They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel
Psalm 106 is a confession. The singer looks back over Israel's story and admits its sin. Verse 13 is the turn: one verse earlier the people believe and sing, and here the song is already over.
The failure comes at the first difficulty of the desert road.
The people of Israel meet the difficulties of the wilderness. Forgetting God's ability to save, they neglected to seek counsel from God.
One writer aims the verse straight at anyone recently converted.
You would have thought, as you read the next verse, "Then they believed his words; they sang his praise" (Ps. 106:12), that they would be sure to go on brightly, joyfully, and happily. When you were converted you thought that. You dear young people, perhaps you thought you would never have a difficulty once you were converted. Isn't it striking, the next thing you read?
Their trust had settled on the man God used, not on God.
They leaned on the instrument of deliverance instead of the Deliverer. Moses had gone up for them into the mountain to the Lord, before whose terrible glory they had been trembling only moments earlier. This was so real that as soon as he was out of sight, they ran in wild haste to Aaron with the cry, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!" … Such is the way of man. He must have something visible and tangible to look to, if faith in an unseen God is either missing or fading.
The problem went deeper than one bad moment. Neither grace nor law changed what they were inside.
Whether under grace or under law, the flesh remained the same. It took every opportunity of revealing its corrupt and incurable character… The memory of Egypt and Egypt's food filled their hearts. They forgot the bitter slavery that went with it, and looked back with longing eyes.
The second half of the verse names the failure: they never asked. One writer follows that refusal to the end of the psalm.
Despite all that God had done for Israel, they had no thought of seeking His mind about the difficulties that arose. They had no thought of answering to His will for them. Lust and murmuring marked them. In the end, Israel's refusal to wait for God's counsel brings them into captivity (verse 46). There they cry, "Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations."
The next two verses show what God did about it. He let them have what they wanted.
Neglecting God's counsel, they were handed over to do their own will. It gave a brief satisfaction to their lust, but it sent leanness into their soul.
Another writer explains why getting what they wanted left them emptier.
Slipping away from Him once more, their hearts lusted for their own will. They tempted the Mighty One, doubting His ability to save. His very answer displayed His might for them, yet it brought only leanness into their souls. So it is with the soul away from God: satisfying the thirst, as with salt water, only increases it.
- Sang. The rescue at the sea was real, and so was the praise that followed it. That is what makes the next verse so startling.
- Forgot. They had leaned on the instrument of deliverance, not on the Deliverer. Once Moses was out of sight, their faith faded.
- Failed to ask. They never sought God's mind about the difficulties that came. The psalm follows that refusal all the way to captivity.
- Got their way. They neglected His counsel, so God let them have their own will. He answered the craving, and the answer sent leanness into their soul.
- Still thirsty. For a soul away from God, satisfaction works like salt water — it only deepens the thirst it was meant to end.
And they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
Psalm 106 retells Israel's history as a confession of their failures. Verse 14 is the moment when the rescued people, safe in the desert, turned their appetite into a test of God.
The craving did not come first. Behind it lay a forgotten song, and a people who would not seek God's counsel. Where the ESV reads "wanton craving," older translations read "lusted exceedingly" — the phrase the writers below quote.
But the song was soon replaced by selfish complaining. Israel forgot the wonderful works of God. They ignored their need of God's counsel and gave way instead to selfish lusts — and that "exceedingly." Instead of asking God in faith for food, they bitterly blamed Him for not giving it to them.
The craving had a shape. They wanted Egypt's food back, and what came out of them was blame, not prayer.
Their fears did not come out as prayer or pleading. They came out in words of bitterest reproach: "Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." … They were taken up with their present distress. They thought only of the meat pots of Egypt and the bread they ate to the full. But what of the bitter bondage, and the cruelty of their slave-drivers while they were enslaved in Egypt?
To put God to the test here is to doubt that He can save. And the answer they forced from Him did them no good.
They slipped away from Him once more. Their hearts lusted for their own will, and they put the Mighty One to the test, doubting His ability to save. His answer displayed His might for them, yet it brought only leanness into their souls. So it is with the soul away from God: satisfying the thirst, as with salt water, only increases it.
The word for God in this verse is El. Its use here says something about both His power and His holiness.
The use of "El" in verses 14 and 21 is distinct. The people's exceeding lust, and Moses' guilty weakness, serve to show His supremacy. The Lord's hand is not shortened, and His word will come to pass (Num. 11:23). At the same time His holiness is maintained, for He "sent leanness into their souls."
The quote uses an older wording, "leanness into their souls." The ESV renders verse 15: "but sent a wasting disease among them."
God gave Israel meat twice in the desert, and the two times were not the same. Psalm 105:40 and Psalm 106:14 set them side by side.
In Exodus 16 the people murmured before the law was given, and God freely gave them quail in the evening as well as manna in the morning. Guilty they were, but He acts only in grace until Exodus 19 and 20. Then the people themselves accepted legal conditions. When they murmured once more for meat, tiring of the manna, they were dealt with according to the law under which they stood. Judgment fell on them from God, instead of the grace they had known before.
This history is a warning, and the warning is for us.
There are evil things for which we may lust as they lusted. If God prevents the extreme result for us, that is His mercy. But if we disregard the warnings, we may spoil and disfigure our own lives, and make them quite other than He would have them.
- Forgetting. The craving does not start with hunger. It starts with a forgotten song, and with God's counsel ignored.
- Craving. What they wanted was Egypt back — the meat pots remembered, the slavery left out.
- Testing. Their demand was a doubt. They questioned the Mighty One's ability to save, in the desert where He fed them daily.
- Answer. God gave them what they asked, and the soul grew lean. Appetite fed away from God is salt water — the drink deepens the thirst.
- Warning. The same lust is possible now. If God spares us the extreme result, that is mercy; but ignoring the warning can still spoil the life He meant for us.