We Have Sinned With Our Fathers
1 Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. 2 Who can utter the mighty acts of Yahweh, or fully declare all his praise? 3 Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times. 4 Remember me, Yahweh, with the favor that you show to your people. Visit me with your salvation, 5 that 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. 6 We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. 7 Our 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. 8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert. 10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 11 The waters covered their adversaries. There was not one of them left. 12 Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. 13 They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel, 14 but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. 15 He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. 16 They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, Yahweh’s saint. 17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. 18 A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. 19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. 20 Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore 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.
The same history retold from the other side, by people who put themselves in it with the word we.
Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
The psalm opens in praise and then does something no other national history in Scripture does at this length: it confesses.
We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.
The pronoun is the psalm's whole method. Not they — we, sinning with our fathers, which places the singers inside a story that finished centuries before they were born. Where the hundred and fifth psalm recounted what God did and left the failures out, this one recounts the failures and puts the congregation in them.
Our 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.
Rebellious at the sea — before the crossing, with the water in front and the chariots behind Exodus 14:11.
Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known.
The first of the psalm's several neverthelesses, and the reason given for the rescue is not their condition but his reputation. It is the same argument the seventy-ninth psalm makes when it has nothing else to plead.
12 Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. 13 They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel,
Three sentences covering the fifteenth chapter of Exodus and the sixteenth. Belief, singing, and forgetting, in that order and at that speed. The word soon is the psalm's judgment on the whole generation.
14 but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. 15 He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
The verse that has haunted readers ever since. He answered the prayer, and the answer impoverished them. It is the collection's most serious statement about getting what one asks for, and it is offered without any suggestion that God was being unfair.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. 20 Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.
The last clause is the sharpest line in the psalm. What they swapped was their glory — and what they got was a statue of an animal whose chief characteristic is that it eats grass. Paul echoes the verse when describing the human race exchanging the glory of God for images of created things Romans 1:23.
Therefore 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.
The image is military: a gap in a city wall, and one man standing in it. That is the psalm's description of intercession, and it is why the nation survived chapter thirty-two of Exodus.
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