If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and the introduction to the Psalms for this book of the Bible in particular.
17 July. Psalms 106-107
Psalm 106 is titled in the NRSV “A confession of Israel’s sins”. Confession of sin is something strange to many people nowadays, something only done in religious ritual. But even then, the focus tends to be on our own personal sins. Even when a church congregation says a prayer of confession together using the word ”we” rather than “I,” most people will be thinking of their own shortcomings rather than daring to do so on behalf of anyone else.
Sometimes there is a call for national leaders to acknowledge the wrongdoings of their predecessors – to “apologise” for treating immigrants as slaves, women as mere property, or indigenous peoples as animals to be culled. But apology stops short of confession and repentance. That’s not to say that today’s leaders would endorse those practices, but they merely distance “us” from our ancestors who behaved so badly.
The Biblical form of national confession is different. Verse 6 puts it clearly: “Both we and our ancestors have sinned; we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly”. That is, our sins may be different (there is no suggestion of child sacrifice or idolatry in the later centuries of Jewish history) but we are no better than them.
But is that being too harsh on our leaders? What is needed is a national repentance, a collective turning back to God. We cannot expect politicians or even bishops to achieve that. What they could do, though, is be bold enough to challenge their fellow citizens to examine their own consciences and seek to “do justly and love mercy” as Micah put it. In a pluralist society “walk humbly with your God” is not a phrase that politicians can use without accusations of bias, but bishops can.
The first 32 verses of Psalm 107 consist of the potted stories of unnamed people (although the writer probably had well known folk heroes in mind) who suffered in various ways – exiled, lost, starving, thirsting, imprisoned, enslaved, sick and dying, and in peril on the sea. In each case they cried to God, he saved them and they gave him thanks. It is the ever-repeated pattern of encountering God and his saving power in the darkest times of life.
The following six verses go further and tell of how God actively works for the benefit of his people – he provides springs in the desert, so they can build towns to live in, farm the land and become plentiful and numerous. This is a story of co-operation between the Creator and his people, in which he provides the resources, and the skills with which to use them.