Psalm 78:23-31 - August 9, 2009

Psalm 78:23-31 "Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; 24 he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. 25 Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat. 26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power. 27 He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore. 28 He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents. 29 They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved. 30 But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths, 31 God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel." NIV

The simple message of this passage is: “Be careful what you ask for!” The book of James gives us a basic introduction to this principle when it says, James 4:2-3 “You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,” NIV. The Israelites had just experienced miraculous deliverance from Pharaoh and from Egypt, were in the midst of an extended season of experiencing continued miraculous provision; water from the rock, bread from heaven, shoes that wouldn’t wear out, and yet they complained against the Lord. In His goodness He had provided for them in fulfillment of the verse that many of us now quote often, Phil 4:19 “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” KJV and so every one of their needs were met by the Lord.
The problem was not in the Israelites’ boldness to ask God for something. He. 4:16 tells that we should come before God boldly. It was that they were asking amiss. God had provided for every need. There was no lack amongst them and yet they were grumbling in discontent. They developed a negative attitude towards God’s miraculous provision because they were bored with the kind of food He was giving them. Imagine receiving such a continuous flow of miracles and getting tired of it. “God can we have a different miracle now, this one is getting old!” The startling reality though is that this is exactly the essence of what many of us do in our relationship with God. God has faithfully provided all that we need but the voice of our wants speaks so loudly in our ears that we lose touch with a thankful heart for the things that we do have. 1 Thess 5:18 “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” KJV The children of Israel provoked the Lord to anger and brought judgment upon themselves because of their heart condition in the midst of a season of difficulty where the Lord’s provision wasn’t good enough for them.
Many Christians follow the path of the children of Israel during those hard desert seasons. Too often we become filled with a complaining spirit because our attention is focused on what we do not have rather than on what God has provided. Is there a trial in your life right now? Consider how much worse it could be before you complain about what is. You cannot see the things that God has preserved you from that could have greatly intensified this season. Examine your life for all of the little miracles that He has been doing to preserve you in this situation from a heart of thankfulness and you will see that God has been at work. Consider that every good gift is truly from above, anything that you do have He has provided. Perhaps like the Israelites many of us have allowed our wants to speak to loudly in our ears and caused us to forsake a place of contentment. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Tim 6:6 “godliness with contentment
is great gain.”KJV
What is apparent from this portion of Psalm 78 is that our lack of contentment and our lust for more is offensive to the Lord and in at least some contexts can open the door for His judgment to come upon us, perhaps even in the form of the answer to the prayer we have been asking. God gave the Israelites what they craved and it became rottenness in their bones. Instead of being the source of contentment that they thought it would be the ungrateful Israelites instead suffered great sickness as they exchanged the supernatural bread of heaven for the lesser foods of this earth. This image is also a picture of how many of us exchange the satisfactions of the spiritual life for the longings of earthly fulfillment and entertainment. Instead of enjoying the pleasures of prayer, the Word of God, and a life of loving and serving others, we crave for the excitements of the “meat” of this world. God then allows us to go our own way but these fleshly indulgences become rottenness in our inner man in the end. Each one of us would be greatly helped if we would examine hearts and stir up a thankful spirit, enjoying the provision of God in every sphere, making our requests known to God from a thankful heart rather than a complaining spirit brings so much better fruit.