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Psalm 106:15

He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.

13They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel,
14but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland.
15He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
16They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, the LORD’s saint.
17The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.
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← Psalm 106:14Psalm 106:16 →
Notice

The granted request comes with God’s judgment, unsettling the assumption that getting what you want always means your desire has his approval.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

How does the word “but” change the way you read the granted request?

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Where might a current desire make waiting for God’s counsel hard for you?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

6 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Numbers 11:20but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and have wept before …Both passages describe a granted desire accompanied by judgment, with Numbers naming the people’s rejection of the LORD.
Numbers 11:31–34A wind from the LORD went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the …The quails brought by the LORD show the concrete provision behind the psalm’s statement that God gave them their request.
Isaiah 10:16Therefore the Lord, GOD of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.Both passages describe God sending leanness as judgment, showing that abundance offers no protection from his displeasure.
Psalm 78:29–31Both psalms recount God giving the people what they desired; Psalm 106 adds the leanness that accompanied the gift.
Job 16:8You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.Both texts attribute wasting to God, though Job speaks of his own suffering and Psalm 106 recounts judgment on the people.
Isaiah 24:16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt …Both passages speak of wasting amid human wrongdoing, though Isaiah laments treachery and the psalm recounts the consequences of craving.
Where this verse fits

Temptation. answered prayer. waiting.

What the Bible says about temptation →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Ask God to shape one desire by his counsel

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Encouragement

This account concerns people who tested God in the desert; it does not make every hardship a punishment. Receiving what they wanted did not mean God approved their craving.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 106:15. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 106 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).