“The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise…. Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe in His word, but grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the LORD…. Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, and so the plague was stayed. And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to all generations forever” (Psa 106:11-12, 24-25, 30-31).
It never ceases to amaze me how “New Testament-ish” Psalm 106 really is. Were it possible to ask this unidentified author what his favorite verse in the New Testament is, he would undoubtedly cite Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him….” This is clear from the repeated references to the Torah’s key “faith” passages. In verses 11-12, we are reminded of the crossing of the Red Sea when Israel believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses (Exod 14:31). In verses 24-25, the author recalls Israel’s refusal to enter the Promised Land because of their lack of faith (Num 14:11).
We do not obey to earn points on some heavenly scoreboard. Rather, we obey because we are firmly committed to a worldview shaped by God’s promises.
The author was so influenced by the Torah’s emphasis on faith that he even retells the story of Phinehas (compare vv. 30-31 with Num 25:6-8) through the lens of Genesis 15. For only in Psalm 106:31 and Genesis 15:6 do we find the phrase, “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.” Although Numbers 25 does not say that Phinehas “believed,” the author of Psalm 106 interpreted his willingness to stand in the gap for the people of Israel as an act of faith that God credited to him as righteousness (v. 30).
Psalm 106, therefore, provides us with a biblical perspective on the kind of obedience that pleases God. We do not obey to earn points on some heavenly scoreboard. Rather, we obey because we are firmly committed to a worldview shaped by God’s promises. Although Israel, the church, and the world are not currently what they are supposed to be, we live and act with the certainty that they will be, because He who promised is faithful. God-pleasing obedience is the only reasonable response of one who sees the unseen realm.
