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I. ANSWER THE QUESTION. This long psalm supplies a sample of Israel's sin. Their provokings were so frequent that the whole history of the people, stretching over many generations and long centuries, seemed to be all of a piece, and is called "the day of provocation."

II. INQUIRE HOW THEY PROVOKED GOD? By the perpetual repetition of the wretched round of sin, and then repentance. If they had done nothing else but sin, they would quickly have perished; it' they had sinned once, and done with it, their history would have been a far happier one; but it was this perpetual backsliding which provoked God.

III. WHY WAS IT? There was:

1. The force of example; all the nations round, the greatest and most glorious of them included, worshipped idols.

2. Then the indulgence which idolatry gave to sin; it was such an easy religion.

3. The difficulty of realizing the unseen, of living by faith.

4. The cravings of a corrupt nature.

IV. WHAT MADE THEIR CONDUCT SO WICKED?

1. It was such madness. Nothing but evil had ever come of their sin, and yet they went after it again.

2. Such ingratitude to God. What had he not done for them?

3. The terrible harm they did to their children and to the whole world.

V. WHAT CAME OF IT? What always must come - repeated and terrible chastisement, and rejection at the last. - S.C.

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KJV: How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

WEB: How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!