Who Can Utter The Mighty Acts Of The LORD?

This psalm starts off with praising God for His mighty acts. It acknowledges God's salvation and favour for His people. The people acted in rebellious ways but God still saved them and redeemed them. God led them out of Egypt but they soon forgot and became idolatrous. Moses interceded and God did not destroy them all.

The account of the Israelites was a cyclical pattern of disobedience, repentance, favour from God and back to disobedience. Their rebellion and disobedience went to the point of utter abomination in God's eyes involving the sacrificing of their own sons and daughters to demons and pagan idols.

God gave His people away to be oppressed by their enemies. But because of their cries and God's covenant and His mercy, God relented and saved them.



Psalm 106
Joy in Forgiveness of Israel’s Sins

 1 Praise the LORD!
       
         Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
         For His mercy endures forever.
       
 2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD?
         Who can declare all His praise?
 3 Blessed are those who keep justice,
         And he who does[a] righteousness at all times!
       
 4 Remember me, O LORD, with the favor You have toward Your people.
         Oh, visit me with Your salvation,
 5 That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones,
         That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
         That I may glory with Your inheritance.
       
 6 We have sinned with our fathers,
         We have committed iniquity,
         We have done wickedly.
 7 Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;
         They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies,
         But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.
       
 8 Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,
         That He might make His mighty power known.
 9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up;
         So He led them through the depths,
         As through the wilderness.
 10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,
         And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
 11 The waters covered their enemies;
         There was not one of them left.
 12 Then they believed His words;
         They sang His praise.
       
 13 They soon forgot His works;
         They did not wait for His counsel,
 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
         And tested God in the desert.
 15 And He gave them their request,
         But sent leanness into their soul.
       
 16 When they envied Moses in the camp,
         And Aaron the saint of the LORD,
 17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan,
         And covered the faction of Abiram.
 18 A fire was kindled in their company;
         The flame burned up the wicked.
       
 19 They made a calf in Horeb,
         And worshiped the molded image.
 20 Thus they changed their glory
         Into the image of an ox that eats grass.
 21 They forgot God their Savior,
         Who had done great things in Egypt,
 22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
         Awesome things by the Red Sea.
 23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
         Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach,
         To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.
       
 24 Then they despised the pleasant land;
         They did not believe His word,
 25 But complained in their tents,
         And did not heed the voice of the LORD.
 26 Therefore He raised His hand in an oath against them,
         To overthrow them in the wilderness,
 27 To overthrow their descendants among the nations,
         And to scatter them in the lands.
       
 28 They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor,
         And ate sacrifices made to the dead.
 29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
         And the plague broke out among them.
 30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
         And the plague was stopped.
 31 And that was accounted to him for righteousness
         To all generations forevermore.
       
 32 They angered Him also at the waters of strife,[b]
         So that it went ill with Moses on account of them;
 33 Because they rebelled against His Spirit,
         So that he spoke rashly with his lips.
       
 34 They did not destroy the peoples,
         Concerning whom the LORD had commanded them,
 35 But they mingled with the Gentiles
         And learned their works;
 36 They served their idols,
         Which became a snare to them.
 37 They even sacrificed their sons
         And their daughters to demons,
 38 And shed innocent blood,
         The blood of their sons and daughters,
         Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
         And the land was polluted with blood.
 39 Thus they were defiled by their own works,
         And played the harlot by their own deeds.
       
 40 Therefore the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people,
         So that He abhorred His own inheritance.
 41 And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles,
         And those who hated them ruled over them.
 42 Their enemies also oppressed them,
         And they were brought into subjection under their hand.
 43 Many times He delivered them;
         But they rebelled in their counsel,
         And were brought low for their iniquity.
       
 44 Nevertheless He regarded their affliction,
         When He heard their cry;
 45 And for their sake He remembered His covenant,
         And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.
 46 He also made them to be pitied

       
 47 Save us, O LORD our God,
         And gather us from among the Gentiles,
         To give thanks to Your holy name,
         To triumph in Your praise.
       
 48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel
         From everlasting to everlasting!
         And let all the people say, “Amen!”
       
         Praise the LORD!

Esther Becomes Queen and Saves the King

When Queen Vashti was removed from the palace of King Ahasuerus along with her position and privilege, a search was conducted to find a new Queen for the King. Here we are introduced to Esther, a Jewish girl brought up by her uncle Mordecai who lived in the capital Shushan.

The king decreed that young women be brought to him so he could choose a new Queen. Esther found favour in the sight of Hagai, who was in charge of gathering the women. The women were placed in preparation for over a year. Since Esther found favour among the carers, she was provided with the best resources for her preparation, including seven maidservants and the best accommodation. When Esther was presented to the King, she again found favour from the king, who loved her more than the others. Hence Esther was made Queen.

Throughout this time, Esther did not reveal her background. In addition it is no doubt that the favour Esther obtained from all those around her was the favour from God, just like Joseph and Daniel who served in foreign lands too. Not long after, Esther and Mordecai were already saving the king when they foiled a plot to harm the king.



Esther 2

Esther Becomes Queen

 1 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s servants who attended him said: “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king; 3 and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel, into the women’s quarters, under the custody of Hegai[a] the king’s eunuch, custodian of the women. And let beauty preparations be given them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.”
This thing pleased the king, and he did so.
5 In Shushan the citadel there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite. 6 Kish[b] had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been captured with Jeconiah[c] king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. 7 And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
8 So it was, when the king’s command and decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered at Shushan the citadel, under the custody of Hegai, that Esther also was taken to the king’s palace, into the care of Hegai the custodian of the women. 9 Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his favor; so he readily gave beauty preparations to her, besides her allowance. Then seven choice maidservants were provided for her from the king’s palace, and he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women.
10 Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it. 11 And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women’s quarters, to learn of Esther’s welfare and what was happening to her.
12 Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after she had completed twelve months’ preparation, according to the regulations for the women, for thus were the days of their preparation apportioned: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women. 13 Thus prepared, each young woman went to the king, and she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the women’s quarters to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who kept the concubines. She would not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name.
15 Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king.

Mordecai Discovers a Plot
 
19 When virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai sat within the king’s gate. 20 Now Esther had not revealed her family and her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him.
21 In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus