demanding so hard that receiving it might starve the part of me that matters most?

Sources

Psalm 106:13: They soon forgot his works. They didn't wait for his counsel.
Psalm 106:15: He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
James 4:3: You ask, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.