The Great Usurpation: Getting In On the Inheritance
Introduction: The War for Identity
We live in an age of frantic, desperate identity politics. Modern man is obsessed with defining himself, with creating his own meaning, and with assembling his own tribe. He wants to be the author of his own story, the captain of his own soul. He believes that his identity is something he constructs from the inside out, based on his feelings, his desires, his grievances, or his ambitions. The result of this project is not liberation, but atomization and chaos. We have a world full of people shouting "I am my own," and yet they have never been more lonely, more anxious, or more adrift.
This entire modern project is a great usurpation. It is an attempt to steal the naming rights that belong to God alone. It is a rebellion against the fundamental truth that our identity, our meaning, and our salvation are not things we invent for ourselves, but are things that must be given to us. They are corporate realities, bestowed upon a people, and we find our true selves only by being incorporated into that people.
Psalm 106 is a long and often brutal recounting of Israel's history of rebellion. It is a national confession of sin. But it begins here, in these first five verses, with a glorious declaration of God's character and a profound personal plea. The psalmist understands something our generation has utterly forgotten: true blessing is not found in a private, bespoke relationship with God. True blessing is found in being included in God's favor toward His people. The prayer is not "bless me," but rather, "include me in the blessing You are already pouring out on Your chosen." This is a frontal assault on expressive individualism. It is the biblical cure for the madness of self-creation. It teaches us that the most important question is not "Who am I?" but rather, "Whose am I?"
The Text
Praise Yah!
Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; For His lovingkindness endures forever.
Who can speak of the mighty deeds of Yahweh, Or can make all His praise to be heard?
How blessed are those who keep justice, And he who does righteousness at all times!
Remember me, O Yahweh, in Your favor toward Your people; Visit me with Your salvation,
That I may see the goodness of Your chosen ones, That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, That I may boast with Your inheritance.
(Psalm 106:1-5 LSB)
The Unchanging Premise (v. 1)
The psalm begins with a command that is also a conclusion.
"Praise Yah! Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; For His lovingkindness endures forever." (Psalm 106:1)
"Praise Yah!" is Hallelujah. This is the starting pistol for all right thinking and all true worship. But it is not a cheer generated by our own emotional state. It is a conclusion based on a fixed and eternal premise. The premise has two parts: God is good, and His lovingkindness endures forever. Our praise is not the foundation; it is the necessary response to the foundation that God Himself has laid.
The word for "lovingkindness" here is the great Hebrew word hesed. This is not a sentimental, squishy affection. Hesed is covenant loyalty. It is stubborn, unrelenting, sworn faithfulness. It is the love of a king for his subjects, of a husband for his wife, of God for His people. It is the glue that holds the cosmos together. God's goodness is His character; His hesed is His commitment. This is the bedrock of reality. The universe does not run on chaos or chance; it runs on the covenant faithfulness of God. And because this is true, the only sane response is to give thanks.
The Impossible Task (v. 2)
From this foundation of God's character, the psalmist moves to the inadequacy of our response.
"Who can speak of the mighty deeds of Yahweh, Or can make all His praise to be heard?" (Psalm 106:2)
This is a rhetorical question, and the answer is "no one." No one can exhaust the mighty deeds of God. No one can ever finish the job of praising Him. This is not a cause for despair, but rather a summons to humility and a guarantee of eternal employment. We will never run out of reasons to praise God. His glory is an infinite ocean, and our praise is like a thimble we dip into it. This verse is a direct refutation of all man-centered worship. It reminds us that God is the subject and the object of praise, and we are simply the grateful, and eternally inadequate, choir.
Our task is not to praise God enough, but to praise Him faithfully. We are to join the great chorus that has been singing since the dawn of creation and will sing long after the stars have grown cold. This verse sets the stage for the rest of the psalm, which will recount many of God's mighty deeds, not to exhaust the subject, but simply to add another verse to the endless song.
The Covenant Man (v. 3)
After establishing God's character and our duty to praise Him, the psalmist describes the man who lives in light of these realities.
"How blessed are those who keep justice, And he who does righteousness at all times!" (Psalm 106:3)
This is a beatitude. It describes the happy man, the blessed man. And who is he? He is the man who lives out the covenant. "Justice" and "righteousness" are not abstract philosophical virtues. They are covenantal terms. To keep justice (mishpat) is to live according to God's revealed standards in community. To do righteousness (tsedeqah) is to be in a right relationship with God and with your neighbor. This is the fruit of a life that has been gripped by the goodness and hesed of God.
Notice the standard: "at all times." This is the standard of perfection. This verse, then, does two things. First, it shows us the shape of a life that pleases God. It is a life of consistent, principled obedience. Second, it drives us to our knees, because none of us meets this standard. This verse describes the life that is truly blessed, and in so doing, it reveals our own bankruptcy. This is not a ladder to climb to God, but a mirror that shows us our need for a Savior. There is only one man who has ever kept justice and done righteousness at all times, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse points to Him, the truly blessed man, in whom we can be counted as blessed.
The Personal Plea (v. 4)
Understanding his own failure to meet the standard, the psalmist makes a profound and personal request.
"Remember me, O Yahweh, in Your favor toward Your people; Visit me with Your salvation," (Psalm 106:4)
When a man in the Bible asks God to "remember" him, he is not worried that God has a faulty memory. He is asking God to act on his behalf according to His covenant promises. "Remember me" means "intervene for me." It is the prayer of the thief on the cross: "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). It is a plea for covenantal action.
But notice the crucial qualifier. He does not ask for a special, individualized blessing. He asks to be remembered "in Your favor toward Your people." This is the heart of the matter. The psalmist understands that God's blessings flow through covenantal channels. God has a people, and He shows favor to that people. The psalmist's prayer is, "Let me be a part of that. Let the blessing that You are pouring out on Your chosen nation splash onto me." Salvation is personal, but it is never private. It is a corporate reality. He wants to be visited with "Your salvation", the salvation that belongs to the people of God.
The Corporate Goal (v. 5)
The final verse of this introduction explains why he wants to be included. His motivations are entirely corporate, entirely centered on the people of God.
"That I may see the goodness of Your chosen ones, That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, That I may boast with Your inheritance." (Psalm 106:5)
He lays out three goals, and not one of them is individualistic. First, he wants to see the good of God's chosen. He wants to witness their prosperity, their flourishing under God's hand. Second, he wants to rejoice in the gladness of God's nation. He wants his joy to be tied to the corporate joy of the redeemed community. His happiness is not a private affair. Third, he wants to boast with God's inheritance. His glory, his boast, is not in himself, but in what God has made His people to be.
This is the polar opposite of the modern quest for self-esteem. The psalmist finds his identity, his joy, and his glory by being subsumed into something larger than himself: the covenant people of God. His personal story only makes sense as a small part of God's great story of redemption for His chosen nation.
Conclusion: Grafted Into the Inheritance
This psalm is a prayer for inclusion, and it is a prayer that God has answered definitively in the person of His Son. The "favor toward Your people" was ultimately shown at the cross. The "salvation" God visited us with was the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the one who perfectly kept justice and righteousness at all times.
And so, how do we pray this prayer today? We pray it by asking God to remember us in Christ. We are the wild olive branches, the Gentiles, who have been grafted into the "nation," the "inheritance" of God (Romans 11). The church is the Israel of God. Our prayer is that we would be found in Him, counted among His chosen ones.
Our identity is not something we invent. It is something we receive by grace through faith. We are made part of His people. Our joy is not found in navel-gazing, but in the gladness of His nation, the Church. And our boast is not in our accomplishments, but in the glorious inheritance that is ours in Jesus Christ. We are not our own; we were bought with a price. Therefore, let us find our true selves not by looking inward, but by looking to Christ and taking our place among His people, His nation, His inheritance.