How Can a Loving God Allow Such Suffering? – Psalms 106-107

Joy: You’re listening to Season 2 of the Lifting Her Voice podcast.  This is Episode #185 and today we’ll read Psalms 106-107 together.   How can a loving God allow such suffering in this world?  

Welcome

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Season 2!  I’m your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me – from the beginning – simply reading God’s word together.  We built some spiritual muscles in 2020 with just the New Testament.  But this year we’re going all out, cover-to-cover, Old Testament and New.  So, whether with your first cup in the morning, your commute to work, or as the last thing on your mind before sleep, God’s Word will equip you for every good work.  I’m really glad you’re here!

Psalm 106

Israel’s Unfaithfulness to God

Hallelujah!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his faithful love endures forever.

Who can declare the Lord’s mighty acts

or proclaim all the praise due him?

How happy are those who uphold justice,

who practice righteousness at all times.

Remember me, Lord,

when you show favor to your people.

Come to me with your salvation

so that I may enjoy the prosperity

of your chosen ones,

rejoice in the joy of your nation,

and boast about your heritage.

Both we and our ancestors have sinned;

we have done wrong and have acted wickedly.

Our ancestors in Egypt did not grasp

the significance of your wondrous works

or remember your many acts of faithful love;

instead, they rebelled by the sea — the Red Sea.

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,

to make his power known.

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;

he led them through the depths as through a desert.

He saved them from the power of the adversary;

he redeemed them from the power of the enemy.

Water covered their foes;

not one of them remained.

Then they believed his promises

and sang his praise.

They soon forgot his works

and would not wait for his counsel.

They were seized with craving in the wilderness

and tested God in the desert.

He gave them what they asked for,

but sent a wasting disease among them.

He Would Have Destroyed Them

In the camp they were envious of Moses

and of Aaron, the Lord’s holy one.

The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;

it covered the assembly of Abiram.

Fire blazed throughout their assembly;

flames consumed the wicked.

At Horeb they made a calf

and worshiped the cast metal image.

They exchanged their glory

for the image of a grass-eating ox.

They forgot God their Savior,

who did great things in Egypt,

wondrous works in the land of Ham,

awe-inspiring acts at the Red Sea.

So he said he would have destroyed them —

if Moses his chosen one

had not stood before him in the breach

to turn his wrath away from destroying them.

They despised the pleasant land

and did not believe his promise.

They grumbled in their tents

and did not listen to the Lord.

So he raised his hand against them with an oath

that he would make them fall in the desert

and would disperse their descendants

among the nations,

scattering them throughout the lands.

They aligned themselves with Baal of Peor

and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

They angered the Lord with their deeds,

and a plague broke out against them.

But Phinehas stood up and intervened,

and the plague was stopped.

It was credited to him as righteousness

throughout all generations to come.

They angered the Lord at the Waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered because of them,

for they embittered his spirit,

and he spoke rashly with his lips.

He Remembered His Covenant

They did not destroy the peoples

as the Lord had commanded them

but mingled with the nations

and adopted their ways.

They served their idols,

which became a snare to them.

They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.

They shed innocent blood —

the blood of their sons and daughters

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;

so the land became polluted with blood.

They defiled themselves by their actions

and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against his people,

and he abhorred his own inheritance.

He handed them over to the nations;

those who hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies oppressed them,

and they were subdued under their power.

He rescued them many times,

but they continued to rebel deliberately

and were beaten down by their iniquity.

When he heard their cry,

he took note of their distress,

remembered his covenant with them,

and relented according to the abundance

of his faithful love.

He caused them to be pitied

before all their captors.

Save us, Lord our God,

and gather us from the nations,

so that we may give thanks to your holy name

and rejoice in your praise.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Hallelujah!

BOOK V

(Psalms 107–150)

Psalm 107

Thanksgiving for God’s Deliverance

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his faithful love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim

that he has redeemed them from the power of the foe

and has gathered them from the lands —

from the east and the west,

from the north and the south.

Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,

finding no way to a city where they could live.

They were hungry and thirsty;

their spirits failed within them.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;

he rescued them from their distress.

He led them by the right path

to go to a city where they could live.

Let them give thanks to the Lord

for his faithful love

and his wondrous works for all humanity.

For he has satisfied the thirsty

and filled the hungry with good things.

Others sat in darkness and gloom —

prisoners in cruel chains —

because they rebelled against God’s commands

and despised the counsel of the Most High.

He broke their spirits with hard labor;

they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;

he saved them from their distress.

He brought them out of darkness and gloom

and broke their chains apart.

Thanksgiving For God’s Wondrous Works

Let them give thanks to the Lord

for his faithful love

and his wondrous works for all humanity.

For he has broken down the bronze gates

and cut through the iron bars.

Fools suffered affliction

because of their rebellious ways and their iniquities.

They loathed all food

and came near the gates of death.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;

he saved them from their distress.

He sent his word and healed them;

he rescued them from their traps.

Let them give thanks to the Lord

for his faithful love

and his wondrous works for all humanity.

Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices

and announce his works with shouts of joy.

Others went to sea in ships,

conducting trade on the vast water.

They saw the Lord’s works,

his wondrous works in the deep.

He spoke and raised a stormy wind

that stirred up the waves of the sea.

Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths,

their courage melting away in anguish,

they reeled and staggered like a drunkard,

and all their skill was useless.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,

and he brought them out of their distress.

He stilled the storm to a whisper,

and the waves of the sea were hushed.

They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.

Then he guided them to the harbor they longed for.

Let Whoever is Wise Pay Attention

Let them give thanks to the Lord

for his faithful love

and his wondrous works for all humanity.

Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people

and praise him in the council of the elders.

He turns rivers into desert,

springs into thirsty ground,

and fruitful land into salty wasteland,

because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

He turns a desert into a pool,

dry land into springs.

He causes the hungry to settle there,

and they establish a city where they can live.

They sow fields and plant vineyards

that yield a fruitful harvest.

He blesses them, and they multiply greatly;

he does not let their livestock decrease.

When they are diminished and are humbled

by cruel oppression and sorrow,

he pours contempt on nobles

and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

But he lifts the needy out of their suffering

and makes their families multiply like flocks.

The upright see it and rejoice,

and all injustice shuts its mouth.

Let whoever is wise pay attention to these things

and consider the Lord’s acts of faithful love.

Close

I am going to speak to you from my heart here.  I’m going to be frank, so I pray that these are His words and not just mine.  I have heard this question so many times:  How can a loving God allow such suffering in this world?  People dear to me have asked it.  People that i know know the Lord have asked it.  Heck, in my younger years, I’ve asked it myself. 

My intent is not to be heartless.  I know that many times that lament is born out of very real suffering, and I don’t want to minimize that.  But as I read Psalm 106 and Psalm 107, I was struck with the thought that the condition of this world was never God’s intention.  I feel compelled to defend God here, as if that is even necessary.  We live in the midst of a broken world, rendered unrecognizable by our own sin.  Layer upon layer, generation upon generation, we are seeing the result of turning our backs on God.  We don’t even know who He is. 

What you are doing right now – reading His word everyday – is how we learn who God is, not by the 6 o’clock news and certainly not on the Internet.  Perhaps Mordecai’s challenge to Esther in Esther 4:13-14 applies to us here and now: “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” 

Pray For Those Struggling

We must pray for those who are struggling and come alongside those who are suffering and whose wounds need healing.  We must share God’s truth with those who are seeking.  Then, the promise of Leviticus 26:6 will be ours:  I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.

With trepidation, I invite your thoughts at Lifting Her Voice.com, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray that by spending time in His Word every day, you will by changed.  Visit me at Lifting Her Voice.com with your comments and questions.  And don’t forget to visit the Blog page while you’re there.  If you like the podcast, it would be great if you’d give it a five-star review and share it with everyone you know.  Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you tomorrow!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.