38aBut He, being full of bcompassion, forgave their iniquity, And did not destroy them. Yes, many a time cHe turned His anger away, And ddid not stir up all His wrath;
39 For aHe remembered bthat they werebut flesh, cA breath that passes away and does not come again.
40 How often they aprovoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, aagain and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His1 power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
43 When He worked His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan;
2. They tested God by insisting that He satisfy their lusts (verses 18-19).
3. They played moral hide-and-seek with God, which is hypocrisy; they served Him only when they discovered for the moment they could not escape Him (verses 35-37).
4. Finally, they substituted idols for God at the center of their lives (verses 57-58).
Israel never got the true picture. Because they were walking by sight, and not by faith, they were so impressed with what they saw that they limited God's ability to create His heart and mind in them (verse 41).
Provoked means "rebelled against." Their disrespect and irreverence produced the fruit of limiting His willingness and power to provide for them in any situation. In their minds, they set boundaries upon what they thought He would or could do. The psalmist does not mean they literally hogtied God to keep Him from doing things, though the practical result of their relationship virtually amounted to that. However, in their lack of faith and fear of God and their failure to make practical use of His sovereignty over His creation and His willingness to help His people, they mentally drew lines, concluding that God could not or would not provide for them in their circumstance. Thus, they chose to arrive at their own solutions that resulted in sin and death. They were obviously not living by faith but by sight. Hebrews 4:1-2 confirms this was at the base of Israel's failure in the wilderness
