Psalm 106:13

Psalm 106:13, in plain English

But they quickly forgot what God had done for them and didn't wait to hear what God wanted to tell them or do next.

Why it's here

The turning point. The psalmist isn't exaggerating—the people's memory was shockingly short. They forgot not just details but the whole pattern of God's faithfulness. Worse, they didn't wait for God's guidance; they moved ahead on their own impulses. This sets up everything that follows.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, identifying the fatal mistake

Where it sits in the story

This pattern of forgetting and impatience runs throughout Israel's wilderness wanderings. It's the human condition: we experience God's faithfulness, then we almost immediately act like we're on our own. It's why the Bible emphasizes remembering.

The scholarly reading

Almost immediately after this moment of faith, Israel forgot God's works and ceased waiting for His guidance—impatience and amnesia replaced trust, establishing a recurring pattern of infidelity.

Language and setting

The Hebrew qal (quick, soon) emphasizes the rapidity of Israel's spiritual collapse—remarkably swift movement from faith to forgetfulness. The 'counsel' (etzah) God offers requires patience; Israel's refusal to wait signals unwillingness to accept divine timing or methodology. Medieval commentator David Kimchi identifies this as humanity's perpetual spiritual weakness: memory failure leading to autonomy and rebellion.

Voice

The psalmist as diagnostic historian, identifying the root of Israel's cyclical sin.

Significance

This begins the wilderness narratives (Numbers 11-14) where Israel's complaints escalate: first hunger, then nostalgia for Egypt, then refusal to enter Canaan. This cycle repeats throughout Scripture—the people's impatience undoing God's plan.

11The waters covered their foes; not one of them remained.

12Then they believed His promises and sang His praise.

13Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

14They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

15So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

Read all of Psalm 106 — The other side of Psalm 105. Israel's history retold through the lens of rebellion — yet God saved them again and again for His name's sake.