May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the book of Psalms and Psalm 106 and we'll read
verse 15. Psalm 106 and reading verse 15. And He gave them their
request. but sent leanness into their
soul. We have, of course, in the Word
of God, in the Bible, many accounts really of the children of Israel. how they began really from Abraham
and right the way through until they were in Egypt and came out
of Egypt and came into the wilderness and then came into Canaan and
then continued in various countries in their area. And one thing
we find as we read the accounts is that they were often disobedient
They were often rebellious against God. And they wanted their own
way. And they did everything really
to achieve that. And how unwilling they were to
accept that which God had provided for them. And this 106th Psalm
that we read together this evening gives us a little insight into
some of the positions that Israel were in. And yet you see it started
off this psalm very beautifully when it says, Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And it concludes,
you may have noticed, with very similar words. Praise ye the
Lord. The reality is that we all have
good reason to praise God. We all have good reason to acknowledge
the Lord is good. Whenever I read that word, I'm
reminded, as I'm sure some of us are, of our good friend Philip
Mercer, Rosie's late husband, who, in actual fact, whenever
I met him, He would always greet me with those words, the Lord
is good. And he didn't have an easy life.
He had many problems and many difficulties, but notwithstanding
whatever the situation, he would always say, the Lord is good. Well, the Lord is good and he's
always good. But you see, we often forget
to recognize the Lord is good. And more so, we forget to acknowledge
the Lord is good. I sometimes think the New Testament
church, after the resurrection, they used to greet one another
with those words, the Lord is risen. And it was a wonderful
reminder of the greatness of that occasion so that they wouldn't
forget. Well, it's very important for
us still today to know the Lord is risen, but I suppose we don't
often speak it one to another. And we don't often speak in these
terms either. The Lord is good. And yet we
should remember those great truths. The Lord is good. He's good to
us, especially in our nation today. And we need to be reminded
of the goodness of God, that we are blessed here in this country
with the Bible in our own language, which it has been for centuries
now. And again, we often pass over it. We have the Bible and
we just accept it almost as our right, which of course it is
not at all, but God has given it to us and we're able to read
it. And it's a wonderful blessing
and a wonderful privilege. And we should not therefore approach
it and think, well, I've got to read the Bible this morning
and just carry out some duty and then do that and think we've
satisfied some obligation. We should come happy and pleased
and wanting to read the Word of God, that it may truly be
blessed to us. Well then, as we have that as
a bit of a background, We realised that the Israelites complained
and complained. Let us just think for a moment
what they'd been delivered from. They'd been in Egypt for some
400 years and they'd grown massively from just a handful of 70 souls
to well over a million people. And therefore they'd grown to
a great nation. And yet they'd been treated In
the last part of that time in Egypt, very hardly, Pharaoh had
not dealt with them well, and they'd had a very difficult time,
and a hard time. But of course, they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble, and the Lord delivered them. And
he delivered them in a very wonderful way, as I'm sure we are familiar,
I hope we are, because I've gone through it a number of times,
But just to very quickly say that of course they came out
of Egypt when that last plague was brought upon the Egyptians
when all the firstborn were destroyed. And they came out a wonderful
deliverance. They came to the Red Sea after
quite a short time. And that was a barrier to them.
And they began to complain. And you think of how God had
delivered them in a wonderful way. There was no reason to complain. They should have had their heart
up to the Lord. He would indeed appear for them
and not complain. But nonetheless, they did. But
the Lord nonetheless was very gracious and very merciful. And my friends, God hasn't changed. He's still the same today. He's
very good and He's very gracious and He's very kind to all of
us. That's true, isn't it? If you
and I think of our own lives, I'm sure we have to say that
God has not dealt with us as our sins deserve, has He? He's
been very gracious. Wonderful, isn't it? And he was
very gracious to the Israelites. And therefore he dried up the
Red Sea and made that passage. The Israelites went over safely
and the Egyptians trying to follow were all swallowed up and drowned.
It was indeed an amazing deliverance. And now we find there across
the Red Sea and again they start complaining. haven't got any
water, and God graciously supplies their need. Well, we could go
on, and you can go on, you can read the accounts in those early
chapters in Exodus and Deuteronomy, which describes how the Lord
was with Israel of old. But they did continue to complain,
and God continued to deliver them. They should not have complained,
but they did complain. And it's very sad when we think
of it, but it's there for an example to us today that we should
not complain. If the way that God is leading
us is not perhaps to our liking, we shouldn't complain. we should
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, realizing that God
has a perfect right to deal with us as he sees fit. And what a gracious God and a
kind God we have. The 107th Psalm, the next psalm,
I'm sure most of you will know, it's a very beautiful psalm.
And again it starts off, O give thanks unto the Lord for he is
good. But it recalls a number of instances
when God was very gracious and God heard the cries of his people. And we're told this, he led them
forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. And that is as true for us today
as it was for those people, those Israelites many years ago. He
does lead us forth by the right way. We might not think it is. We might complain. We may wish
it was different. We may wish perhaps it was a
bit easier. We might wish it followed the
way that we think it should go. But let us remember, God knows
the end from the beginning of our lives, and you and I don't.
And God, therefore, knows what He's doing with us, and we can
believe. And it's a wonderful thing if God gives us faith to
believe that we have been led forth by the right way. But as we come down to the wards
of the end of this 107th Psalm, The psalmist says, Oh, that men
would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works the children of men. Well, let's consider our lives
today. Have we many favours to thank
God for? The answer is we have. Do we
praise him? We should. for his wonderful
works which he has granted to us. And then he goes on, let
them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him
in the assembly of the elders. We are to exalt the name of our
God. We are to praise him. He is worthy of these things
and how often we are negligent in these things and we complain
complained still, we're no better than the Israelites of old. And yet then, he just gives us
a little short extract of what he did. And he tells us, he turneth
rivers into a wilderness, and the water springs into dry ground,
a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that
dwell therein. He turneth a wilderness into
a standing water, dry ground into water springs. And there
he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city
for habitation, sow the fields, plant vineyards, which may yield
fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that
they are multiplied greatly, and suffereth not their capital
to decrease. And then again they are minished
and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow. He poureth
contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness
where there is no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high
from affliction, and maketh himself families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and
rejoice. and all iniquity shall stop her
mouth. Well, it's good for us today
if we observe God's leadings and if we observe God's grace
and his mercy. And so he concludes, whoso is
wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the
loving kindness of the Lord. Well, it's good, isn't it, if
God gives us spiritual eyes to see and minds to understand the
goodness of God. And so we come down then with
that background really to these words. And he gave them their
request. Now their request was often not
for their spiritual good. Their request was often not for
their spiritual good. And yet you see the Lord was
gracious. And the Lord did grant their request. But the result
was, and this was the tragedy really, He sent leanness into
their souls. So they weren't healthy in their
spiritual lives. They'd achieved what they wanted
in their natural life, but they weren't healthy in their spiritual
life. And really, the opposite should
have been that which they had desired. And that was to be healthy
in their spiritual life. And everything else was of a
secondary nature. But you see, they were left to
themselves. And therefore they sought just
natural things, Food. That was their great cry, wasn't
it? You remember, God had gloriously provided for them manna, food
from heaven. God had supplied it. It was perfectly
adequate. But they didn't like it. They
got fed up with it. They wanted something different.
They wanted some flesh. Well, God heard their cry. And he sent them abundant flesh
in the form of quails. But you see, they only started
eating it. You see, God's judgment came
upon them. Because of that, many times,
God's judgment came upon Israel. And the Lord delivered them from
those judgments. You remember, there was that
time when they rebelled against God. And he sent fiery serpents,
that was just one occasion that poisoned many of the Israelites. And they cried unto God and the
Lord enabled Moses to make that brazen serpent and sit up on
a pole so that all that looked to that serpent lived, were cured
of that poisonous disease. But many died, many died, rebellion
against God. You know, we're told rebellion
is as a sin of witchcraft. It's very evil to rebel against
God. And we should be very much on
our guard that we're not rebelling against God. And we think, well,
I think this is the right way. Israel thought it was the right
way, but they were wrong. It wasn't the right way. And the
Apostle John, you know, when he wrote the epistles, he said,
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mightest prosper and
be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. What a good concern. What a good concern that should
be for us. Our great concern is that our soul prospers. We're healthy in our soul. God looks into our hearts, doesn't
he? But you know, that's the vital thing. We don't want to
be found like this. God grants a natural request
and we find ourselves lean in spiritual things. That means
we find that the reading of the Word of God becomes a bit irksome. We don't read it with relish.
We don't enjoy the preaching of the gospel. We're ready to
complain and ready to criticize. And we find that we're leaning
that we don't gain any spiritual food. We find that we become
then in this condition, leanness in our souls. Well, that of course
is a sad and a very tragic situation. And yet, you see, the Lord is
very gracious. And we can read in the Colossians
about the Lord's goodness and mercy and grace. And in the very
first chapter of the Colossians, the apostle speaks in this way. And he says in the first chapter
and the 10th verse, or perhaps we might read the ninth verse,
This cause also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the
knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God. That should be our great concern,
shouldn't it? To increase in the knowledge
of God and to be fruitful in every good work. Spiritual fruitfulness. And that means to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It's a good exercise, as I've
sometimes mentioned, to remember what God has done for us, perhaps
just in the last week. So just think and sit down and
think, well now, what has God done for me in the last week? What fruitfulness has been produced
in my life for the honour and glory of God? What has there
been in my spiritual life to draw me to the Saviour? What
has been wonderfully attractive in the Lord Jesus Christ to my
soul? Can I say, well, thanks be to
God, praise to God for this which He's done, for that which He's
said, for that encouraging word, for that perhaps direction, perhaps
that word of correction, whatever it may be, to have the evidence
that God is dealing with us as sons and daughters of the Most
High God. We haven't been left on one side.
We haven't been cast away. No, but the Lord has been gracious
to us and been mindful of us. And then the apostle goes on,
strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power
unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Well, it's a
great blessing when God gives us patience to endure that which
the Lord sees fit to lay upon us. The Lord knows what we need. Naturally, we don't know what
we need. God knows what we need. Sometimes he brings us into paths
of affliction, paths of opposition, so that we prove the strength
of Almighty God, who stands by us and encourages us. And in these paths of opposition,
in these paths of fruitfulness, what occurs? When I believe this
occurs, we know a little of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ in
his sufferings. The Lord was opposed, wasn't
he, so often in the things that he said and did. But people didn't
want to know. They didn't want to follow him.
They wanted to go their own way. Well, what a blessing then, if
God grants us, as we may find sometimes the path difficult
and not easy, to realize, well, here we have fellowship with
Christ. Had to put everything right,
you know. We'll be content. We'll be content to walk that
path because we'll know it's a path that ends up in glory. the path that is a path of blessing. We don't want therefore to be
found like this. And he gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their soul. And the previous verse
reads, but they, well the previous two verses, they soon forgot
his works. They waited not for his counsel. They lusted exceedingly in the
wilderness and tempted God in the desert, and he gave them
their request, but sent leanness into their soul.' It was indeed
a sad condition that Israel found themselves in so often. We shouldn't
forget that the Israelites as they set about on this journey. They'd only been on the journey
about a year, and they came to the borders of Canaan, and God
allowed 12 spies to be sent to spot the land to see how good
it was, one from each tribe. They went out, 10 came back with
an evil report. Said it was a good land, but
we can't go and possess it. It's just too difficult. All
the cities are high walls around them. There's all the enemy,
they're strong, and there's giants there, and we can't do it. And
therefore, what did they do? They refused the word of God. Thankfully Joshua and Caleb didn't
go with them. Caleb said those beautiful words,
we are well able, well able to gain the victory. But he was
overruled, overruled by those 10 spies. And therefore they
didn't go up and possess the land. And the result was the
Israelites then had to tramp along in the wilderness For 40
years, one year represented a day that those spies had been in
the land of Canaan to spy on the land. But the very solemn
position was that all those who were over 20 years of age were
not permitted to go into the land of Canaan. So, after enough
40 years, all those who were over 20 years, 40 years before,
had died in the wilderness. It was a very solemn judgment
of God. And He gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their souls. Well, the Word of God
encourages us in direction to the Lord Jesus Christ. You may
remember He preached that glorious sermon, we refer to it as the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, chapters 5, 6 and 7. And one of the things
that the Lord speaks about there is if there is that which is
false or that which is impeding us in our Christian walk, we
ought to get rid of it. And the Lord spoke about the
eye. As a very important example, he says, And if thy right eye
offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee. For it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell. The Lord's very straightforward
in the statements he makes. And they're written in the Word
of God, recorded there for our guidance and for our direction
and for our blessing. And so let us not, therefore,
look in one way and think, well, that's the right way, maybe the
wrong way. And we need to pluck our eye
out, as it were, and turn away from it. otherwise we may find
ourselves in this position. And he gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their soul. There's nothing worse than
being spiritually barren. We read in the Old Testament,
there was a famine of the hearing of the word. God's judgment upon
God's ancient people. A famine of the hearing of the
Word. The Word was preached, the Word
was proclaimed. There was a famine in hearing
it. The people didn't feed. They
didn't feed. What a very sad and solemn position
that was. The other side is we have great
reason to praise God and to thank God for all His goodness and
for His many mercies, which He has provided for us. And in the
92nd Psalm, which is a very beautiful Psalm, directs us in the grace
and mercy and goodness of God. And we read in the 92nd Psalm,
it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises
unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy lovingkindness
in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. There is cause,
there is reason to always praise and thank God for his goodness,
for his lovingkindness, morning and night, to not cease and to
not forget. For thou, Lord, has made me glad
through thy work. I will triumph in the work of
thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works
and thy thoughts are very deep. What a subject for meditation,
isn't it? To think of the works of God.
that we may think morning and evening on the greatness of our
God. But thou, Lord, art most high
forevermore. Our God rules and reigns. He's
in complete control of everything. He's in complete control in our
little lives. Well, the righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat
and flourishing, healthiness in the things of God. All that
you and I should be really concerned that we are like that spiritually,
We're fat and flourishing. We show forth the praises of
God. We show forth his goodness and
mercy toward us. We have the evidence of it in
our own spiritual lives, that God is with us and that God is
blessing us and that we are growing in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Surely this is the fundamental
and important issue that we are growing spiritually. We're not
stagnating. We're not in a time of barrenness.
We're not in a time of hardness, but we are growing in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Again, as we journey on, to be
able to realise The Lord has revealed this to my soul and
it's been food to me, food and drink. Think of those glorious
words of the Saviour in the sixth of John when he said, It's not
a question of having a form and looking all right and doing the
right things. It's that blessed knowledge,
that blessed feeding upon Christ as our altogether glorious Saviour. Well, what a mercy, if that is
so. And he gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their soul. These are words the psalmist
records of Israel of old. We have the many, many Examples,
don't we then, of the Israelites, how they walked and how they
disobeyed and rebelled against the way that God has set before
them. It was a good way. It was good food. It was a right
way. He was going to go and deliver
them. But no, they rebelled against
God. Sad, isn't it? When it's there, my friends,
for our encouragement, and for our blessing. And so tonight
as we just ponder these words, David said in just a few verses
earlier, then believed they his words, they sang his praise. Well, I hope we do. Believe his
words. And we do sing his praise. The next verse says, they soon
forget his works. They waited not for his counsel. No, they followed their own way,
their own devices. But the result was he gave them
their request. but sent leanness into their
soul. May we be found amongst those
who, as we open this chapter with his glorious words, praise
ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for
his mercy endureth