Verse 1

Praise ye the Lord,.... Or "hallelujah"; which, according to the Arabic version, is the title of the psalm; and so it stands in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions. Several psalms following begin in like manner; it begins as the former ended, and ends as it begins; praise being due to God at all times, and on all occasions. O give thanks unto the Lord: always, for all things, temporal and spiritual, since not worthy of any: or, confess unto the Lord (h); his great goodness, and your unworthiness; and all your sins and transgressions committed against him, who only can pardon. For he is good; essentially, solely and originally; is communicative and diffusive of his goodness; is the author of all good, and of no evil; and is gracious and merciful, and ready to forgive. For his mercy endureth for ever; notwithstanding the sins of his people; though he may sometimes hide his face from them, and rebuke them in his providence; and though he causes grief by so doing, he still has compassion upon them, his mercy continues towards them; yea, his mercies are new every morning, as to temporal things; and spiritual mercies, the sure mercies of David, redemption, remission of sins, and sanctification, issue in eternal life; the mercy of God is from eternity to eternity: these are reasons why he should be praised, and thanks be given, to him. (h) "confitemini Domino", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Verse 2

Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?.... Or powers (i); to which answers the Greek word for the miracles of Christ, Mat 11:20, and Kimchi here restrains them to the wonders wrought in Egypt, and at the Red sea: but they may as well be extended to the mighty acts of God, and the effects of his power, in the creation of all things out of nothing; in the sustaining and government of the world; in the redemption of his people by Christ; in the conversion of sinners, and in the final perseverance of the saints; in all which there are such displays of the power of God as cannot be uttered and declared by mortal tongues. Who can show forth all his praise? all those things done by him, worthy of praise, they are so many and so great? see Psa 40:5. (i) "potentias", V. L. Michaelis; "virtutes", Cocceius.

Verse 3

Blessed are they that keep judgment,.... Or "observe" (k) it; the righteous judgment of God on wicked men; by which he is known in his justice, holiness, truth, and faithfulness; and by which the inhabitants of the earth observing it, learn to do righteousness, as follows: or else it may intend the word of God, his laws, statutes, and ordinances, after called his judgments, Psa 19:9, which should be observed and kept, as the rule of our actions, walk, and conversation. And he that doeth righteousness at all times; continually believes in Christ for righteousness, and puts on that as his justifying righteousness; whereby he becomes righteous as he is, Jo1 3:7, and performs acts of righteousness from a principle of grace, as a fruit of regeneration, and an evidence of it, Jo1 2:29, that does it with right views, aims, and ends; not to be justified and saved by it, but because God requires it; and it is for his glory, and to testify subjection to him, and thankfulness for favours received from him. And this is to be done at all times; we should never be weary of well doing, but be always abounding in good works; and happy are those that will be found so doing, such are "blessed" persons: not that their blessedness lies in or arises from righteousness done by them; but this is descriptive of such that are blessed in Christ with the remission of sins, and his justifying righteousness. And these are the proper persons to show forth the mighty acts and praise of the Lord; they are most capable of it, and more likely to perform it with acceptance than any other; see Psa 50:14. (k) "observarent", Junius & Tremellius; "observantium", Gejerus.

Verse 4

Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people,.... The Lord has a special and peculiar people, whom he has chosen, taken into covenant, given to his Son, redeemed by him, who are called by grace, and brought to glory: to these he bears a peculiar favour, loves with an everlasting love; which he has shown in the choice of them; in the gift of his Son to them; in their regeneration, and eternal salvation. Now nothing can be more desirable than an interest in this favour, in which is life, spiritual and eternal; is the strength and security of believers, the source of their comfort, and the foundation of their happiness: to be remembered with this is to have a view of interest in it, a comfortable sensation of it, and an application of benefits by it. O visit me with thy salvation; a prayer, either for the coming of Christ, as God's salvation, promised, expected, and wished for; or, however, for an application of spiritual salvation to be wrought out by him; for a view of interest in it; to have the joys and comforts of it now, and the full possession of it hereafter. A gracious and desirable visit this! The ends of such requests, or of such a visit, follow:

Verse 5

That I may see the good of thy chosen,.... The elect, according to the foreknowledge of God; who are chosen in Christ to holiness and happiness, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth unto salvation by him; the vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory, both of Jews and Gentiles. The "good" of those is not any goodness of their own, for there is none in them naturally; they are by nature no better than others, none are good, nor do good, no, not one: but the goodness of God laid up for them, and bestowed on them; the blessings of goodness with which Christ is preparing for them; all the good things secured for them in a well ordered covenant; which they partake of in time, and to eternity. To "see" these is not to have a superficial, notional, knowledge of them, as hypocrites may have; or a distant view of them, as Balaam, and the rich man in hell; but to have an experience of them, possess them, and enjoy them. That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation; all the nations of the world are the Lord's; but there is a chosen generation, an holy nation, that is peculiarly his; a nation taken out of a nation, nay, taken out of all the nations that are upon earth: and these have a joy peculiar to them, which foreigners know nothing of, and strangers intermeddle not with; a spiritual joy in the Holy Ghost; a rejoicing in Christ Jesus, in his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, and in hope of the glory of God; and such joy is desirable, a joy unspeakable, and full of glory. That I may glory with thine inheritance; the same with his chosen people and nation: for the Lord's people is his portion, and the lot of his inheritance; they are chosen for an inheritance, given to Christ as such, with which he is well pleased, esteeming them a goodly heritage; they are his purchased possession, his jewels and peculiar treasure. These "glory" not in themselves, in their strength and wisdom, their riches and righteousness; but in Christ and in his righteousness, and in what he is made unto them. And the psalmist desires to join with them, and glory in what they did, and in no other; and unite with them in giving glory to God and Christ, now and hereafter, for his salvation, and all good things from him.

Verse 6

We have sinned with our fathers,.... Sinned in their first father Adam; derived a corrupt nature from their immediate ancestors; sinned after the similitude of their transgressions; sinned after their example, in like manner as they did; guilty of the same gross enormities as they were: though sufficiently warned by the words of the prophets, and by punishments inflicted, they continued their sins, a constant series and course of them, and filled up the measure of their iniquities; they rose up in their stead an increase of sinful men, to augment the fierce anger of God, Num 32:14. And this the psalmist, in the name of the people of Israel, confesses, as it was his and their duty and interest so to do, Lev 26:40, and as we find it was usual with Old Testament saints, Jer 3:25. We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly; this heap of words is used to denote not only the multitude of their sins, but the aggravated circumstances of them; that they had committed all manner of sins, not sins of ignorance, frailty, and infirmity only; but presumptuous sins, sins against light and knowledge, grace and mercy; sins against both tables of the law, against God and their neighbour; and these attended with many aggravations: all which a sensible sinner is ready to make a frank and ingenuous confession of, and forsake; and such an one finds mercy with a God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin: this form of confession is followed by Solomon and Daniel, Kg1 8:47.

Verse 7

Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt,.... Or, "our fathers in Egypt" (l); while they were there, they did not understand, or wisely consider and attend unto, the miracles there wrought, the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. These were done in their sight, they saw them with their eyes; yet had not hearts to perceive them, and understand the true use and design of them: not only that these were for the destruction of their enemies, and for their deliverance from them; but that they were proofs of the power of God, and of his being the one only and true God, in opposition to the idols of the Egyptians; and that he only ought to be adhered unto, worshipped, and trusted in. Had they adverted to these things, they would not so easily have given in to a murmuring and repining spirit, to a distrust of the power and providence of God, and to idolatry, as they did; see Deu 29:2, something of this kind may be observed in the disciples of Christ, Mar 6:52. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; the mercies of God bestowed on his people are many, both temporal and spiritual; there is a multitude of them; the sum of them is great, it cannot well be said how great it is: but though they are so many as not to be reckoned up in order, yet a grateful remembrance of them should be kept up; it is sinful to forget them, and argues great ingratitude. Past mercies should be remembered, both for the glory of God, and to encourage faith and hope in him, with respect to future ones, as well as to preserve from sinning against him. The stupidity and ingratitude of this people, here confessed, were the source of their rebellion against God, as follows: but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea; or, "sea of Suph" (m); so called, either from a city of this name, which it washed, as Hillerus (n) thinks; see Num 21:14 or from the sedge and weeds in it, or reeds and rushes that grew upon the banks of it. When they were come hither, though just brought out of Egyptian bondage, and had seen the wonders the Lord had done; and though now in the utmost distress, the Egyptian army behind them, and the sea before them; yet neither past mercies nor present danger could keep them from rebelling against the Lord. They provoked him by their language to Moses; because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Exo 14:11. The Targum is, "but they rebelled against thy word.'' (l) "patres nostri in Aegypto", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c. (m) "in mari Suph", Pagninus, Vatablus, Schmidt; "in mare carecti", Montanus; "mare algosum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. (n) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 128, 940.

Verse 8

Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake,.... Not for any worth or worthiness in them; not for their righteousness sake, for they were a rebellious and disobedient people; but for his name's sake, because his name was called upon them, and he was called the God of the Hebrews, as Aben Ezra observes; and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their ancestors; to whom he had promised the land of Canaan, and was their covenant God; and because of his covenant, and of his divine perfections, and the glory of them, which were engaged to make it good; therefore he saved them, see Eze 20:9. And so the spiritual Israel of God are saved, not for any superior excellencies in them, for they are in no wise better than others; nor for their righteousness sake; but to display the wisdom and faithfulness of God, his grace and mercy, his justice and holiness, power, goodness, and truth. And so here it follows; that he might make his mighty power to be known; not only among the Israelites, but among the nations of the world; who, had he not saved them, might have thought, and said, that it was for want of power, and that he could not do it; see Deu 9:28.

Verse 9

He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up,.... By sending a strong east wind, which drove the waters back, and made the sea a dry land, Exo 14:21. So he led them through the depths; that is, the deep waters of the sea, which were cast up as an heap, and stood as a wall on each side, through which they passed. As through the wilderness; or rather, "as on a plain"; for a passage through a wilderness where no roads are, and many obstructions be, is not easy; and so it is manifestly to be understood in Isa 63:13, where Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it a plain and smooth ground, a champaign country; and so the word is used for a plain, in opposition to mountains, in Jer 9:10, and then the sense is, that God led them through the sea, being dried up, as if they were led through a plain and open country, where was nothing to obstruct their march; an emblem of baptism, Co1 10:1, and of the passage of the people of God through this world; See Gill on Psa 78:13.

Verse 10

And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them,.... As Pharaoh and his people did, because of their numerous increase, which they endeavoured to prevent; and still more because of the plagues inflicted on them; and now because they were got away from them, and therefore pursued them in great wrath and indignation, Exo 15:9. And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy; the same thing in different words; so the Lord Christ has saved and redeemed his people out of the hand of all their spiritual enemies; and those that hate them and war against them, as sin, Satan, and the world, Luk 1:71.

Verse 11

And the waters covered their enemies,.... They pursuing the Israelites into the sea, the waters returned, and covered Pharaoh and all his host, and drowned them, so that they sunk as a stone, and as lead into the bottom of the sea, Exo 14:28. There was not one of them left; to return back to Egypt, and give an account of what became of the army, Exo 14:28, an emblem this of the utter destruction of all our spiritual enemies by Christ; who has not only saved us from them, but has entirely destroyed them; he has made an end of sin, even of all the sins of his people; he has spoiled Satan and his principalities and powers; he has abolished death, the last enemy, and made his saints more than conquerors over all. Likewise it may be a representation of the destruction of the wicked at the last day, who will be all burnt up at the general conflagration, root and branch, not one will be left; see Mal 4:1.

Verse 12

Then believed they his words,.... And not till then; for this is observed, not to their commendation, but to show the slowness of their hearts to believe; they believed on sight, but not before, as Thomas did; whereas, "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed", Joh 20:29. When they saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore, then they believed the Lord, and his servant Moses; what he said by his servant Moses, that he would save them from the Egyptians, whom they should see no more, that is, alive, Exo 14:13. The Targum is, "and they believed in the name of his Word.'' They sang his praise; Moses with the men, and Miriam with the women; the song is recorded Exo 15:1 and thus when the people of God have got the victory over the antichristian beast, they will stand on a sea of glass and sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, Rev 15:2.

Verse 13

They soon forgat his works,.... The miracles he wrought in Egypt, the deliverance of them from thence with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, and the leading them through the Red sea as on dry land, and destroying all their enemies; all these they soon forgot, for they had gone but three days' journey into the wilderness after this, ere they began to murmur and show distrust of the power and providence of God, Exo 15:22, it is in the Hebrew text, "they made haste, they forgat his works" (o); as soon as they were out of Egypt, they were for entering into the land of Canaan at once, and were much displeased that they were not immediately led into it. They waited not for his counsel; they did not ask counsel of God, though it belongs to him, and he is wonderful in it, and does all things after the counsel of his own will; nor would they take it when given by Moses and Joshua; they did not choose to wait his time and way of working; they were for limiting the Holy One of Israel to their time and way; they were for being in the land of Canaan before his time; and were for eating flesh, when it was his counsel to feed on manna he provided for them every day. (o) "festinaverunt, obliti sunt", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, &c.

Verse 14

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,.... Or, "lusted a lust" (p) as in Num 11:4 to which story there related this refers; they were not content with the manna they had every day, though very nourishing and of a sweet taste; they lusted after the fish and flesh of Egypt, and other things they ate there; so that this was not a natural lust, or craving after food and drink, to satisfy nature, which would not have been criminal; but a voluptuous last to gratify their appetite: it was lusting after evil tidings, as the apostle interprets it, Co1 10:6, lust after sinful things, or any unlawful object, or after anything in an unlawful way, is sin. And tempted God in the desert; which is expressly forbidden by a law which our Lord referred to when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness: a very ungrateful action this, since God tempts no man to sin; a very daring impiety, a sin of the first magnitude, and which lay in making experiments, in trying whether the presence of God was among them or not; and putting God as it were on proving that he had power sufficient to provide for them in the wilderness; see Exo 17:7. It seems it was Jesus Christ whom they tempted, from whence it appears that he is truly God, Co1 10:9. Both in this and the preceding clause an emphasis lies on the place where all this was done, the wilderness or desert, where God had done such great things for them, and where they could not help themselves, but were wholly and immediately dependent on him. (p) "concupierunt concupiscentiam", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Verse 15

And he gave them their request,.... Flesh and feathered fowl in great abundance; see Psa 78:27. So God sometimes gives to wicked men what they ask for, as much as they can desire, yea, more than heart could wish. But sent leanness into their soul: or "body"; the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, read, "he sent fulness into their souls"; he gave them flesh to the full, even to a nausea; they fed too heartily on it, and were surfeited with it; which not being digested brought a repletion, and issued in a consumption; or rather death, immediate death, is meant, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret it; for while the flesh was in their mouths, and they were chewing it between their teeth, the wrath of God came upon them and slew them, Num 11:33. It is true in a spiritual sense, that while the bodies of wicked men are fed and pampered, their souls are starved, and at last eternally lost; as the rich man's in the Gospel, who fared sumptuously every day: and worldly professors are very lean ones; such who mind earth and earthly things never thrive in spirituals; and either they soon drop their profession, err from the faith, and turn apostates; or, if they continue, the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word; so that it is unprofitable to them, not being mixed with faith by them; and hence leanness under the best of means: yea, there is sometimes a leanness in the souls of the people of God, when corruptions prevail, the graces of the spirit are low in exercise; when there is a want of a spiritual appetite to the word; and when they fall into bad company, or do not improve conversation with one another in a spiritual way; or are too much taken up, ensnared, and entangled with the things of the world; see Isa 24:16.

Verse 16

They envied Moses also in the camp,.... That he should be generalissimo there, have the sole command of the people, and be their leader and chief magistrate. Gifts qualifying men for civil government are from the Lord, and these commonly draw the envy of others upon them; who, though they pretend patriotism and the good of their country, yet seek themselves; and would be in the places of those they envy and speak against; which was the case of Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Reuben, who thought themselves as fit, and had a better right, as being the sons of Jacob's firstborn, to command, than Moses. And Aaron the saint of the Lord; who was not only a holy good man, but was separated from his brethren, sanctified, and put into the priest's office, and this drew upon him the envy of many of the Levites, at the head of whom was Korah, a Levite; these envied that he should be the high priest, and that this office should be restrained to his family; now the envy to each of these is ascribed to the whole body of the people, though discovered only in some, because it was not opposed by them; see Num 16:1.

Verse 17

The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,.... One of the heads of the conspirators against Moses and Aaron; the earth clave asunder under him and his company; opened itself, or its mouth, and devoured them at once. This was a new, marvellous, and unheard of thing, and which manifestly showed the divine displeasure and resentment at their proceedings; and served greatly to confirm the authority and office of Moses and Aaron; see Num 16:30. And covered the company of Abiram; another of the heads of the confederacy. Korah is not mentioned, though the earth swallowed up him and all that belonged to him, their houses and their goods; some think the reason is because it was well known that this was his case, when Dathan and Abiram are not so expressly mentioned in the history by Moses; as also because the sons of Korah were now in esteem as singers; nor is On the son of Peleth mentioned, because, as Kimchi says, he repented, and desisted from the conspiracy.

Verse 18

And a fire was kindled in their company,.... This seems to be the company of Korah, or however a part of it, the two hundred and fifty men that had censers, and so were of the Levitical race, as Korah was; this fire came from the Lord out of heaven. The flame burned up the wicked; the two hundred and fifty men with censers, Num 16:35, this was an emblem of that fire which shall consume those that hurt the witnesses; or of that vengeance of eternal fire which wicked men will suffer for ever.

Verse 19

They made a calf in Horeb,.... A golden one, of the earrings of gold which were in the ears of their wives, sons, and daughters; these they took and melted down, and cast into the figure of a calf, or an ox, as it is afterwards said, in imitation of the Egyptians, who worshipped the ox; a people that had used them ill, from whose bondage they were just delivered; on whom they had seen the judgments of God inflicted, and who were notoriously wicked and an idolatrous people, and yet these they imitated; and, which was still a greater aggravation, this they did in Horeb, the mountain in which God appeared in so terrible a manner, with thunder and lightnings, and in fire, out of which he spoke to them; and when he gave them a body of laws, among which were one that forbid the worshipping of graven images; and yet they made and worshipped one in this very place, from whence they received this law; as follows. And worshipped the molten image; when fashioned with a graving tool, and made a molten calf, they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of Egypt; and they brought their burnt offerings and peace offerings, and ate and drank before it, and danced about it; all which were acts of idolatrous worship, Exo 32:1. This was so heinous a sin, that the Jews say it is not expiated to this day, and that there is no punishment comes upon them but there is an ounce of the golden calf in it (q). (q) T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 80. 4.

Verse 20

Thus they changed their glory,.... God, who is glorious in all the perfections of his nature, and is glory itself, and was the glory of these people; it was their greatest honour that they had knowledge of him, nearness to him, the true worship of him among them, and that they were worshippers of him; and who, though he is unchangeable in himself, may be said to be changed when another is substituted and worshipped in his room, or worshipped besides him; which was what the Heathen did, and in which the Israelites exceeded them, Rom 1:23, the Targum is, "they changed the glory of their Lord.'' Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass; which was monstrous stupidity, to leave the worship of the true God, El Shaddai, God all sufficient, all powerful, that stands in need of nothing, but upholds and supports all creatures in being, and provides them with necessaries; and worship an ox, yea, the figure of one that eats grass, that lives on hay, and is supported by that which is so weak and withering; the Targum adds, "and makes dung;'' or defiles itself with it, as the ox does while it is eating grass; Jarchi observes, there is nothing more abominable and filthy than an ox when it is eating grass, which then makes much dung, and defiles itself; this the Targumist adds, to make the worship of such a creature the more contemptible.

Verse 21

They forgat God their Saviour,.... Not only forgat the works of God, Psa 106:13, but forgat God that did those mighty works; forgat that there was a God; or however forgat him that is the only true and living God, when they said of the molten image, "these are thy gods, O Israel"; and what aggravated their crime was, they forgot that God that had saved them in so wonderful a manner out of the hand of their enemies, for his own name's sake; and had led them safely through the Red sea as on dry land, and destroyed those that hated them. Which had done great things in Egypt: meaning the ten plagues on the Egyptians, and the deliverance of the Israelites from them.

Verse 22

Wondrous works in the land of Ham,.... The same with Egypt; Mizraim, from whence Egypt had its name, being the son of Ham; See Gill on Psa 78:51. See Gill on Psa 105:23, and these wondrous things are the same plagues as before, so called because they exceeded the power of nature; the magicians themselves confessed the finger of God in one of them; and they were all of them such as might be truly said to be miracles. And terrible things by the Red sea; or "in it", as the Syriac and, other versions; as the utter destruction of Pharaoh and his army, not one being left, which was doing terrible things in righteousness; and by which it appeared that with God is terrible majesty; and who shows himself to be terrible in his works, and even to the kings and princes of the earth; but all these things were soon forgot, which it might have been thought, being so amazing and terrible, would have made a lasting impression on them.

Verse 23

Therefore he said that he would destroy them,.... He said in his word, the Targum adds; he thought within himself he would; he seemed determined in his own mind to destroy them, being provoked at their wretched forgetfulness of him, and their idolatry; he said to Moses, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, Exo 32:10. The decree indeed was not gone forth, but there was such an appearance of displeasure as if ruin was determined; and a great number was destroyed, and the whole body was threatened. Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach; made between God and the Israelites by their sin; the allusion is either to an hedge broken down, at which a spoiler enters, unless made up, Eze 22:30, or to a breach made in the wall of a besieged city, at which the besieger enters, unless stopped by the besieged, Isa 30:13, or to the bank or dam of a river broken down, which lets in a flood of waters, Sa2 5:20. So Moses made up the hedge, and stood in the gap; he presented himself to God, rushing in like a man of war, and pouring out his wrath like an inundation of waters: this is to be understood of his fervent and importunate prayer to God on the behalf of this people, and which succeeded. To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them; Exo 32:11 so the Targum, "unless Moses his chosen had rose up and strengthened, or prevailed in his prayer before him to turn away his wrath from destroying.'' This shows the power and efficacy of prayer, and of what avail it is with God, especially the prayer of his elect; it was Moses, his chosen, that prayed, a choice servant of his; and whom he had chosen to everlasting life, as well as to be the deliverer, guide, and governor of Israel; see Luk 18:7. Herein he was an eminent type of Christ, as in other things; as Moses was a mediator between God and the people of Israel, so is Christ between God and his people. Sin is a transgression of God's law, a breaking of his statutes, which he has set as an hedge, fence, or wall, about man; and this has made a breach between God and man; which lets in the wrath of God as a flood, and justice as an armed man: and terrible it is to consider there is no standing before him, and making up the breach; but Christ has interposed as a surety, made satisfaction to law and justice, and procured peace and reconciliation; and so, by his atonement and intercession, has made up the breach, appeased the wrath of God, and turned it away, and prevented the ruin and destruction of his people.

Verse 24

Yea, they despised the pleasant land,.... Or "land of desire" (r); the land of Canaan; a very delightful and desirable country, the glory of all lands, a land that abounded with everything for necessity and pleasure. The spies themselves, that brought an ill report of it, owned it was a land flowing with milk and honey; but that there were such difficulties to possess it which they thought insuperable: and hence the people despised it, inasmuch as, when they were bid to go and possess it, they refused, and did not choose to be at any difficulty in subduing the inhabitants of it, or run any risk or hazard of their lives in taking it, though the Lord had promised, to give it them, and settle them in it; but they seemed rather inclined to make themselves a captain, and return to Egypt, when they were just on the borders of Canaan; which was interpreted as despising the land, Num 14:1. This was a type of heaven, the good land afar off; the better country, the land of promise and rest; in which is fulness of provisions, and where there will be no hunger and thirst; where flows the river of the water of life, and stands the tree of life, bearing all manner of fruits; where there is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore: the most delightful company of Father, Son, and Spirit, angels and glorified saints; and nothing to disturb their peace and pleasure, neither from within nor from without. And yet this pleasant land may be said to be despised by such who do not care to go through any difficulty to it; to perform the duties of religion; to bear reproach for Christ's sake; to go through tribulation; to walk in the narrow and afflicted way, which leads unto it: and by all such who do not care to part with their sinful lusts and pleasure; but prefer them and the things of this world to the heavenly state. They believed not his word; his word of promise, that he would be with them, and lead them into the pleasant land, and put them into the possession of it: which disbelief of his word was highly provoking to him; and therefore he swore they should not enter into his rest; and because of their unbelief they did not, Num 14:11. This is a very heinous sin, to disbelieve God that is true, and cannot lie; it is to make him a liar; nothing can more dishonour him; it is a departure from him, very provoking to him, and of very dangerous consequence; unbelievers shall have their part and portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, Rev 21:8. (r) "in term desiderii", Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Verse 25

But murmured in their tents,.... Throughout their tents; the murmuring was general; they murmured often; but what is here referred to seems to be their murmuring upon the report of the spies, Num 14:2. To murmur against God and his providence is a very great evil; and which generally proceeds on one or other of these two things; either because men have not so much of the good things of this world as others have; or because they endure more afflictions, and so are ready to charge the ways of God with inequality; not considering that God is a Sovereign, and may do with his own what he pleases; and that they are deserving of nothing at his hands; and that their punishment or chastisement is less than their sins deserve. And hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord; to go up and possess the land; they disbelieved his word, and were disobedient to his command. The use the apostle makes of this, see Heb 3:7, and of their other provocations, of their lust, idolatry, fornication, tempting of God, and murmuring against him, see Co1 10:6.

Verse 26

Therefore he lifted up his hand against them,.... A gesture used in swearing, Gen 14:22. So the Targum understands it here, "and he lifted up his hand with an oath, because of them:'' and so it is interpreted by Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; and agrees with Num 14:28. The same gesture was used by the Heathens in swearing, as by Latinus (s). Or he lifted up his hand, in a way of judgment, to strike the blow; and which, when it lights on man with the indignation of his anger, falls heavy; see Isa 26:11. To overthrow them in the wilderness; as he did all the murmuring generation that came out of Egypt, all but Caleb and Joshua; all from twenty years and upwards, their carcasses fell in the wilderness; there they were wasted, consumed, and died, Num 14:32. (s) "----Tenditque ad sidera dextram--Terram, mare, sidera juro", Virg. Aeneid. 12.

Verse 27

To overthrow their seed also among the nations,.... Their posterity was not overthrown in the wilderness; they were spared to possess the land their fathers despised. This respects later times, as does what follows: and to scatter them in the lands; which Kimchi explains by the discomfiture of them by the Amalekites and Canaanites, when they presumed, contrary to the will of God, to go up to the top of the hill; and by Arad's taking some of them prisoner, afterwards, Num 14:45. But this was not done, nor to be done, in the wilderness: but the meaning is, that God lifted up his hand in the wilderness, and sware there, as Ezekiel says, Eze 20:23, that he would scatter them and disperse them among the Heathen; that is, at one time or another; which he did in part at the Babylonish captivity, and completely by the Romans: which is now their case, and is a standing proof of this prophecy, and an accomplishment of the oath of God.

Verse 28

They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor,.... Or to the idol Peor, as the Targum. Baal, which signifies Lord or master, was a common name for an idol in many countries; wherefore, to distinguish one from another, an additional name was used. Baalzephon was the god of the Egyptians; Baalzebub the god of the Ekronites; and here Baalpeor the god of the Moabites: for the fact referred to was committed when the children of Israel were on the borders of Moab, and when Balak sent for Balaam to curse them; who at last advised him to draw them to commit fornication with the daughters of Moab; who might then prevail upon them to commit idolatry, which would bring the wrath of God upon them. And in this he succeeded. The above idol had its name of Peor either from the obscene actions done in the worship of it, too filthy to be related, and which, it is thought, are referred to in Hos 9:10. It seems to be the Priapus of the Heathens. Or, as others, from a mountain of this name, where was the house or temple in which it was worshipped: hence we read of Mount Peor, and of Bethpeor, Num 23:28. So Suidas (t) says, Baal is Saturn, and Peor the place where he was worshipped. Or else from some great man of this name, Lord Peor; who being of great fame and note among the Moabites, for some extraordinary things done by him, was deified and worshipped after his death; as was common among the Heathens. To this idol the Israelites joined or "yoked" themselves, as the word (u) signifies: they withdrew themselves from the yoke of the true God, whose yoke is easy, and put their necks under the yoke of an idol; which was to be unequally yoked: or they were tempted unto it; they committed spiritual whoredom with it, which is idolatry; they left their first and lawful husband, to whom they were married, and joined themselves to an idol, and cleaved to it. The phrase is expressive of their fellowship with it, and with the idolatrous worshippers of it; they devoted and gave up themselves to the worship of it; just as the true worshippers of God are said to join themselves to him, Jer 50:6, they were, as the Septuagint renders it, initiated into the rites and mysteries of this idol. And ate the sacrifices of the dead; which were offered up to this lifeless statue. So idols are called the dead, in opposition to and distinction from the living God, Isa 8:19. Or they partook of the feasts which were kept in honour of their dead deified hero, Lord Peor; see the history in Num 25:1. These were sacrifices offered to the Stygian Jupiter, or Pluto, called by the Phoenicians Mot (w), the same with Chemosh, the god of the Moabites; and who also was Baalpeor, according to Jerom (x). (t) In voce (u) "conjugati sunt", Vatablus; "subdiderunt sese jugo", Gejerus. (w) Sanchoniatho apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 38. Vid. Castell. Annot. Samar. p. 13. in vol. 6. Lond. Polyglott. (x) Comment. in Esaiam, fol. 26. H.

Verse 29

Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions,.... Sin is an invention of man's: when our first parents sinned, they found out many inventions; and their posterity ever since have been inventors of evil things; and man's invention is very quick at that work. All false doctrine and false worship are of men's finding out; all idolatrous practices are their inventions, and which are here intended; see Psa 106:39. And these are very provoking to God, who is jealous of his glory, and which is taken from him hereby; and even when he forgives such sins of men, he takes vengeance on their inventions, as in this case, Psa 99:8. For it follows: and the plague brake in upon them: like an inundation of water, and carried off four and twenty thousand persons, Num 25:9.

Verse 30

Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment,.... When none else would, he rose up in great zeal for the Lord of hosts; and took on him the work of a civil magistrate, and slew two persons of noble birth in the very act of fornication. The Targum is, "he prayed'' and so the Syriac version "he interceded with the Lord, that the plague might stop.'' This he might do, as well as the other, though it is not elsewhere recorded, and in which he succeeded: but in the Talmud (y) it is observed that it is not said (that is, "he prayed"), but from whence may be learned, if it is proper to say so, that he executed judgments with his Maker. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it, "he appeased"; made atonement for propitiation; and this is said of him, Num 25:13. And so the plague was stayed; it was restrained from proceeding further; no more execution was done by it. In this he was a type of Christ, who, by doing righteousness, by the atoning sacrifice of himself, and by his intercession, has appeased the wrath of God, and satisfied divine justice so that there is no condemnation to them that are interested in him; no evil of punishment shall befall them, nor plague come nigh them. (y) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 82. 2.

Verse 31

And that was counted unto him for righteousness,.... Not for his justifying righteousness before God; for all the works of righteousness done by the best of men cannot justify them before him, much less a single action: but his executing judgment in the manner he did, or slaying the above two persons, was esteemed a righteous action by the Lord himself; who upon it caused the plague to cease, and likewise gave to Phinehas the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, and to his posterity; whereby the action had eternal honour put upon it, and was sufficiently secured from the calumny of men; who might condemn it as a rash action done by a private person, assuming the office of a public magistrate; and as being a cruel one, not giving the criminals time for repentance. But all this is set aside by the testimony of God himself, approving of it; and so it continues to be esteemed, as it is said it should, unto all generations for evermore: whenever it is spoken of, it is spoken of with commendation, as a righteous action, as expressive of true zeal for the Lord of hosts. Moreover, the covenant made with him upon it, which confirmed the justness of it, that taking place in Zadok, a priest of his line, continued in it till the Messiah came, who is a Priest for ever: see Eze 44:15.

Verse 32

They angered him also at the waters of strife,.... Or, "at the waters of Meribah" (z); that is, Meribahkadesh, as it is called in Deu 32:51 to distinguish it from Meribahrephidim, where also were waters of strife or contradiction; at which the people murmured and strove with the Lord, and greatly displeased him, Exo 17:7. So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes; he was not suffered to go with them into the good land; though he most earnestly desired it, it could not be granted: but when he was just upon the borders of it, he is bid to go up to the mount, and take a view of it, and die; and all because of what was done at this place; see Num 20:12. (z) "super aquas Meribah", Montanus; "apud Memeriba", Tigurine version; "juxta aquas Meriba", Gejerus; so Ainsworth.

Verse 33

Because they provoked his spirit;.... Though he was a very meek man, meeker than any upon the face of the earth, Num 12:2, yet, being greatly provoked, let fall some passionate and undue expressions: and this was not only his sin, but the fault of those also that provoked him, and with this view it is mentioned. The Targum is, "for they rebelled against his Holy Spirit;'' the Holy Spirit of God, as in Isa 63:10. Jarchi interprets it of Moses and Aaron provoking the Spirit of God; which sense is mentioned, by Aben Ezra and Kimchi; though they seem to prefer the former, and which seems best. Some interpret it of the Israelites, that they caused Moses and Aaron to provoke his Spirit. So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips; that is, Moses spake, saying, Hear now, ye rebels, must we, or "can we", fetch you water out of this rock? Which words were spoken in an angry passionate way, calling them rebels, and expressing diffidence about getting water out of the rock; which was the thing that was so displeasing to God, because they did not believe him to sanctify him in the eyes of the children of Israel, Num 25:10. Jarchi, as before, understands this of God, of his speaking, pronouncing, and declaring, that Moses and Aaron should not bring the congregation into the land of Canaan, Num 25:18, and so the word "unadvisedly" may be left out, and only read, "he spake with his lips"; but the other sense is to be preferred.

Verse 34

They did not destroy the nations,.... Here begins an account of their sins and provocations, after they were settled in the land of Canaan. They did not destroy the inhabitants of the land, of the seven nations; whose land was given to them as an inheritance, and of which the Canaanites were dispossessed for their sins, and to be destroyed. Concerning whom the Lord commanded them; that they should destroy them; the command is in Deu 7:1. God's commands are to be obeyed; they are neither to be added to, nor diminished from; his commands are transgressed and violated by sins of omission or commission; the Israelites might plead mercy, but this was no excuse to an express command: the same sin Saul was afterwards guilty of, with respect to one of these nations, Sa1 15:2. Those spiritual Canaanites, the sinful deeds of the body, are to be mortified, and not indulged and spared, Col 3:5.

Verse 35

But were mingled among the Heathen,.... Not only dwelt among them, but made covenants and contracts, carried on trade and commerce, and intermarried with them, contrary to the express law of God, Deu 7:2. Nor should saints have communion with wicked men, especially in things sinful and superstitious, Co2 6:14. And learned their works; not their civil works and actions, their trades and business, but their idolatrous works; of which a detail is given in the following verses: "evil communications corrupt good manners", Co1 15:33.

Verse 36

And they served their idols,.... Of gold and silver, wood and stone; the works of men's hands, senseless creatures; which are nothing in the world, and bring grief and sorrow to the worshippers of them, from whence they have their name here given them; see Psa 16:4. They served "their" idols, the idols of the Canaanites, who were dispossessed of their land for their idolatries and other sins; and these Israelites were put in their place. They served those which they were ordered to destroy; they who knew the true God, whose servants they were, or ought to have been, and professed to be, and were so called; and yet served the idols of the nations driven out before them. Which were a snare unto them; either the Canaanites were, who were left in the land, with whom they mixed, and whose works they learned; these ensnared them, and drew them into idolatry, Jos 23:13, or the idols they worshipped, which were the cause of many evils and calamities, Jdg 2:3, or the act of serving and worshipping them, Exo 23:33. They were by these means like a bird or beast in a snare, and brought into trouble and distress, out of which they could not extricate themselves. . They were by these means like a bird or beast in a snare, and brought into trouble and distress, out of which they could not extricate themselves. Psalms 106:37 psa 106:37 psa 106:37 psa 106:37Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. Who have their name here given them from a word that signifies to waste and destroy, they being the destroyers of mankind. So the Targum renders it by which signifies spirits noxious and hurtful; but R. Elias Levita, in his Tishbi, p. 233, says it is a mistake to derive it from the root which signifies to waste and destroy; for then he says the "daleth" should have a "dagesh"; but does not tell us from whence it is derived. De Dieu, on Mat 9:32, derives it from the Arabic word "to rule", for these demons were heroes, princes who ruled over others, and so were reckoned among the gods. As Satan, the head of them, was a murderer from the beginning, the cause of the ruin of our first parents, and of all their posterity; and may be truly called, as the king of the locusts is, "Apollyon" or "Abaddon", Joh 8:44 these the Israelites sacrificed unto, as the Gentiles did, Lev 17:7 and not lambs and rams, sheep, goats, and bullocks, but their sons and daughters; which they not only caused to pass through the fire to Moloch, which was a lustration of them by the flame, or causing them to pass between two fires; but they sacrificed them to be devoured, and actually burned them; see Jer 7:31. From whence we may see of what a hardening nature sin is, and how by degrees persons may be brought to commit things the most shocking to nature, and which they some time before shuddered at. First, these Israelites mix themselves with the Heathens they spared, whom they should have destroyed; then they learn, by being among them, to do as they did, to walk in the vanity of their minds like them; and then they are enticed to serve their idols, and at last to sacrifice their sons and daughters to devils; which was no other than murder, and that of the most heinous nature: as follows.

Verse 37

And shed innocent blood,.... The blood of innocent persons; not that any of Adam's posterity, descending from him by ordinary generation, are strictly and properly innocent, or free from sin; self-righteous persons have thought themselves, touching the righteousness of the law, blameless; and some perfectionists have pretended to be free from sin, but are not such; they who are justified by the righteousness of Christ, and washed in his blood, are, so considered, all fair and without spot; are without fault before the throne, and unreproveable in the sight of God: but, considered in themselves, are not without sin; only the man Christ Jesus is perfectly holy and free from sin, being born of a virgin, under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost; otherwise all descending from Adam sinned in him, are conceived in sin, and polluted with it; nor can a clean thing be brought out of an unclean, no, not one: though infants may be said to be innocent in comparison of adult persons, guilty of actual transgressions, who have lived in sin, and committed many gross iniquities; as also they may be so called as being undeserving of such barbarous and inhuman usage here mentioned. Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; this was a further aggravation of their wickedness, that it was not only innocent blood, but the blood of their own children, they shed; their own flesh and blood, pieces of themselves; and their near alliance to them gave them no power over their lives; but, on the contrary, the nearer they were in blood to them, the greater and more horrid was their sin; and what still added to it was, that they were the idols of Canaan, of that people whom the Lord abhorred, and had drove out before them, and had given their land; to them they sacrificed them; so that here was a complication of wickedness in this affair. And the land was polluted with blood; with innocent blood, the blood of their own children; with the sins of murder, as the Targum; which only can be cleansed with the blood of the murderers, Num 35:33, even the land which the Lord separated from all others for his people; in which his tabernacle was placed, and his worship set up, and therefore called the holy land, Zac 2:12.

Verse 38

Thus were they defiled with their own works,.... Not the land only, but they themselves also; or "with their works" (a), with the works of the Heathen they learned, Psa 106:35, or rather with their own works, the works of the flesh, especially their shocking idolatries: sin is of a defiling nature; it has defiled all men, it defiles all of men, all the faculties of their souls, and all the members of their bodies; nor can anything truly and thoroughly cleanse from it but the blood of Christ: even men's works of righteousness are as filthy rags and defiling, and much more their evil works. And went a whoring with their own inventions; after other gods; idolatry is often in Scripture signified by whoredom; the idolatry of Israel and Judah is represented by two harlots and their lewd practices, in Eze 23:1 and hence the apostate church of Rome is compared to a whore, because of her idolatry, Rev 17:1. (a) "operibus earum", Muis; so Ainsworth.

Verse 39

Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people,.... Sin is the cause of wrath, which is compared to fire kindled by the breath of the Almighty, and is intolerable; this shows that the offence must be very great, as to incense the Lord against a people he had chosen above all others to be his peculiar people; as well as it was an aggravation, of their sin, so highly to provoke the Lord, whom they had vouched to be their God. There may be appearances of wrath for sin against those who are the Lord's people in the highest and best sense. Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance; the people of Israel, whom he had chosen for his inheritance, and were his portion, and the lot of his inheritance. This must be understood of the body of the people, not of every individual; not of the remnant according to the election of grace among them, of which there were some in all ages; for this would be contrary to his love, and the unchangeableness of it: and however not of the persons of his people, but of their sins; and of the appearances of his providence towards them, which look like wrath, indignation, and abhorrence; for God will not cast off his people, nor forsake his inheritance, Psa 94:14 the following verses explain this wrath and abhorrence. The Targum in the king's Bible is, "the Word of the Lord abhorred,'' &c. see Zac 11:8.

Verse 40

And he gave them into the hand of the Heathen,.... In the times of the judges; as into the hands of the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Canaanites, Midianites, and Philistines, to whom they became tributaries; see the book of Judges. And they that hated them ruled over them; as it was threatened and foretold they should, in case they did not observe the law of God, Lev 26:17.

Verse 41

Their enemies also oppressed them,.... By taxes, and taking the increase of their fields and sustenance, which often obliged them to cry for a deliverer, who upon this was sent to them; see Jdg 2:9. And they were brought into subjection under their hand; or were humbled under their hand, as the Targum; they were not only made to submit to their enemies, but they were humbled before the Lord; brought to a sense of their sins, and acknowledgment of them, when the Lord appeared for their deliverance, as follows.

Verse 42

Many times did he deliver them,.... By means of the judges, Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and others. But they provoked him with their counsel; in asking a king, whom he gave in his anger, and took away in his wrath, Hos 13:11, and with their idolatries which they devised, setting up the calves at Dan and Bethel; and by taking counsel of others, and not of the Lord; seeking for help from the Assyrians and Egyptians, and trusting in them, Isa 30:1, all which was very provoking, and showed great ingratitude, after so many deliverances: or, "though they provoked him with their counsels" (b); with their inventions, as in Psa 106:29, yet such were his grace and goodness, that he frequently wrought salvation for them. And were brought low for their iniquity: or "when they were weakened", or "impoverished by their iniquity" (c) so that they could not help themselves; as they were particularly by the Midianites, Jdg 6:1. Unless this should rather refer to some later times, as the times of Ahaz, when Judah was brought low for their transgressions, Ch2 28:19 as also the time of the Babylonish captivity. Sin is of a weakening and impoverishing nature; it has weakened all mankind, and took from them their moral strength to do good; and has brought them to poverty and want; to be beggars an the dunghill; to a pit wherein is no water; and left them in a hopeless and helpless condition: yea, it brings the people of God oftentimes after conversion into a low estate, when God hides his face because of it; temptations are strong, grace is weak, and they become lukewarm and indifferent to spiritual things. (b) "quamvis ipsi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (c) "et attenuati essent", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Cocceius, Michaellis, Gejerus; "et in paupertatem devenerunt per suam iniquitatem", Tigurine version.

Verse 43

Nevertheless he regarded their affliction,.... Or "looked on them in distress" (d); he saw their affliction, and had compassion on them; he was so far from abhorring and despising the affliction of the afflicted, that he pitied them and sympathized with them; in all their afflictions he was afflicted; he looked upon them with an eye of pity and concern, and helped them out of their troubles. When he heard their cry; or their "prayer", as the Targum, and so other versions; crying is prayer; and it denotes vocal and vehement prayer, such as is put up to God in distress; and which he hears and answers; his ears are open to the cries of his people. (d) "et vidit in angustia eis", Montanus, Gejerus; so Musculus, Tigurine version.

Verse 44

And he remembered for them his covenant,.... At Sinai, according to Aben Ezra; rather that made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see Psa 105:8, not their covenant who promised to hear and do all that the Lord commanded, and did it not; but his covenant, his promise of giving them the good land, and settling them in it: the Lord is ever mindful of the covenant of his grace for his people, for their good; he remembers the promises he has made, where they are in Christ; and so as to fulfil and apply them; he remembers the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David, and gives them; he remembers for whom it is made, and never forgets them; he remembers with whom it is made, with his Son, the surety, messenger, and Mediator of it; he remembers that he is their covenant God and Father, and will be so for evermore; he remembers his lovingkindness, which has been ever of old, which is the source and foundation of it. And repented according to the multitude of his mercies; his mercies temporal and spiritual are many; and there is an abundance of mercy displayed especially in spiritual ones, in redemption, in regeneration, and in the forgiveness of sin. Or "according to the abundance of his grace", or "gracious benefits" (e); there is an abundance of grace in his heart, in his Son, in his covenant, in salvation by Christ, and in every part of it; and which appears at conversion, as superabundant; and by this multitude of mercy, and abundance of grace, he is moved to "repent". This is sometimes denied of him; and indeed he never repents so as to change his mind, to alter his purposes, to revoke his promises or his gifts, these are all without repentance; but he sometimes changes his ways and his works, his conduct in Providence, and the course of it; and then he may be said to repent of the evil he threatened to do, or was doing, when he puts a stop to it; and instead of that bestows favours and blessings. (e) "secundum amplitudinem, seu multitudinem gratiarum suarum", Cocceius, Gejerus.

Verse 45

He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. He not only pitied them himself, but caused them to be pitied by others, even by their enemies; he has the hearts of all men in his hands, and can turn them as he pleases; as he sometimes turned their hearts to hate his people, Psa 105:25, so he turned them to pity them, as he promised he would when they turned to him, Ch2 30:9, so he did, by stirring up Cyrus to proclaim liberty to them, and his successors to encourage and assist in rebuilding their city and temple. , so he did, by stirring up Cyrus to proclaim liberty to them, and his successors to encourage and assist in rebuilding their city and temple. Psalms 106:47 psa 106:47 psa 106:47 psa 106:47Save us, O Lord our God,.... Here the psalmist represents the people in captivity, and represents them as praying for deliverance; as well knowing that none but God could save them: and a prayer of this nature, with respect to spiritual salvation, supposes danger, and a sense of it; that they are not able to save themselves, nor any creature able to save them; only the Lord, who is both willing and able; and of this kind is the prayer of faith. And gather us from among the Heathen; in Babylon, and other countries; See Gill on the title note "Ps 106:1". To give thanks unto thy holy name; bring us out of captivity to our own land, to Jerusalem, to the temple there to give thanks to thy holy name for the merciful deliverance of us; see Psa 122:4. And to triumph in thy praise; in thy salvation, in thy wondrous works, worthy of praise; or while praising thee: the word signifies to glory therein; and such who are sensible of the mercies they receive from the Lord will make their boast of him and them, and glory; see Psa 34:1.

Verse 46

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,.... God is to be blessed as the Father of mercies; as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and as the covenant God and Father of his people in him, of the true Israel of God: which is done by celebrating his blessedness in himself; by ascribing to him all blessedness enjoyed, as the author of it; and by giving him honour, glory, and blessing for it. From everlasting to everlasting; here and hereafter, in time and to all eternity; from this world to that which is to come, as the Targum; and which Arama observes are the days of the Messiah. And let all the people say, Amen; so be it; to giving thanks to God, to praising his name, and ascribing blessing to him. Praise ye the Lord; or "hallelujah"; so these two words, "Amen, hallelujah", are joined together in Rev 19:4. The psalm ends as it began; for though the greatest part of it is taken up in relating the sins of the people of Israel; yet as the Lord was merciful to them and forgave them, and notwithstanding bestowed great mercies on them, there was reason for praise and thanksgiving. Here ends the fourth part of the book of Psalms; the fifth part begins, with the following psalm. Next: Psalms Chapter 107

Verse 1

The Psalm begins with the liturgical call, which has not coined for the first time in the Maccabaean age (1 Macc. 4:24), but was already in use in Jeremiah's time (Psa 33:11). The lxx appropriately renders טּוב by χρηστός, for God is called "good" not so much in respect of His nature as of the revelation of His nature. The fulness of this revelation, says Psa 106:2 (like Psa 40:6), is inexhaustible. גּבוּרות are the manifestations of His all-conquering power which makes everything subservient to His redemptive purposes (Psa 20:7); and תּהלּה is the glory (praise or celebration) of His self-attestation in history. The proclaiming of these on the part of man can never be an exhaustive echo of them. In Psa 106:3 the poet tells what is the character of those who experience such manifestations of God; and to the assertion of the blessedness of these men he appends the petition in Psa 106:4, that God would grant him a share in the experiences of the whole nation which is the object of these manifestations. עמּך beside בּרצון is a genitive of the object: with the pleasure which Thou turnest towards Thy people, i.e., when Thou again (cf. Psa 106:47) showest Thyself gracious unto them. On פּקד cf. Psa 8:5; Psa 80:15, and on ראה ב, Jer 29:32; a similar Beth is that beside לשׂמח (at, on account of, not: in connection with), Psa 21:2; Psa 122:1. God's "inheritance" is His people; the name for them is varied four times, and thereby גּוי is also exceptionally brought into use, as in Zep 2:9.

Verse 6

The key-note of the vidduj, which is a settled expression since Kg1 8:47 (Dan 9:5, cf. Bar. 2:12), makes itself heard here in Psa 106:6; Israel is bearing at this time the punishment of its sins, by which it has made itself like its forefathers. In this needy and helpless condition the poet, who all along speaks as a member of the assembly, takes the way of the confession of sin, which leads to the forgiveness of sin and to the removal of the punishment of sin. רשׁע, Kg1 8:47, signifies to be, and the Hiph. to prove one's self to be, a רשׁע. עם in Psa 106:6 is equivalent to aeque ac, as in Ecc 2:16; Job 9:26. With Psa 106:7 the retrospect begins. The fathers contended with Moses and Aaron in Egypt (Exo 5:21), and gave no heed to the prospect of redemption (Exo 6:9). The miraculous judgments which Moses executed (Exo 3:20) had no more effect in bringing them to a right state of mind, and the abundant tokens of loving-kindness (Isa 63:7) amidst which God redeemed them made so little impression on their memories that they began to despair and to murmur even at the Red Sea (Exo 14:11.). With על, Psa 106:7, alternates בּ (as in Eze 10:15, בּנהר); cf. the alternation of prepositions in Joe 3:8. When they behaved thus, Jahve might have left their redemption unaccomplished, but out of unmerited mercy He nevertheless redeemed them. Psa 106:8-11 are closely dependent upon Ex. 14. Psa 106:11 is a transposition (cf. Psa 34:21; Isa 34:16) from Exo 14:28. On the other hand, Psa 106:9 is taken out of Isa 63:13 (cf. Wisd. 19:9); Isa. 63:7-64:12 is a prayer for redemption which has a similar ground-colouring. The sea through which they passed is called, as in the Tפra, ים־סוּף, which seems, according to Exo 2:3; Isa 19:3, to signify the sea of reed or sedge, although the sedge does not grow in the Red Sea itself, but only on the marshy places of the coast; but it can also signify the sea of sea-weed, mare algosum, after the Egyptian sippe, wool and sea-weed (just as Arab. ṣûf also signifies both these). The word is certainly Egyptian, whether it is to be referred back to the Egyptian word sippe (sea-weed) or seebe (sedge), and is therefore used after the manner of a proper name; so that the inference drawn by Knobel on Exo 8:18 from the absence of the article, that סוּף is the name of a town on the northern point of the gulf, is groundless. The miracle at the sea of sedge or sea-weed - as Psa 106:12 says - also was not without effect. Exo 14:31 tells us that they believed on Jahve and Moses His servant, and the song which they sang follows in Ex. 15. But they then only too quickly added sins of ingratitude.

Verse 13

The first of the principal sins on the other side of the Red Sea was the unthankful, impatient, unbelieving murmuring about their meat and drink, Psa 106:13-15. For what Psa 106:13 places foremost was the root of the whole evil, that, falling away from faith in God's promise, they forgot the works of God which had been wrought in confirmation of it, and did not wait for the carrying out of His counsel. The poet has before his eye the murmuring for water on the third day after the miraculous deliverance (Exo 15:22-24) and in Rephidim (Exo 17:2). Then the murmuring for flesh in the first and second years of the exodus which was followed by the sending of the quails (Ex. 16 and Num. 11), together with the wrathful judgment by which the murmuring for the second time was punished (Kibrôth ha-Ta'avah, Num 11:33-35). This dispensation of wrath the poet calls רזון (lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac erroneously πλησμονήν, perhaps מזון, nourishment), inasmuch as he interprets Num 11:33-35 of a wasting disease, which swept away the people in consequence of eating inordinately of the flesh, and in the expression (cf. Psa 78:31) he closely follows Isa 10:16. The "counsel" of God for which they would not wait, is His plan with respect to the time and manner of the help. חכּה, root Arab. ḥk, a weaker power of Arab. ḥq, whence also Arab. ḥkl, p. 111, ḥkm, p. 49 note 1, signifies prop. to make firm, e.g., a knot (cf. on Psa 33:20), and starting from this (without the intervention of the metaphor moras nectere, as Schultens thinks) is transferred to a firm bent of mind, and the tension of long expectation. The epigrammatic expression ויּתאוּוּ תאוה (plural of ויתאו, Isa 45:12, for which codices, as also in Pro 23:3, Pro 23:6; Pro 24:1, the Complutensian, Venetian 1521, Elias Levita, and Baer have ויתאו without the tonic lengthening) is taken from Num 11:4. The second principal sin was the insurrection against their superiors, Psa 106:16-18. The poet has Num 16:1 in his eye. The rebellious ones were swallowed up by the earth, and their two hundred and fifty noble, non-Levite partisans consumed by fire. The fact that the poet does not mention Korah among those who were swallowed up is in perfect harmony with Num 16:25., Deu 11:6; cf. however Num 26:10. The elliptical תפתּה in Psa 106:17 is explained from Num 16:32; Num 26:10. The third principal sin was the worship of the calf, Psa 106:19-23. The poet here glances back at Ex. 32, but not without at the same time having Deu 9:8-12 in his mind; for the expression "in Horeb" is Deuteronomic, e.g., Deu 4:15; Deu 5:2, and frequently. Psa 106:20 is also based upon the Book of Deuteronomy: they exchanged their glory, i.e., the God who was their distinction before all peoples according to Deu 4:6-8; Deu 10:21 (cf. also Jer 2:11), for the likeness (תּבנית) of a plough-ox (for this is pre-eminently called שׁוּר, in the dialects תּור), contrary to the prohibition in Deu 4:17. On Psa 106:21 cf. the warning in Deu 6:12. "Land of Cham" = Egypt, as in Psa 78:51; Psa 105:23, Psa 105:27. With ויאמר in Psa 106:23 the expression becomes again Deuteronomic: Deu 9:25, cf. Exo 32:10. God made and also expressed the resolve to destroy Israel. Then Moses stepped into the gap (before the gap), i.e., as it were covered the breach, inasmuch as he placed himself in it and exposed his own life; cf. on the fact, besides Ex. 32, also Deu 9:18., Psa 10:10, and on the expression, Eze 22:30 and also Jer 18:20.

Verse 24

The fact to which the poet refers in Psa 106:24, viz., the rebellion in consequence of the report of the spies, which he brings forward as the fourth principal sin, is narrated in Num 13, Num 14. The appellation ארץ חמדּה is also found in Jer 3:19; Zac 7:14. As to the rest, the expression is altogether Pentateuchal. "They despised the land," after Num 14:31; "they murmured in their tents," after Deu 1:27; "to lift up the land" = to swear, after Exo 6:8; Deu 32:40; the threat להפּיל, to make them fall down, fall away, after Num 14:29, Num 14:32. The threat of exile is founded upon the two great threatening chapters, Lev 26; Deu 28:1; cf. more particularly Lev 26:33 (together with the echoes in Eze 5:12; Eze 12:14, etc.), Deu 28:64 (together with the echoes in Jer 9:15; Eze 22:15, etc.). Eze 20:23 stands in a not accidental relationship to Psa 106:26.; and according to that passage, וּלהפיל is an error of the copyist for וּלהפיץ (Hitzig). Now follows in Psa 106:28-31 the fifth of the principal sins, viz., the taking part in the Moabitish worship of Baal. The verb נצמד (to be bound or chained), taken from Num 25:3, Num 25:5, points to the prostitution with which Baal Per, this Moabitish Priapus, was worshipped. The sacrificial feastings in which, according to Num 25:2, they took part, are called eating the sacrifices of the dead, because the idols are dead beings (nekroi', Wisd. 13:10-18) as opposed to God, the living One. The catena on Rev 2:14 correctly interprets: τὰ τοῖς εἰδώλοις τελεσθέντα κρέα. (Note: In the second section of Aboda zara, on the words of the Mishna: "The flesh which is intended to be offered first of all to idols is allowed, but that which comes out of the temple is forbidden, because it is like sacrifices of the dead," it is observed, fol. 32b: "Whence, said R. Jehuda ben Bethra, do I know that that which is offered to idols (תקרובת לעבדה זרה) pollutes like a dead body? From Psa 106:28. As the dead body pollutes everything that is under the same roof with it, so also does everything that is offered to idols." The Apostle Paul declares the objectivity of this pollution to be vain, cf. more particularly Co1 10:28.) The object of "they made angry" is omitted; the author is fond of this, cf. Psa 106:7 and Psa 106:32. The expression in Psa 106:29 is like Exo 19:24. The verb עמד is chosen with reference to Num 17:13. The result is expressed in Psa 106:30 after Num 25:8, Num 25:18., Num 17:13. With פּלּל, to adjust, to judge adjustingly (lxx, Vulgate, correctly according to the sense, ἐξιλάσατο), the poet associates the thought of the satisfaction due to divine right, which Phinehas executed with the javelin. This act of zeal for Jahve, which compensated for Israel's unfaithfulness, was accounted unto him for righteousness, by his being rewarded for it with the priesthood unto everlasting ages, Num 25:10-13. This accounting of a work for righteousness is only apparently contradictory to Gen 15:5.: it was indeed an act which sprang from a constancy in faith, and one which obtained for him the acceptation of a righteous man for the sake of this upon which it was based, by proving him to be such. In Psa 106:32, Psa 106:33 follows the sixth of the principal sins, viz., the insurrection against Moses and Aaron at the waters of strife in the fortieth year, in connection with which Moses forfeited the entrance with them into the Land of Promise (Num 20:11., Deu 1:37; Deu 32:51), since he suffered himself to be carried away by the persevering obstinacy of the people against the Spirit of God (המרה mostly providing the future for מרה, as in Psa 106:7, Psa 106:43, Psa 78:17, Psa 78:40, Psa 78:56, of obstinacy against God; on את־רוּחו cf. Isa 63:10) into uttering the words addressed to the people, Num 20:10, in which, as the smiting of the rock which was twice repeated shows, is expressed impatience together with a tinge of unbelief. The poet distinguishes, as does the narrative in Num. 20, between the obstinacy of the people and the transgression of Moses, which is there designated, according to that which lay at the root of it, as unbelief. The retrospective reference to Num 27:14 needs adjustment accordingly.

Verse 34

The sins in Canaan: the failing to exterminate the idolatrous peoples and sharing in their idolatry. In Psa 106:34 the poet appeals to the command, frequently enjoined upon them from Exo 23:32. onwards, to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan. Since they did not execute this command (vid., Jdg 1:1), that which it was intended to prevent came to pass: the heathen became to them a snare (mowqeesh), Exo 23:33; Exo 34:12; Deu 7:16. They intermarried with them, and fell into the Canaanitish custom in which the abominations of heathenism culminate, viz., the human sacrifice, which Jahve abhorreth (Deu 12:31), and only the demons (שׁדים, Deu 32:17) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood-guiltiness (חנף, Num 35:33, cf. Isa 24:5; Isa 26:21), and they themselves became unclean (Eze 20:43) by the whoredom of idolatry. In Psa 106:40-43 the poet (as in Neh 9:26.) sketches the alternation of apostasy, captivity, redemption, and relapse which followed upon the possession of Canaan, and more especially that which characterized the period of the judges. God's "counsel" was to make Israel free and glorious, but they leaned upon themselves, following their own intentions (בּעצתם); wherefore they perished in their sins. The poet uses מכך (to sink down, fall away) instead of the נמק (to moulder, rot) of the primary passage, Lev 26:39, retained in Eze 24:23; Eze 33:10, which is no blunder (Hitzig), but a deliberate change.

Verse 44

The poet's range of vision here widens from the time of the judges to the history of the whole of the succeeding age down to the present; for the whole history of Israel has essentially the same fundamental character, viz., that Israel's unfaithfulness does not annul God's faithfulness. That verifies itself even now. That which Solomon in Kg1 8:50 prays for on behalf of his people when they may be betrayed into the hands of the enemy, has been fulfilled in the case of the dispersion of Israel in all countries (Psa 107:3), Babylonia, Egypt, etc.: God has turned the hearts of their oppressors towards them. On ראה ב, to regard compassionately, cf. Gen 29:32; Sa1 1:11. בּצּר לחם belong together, as in Psa 107:6, and frequently. רנּה is a cry of lamentation, as in Kg1 8:28 in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. From this source comes Psa 106:6, and also from this source Psa 106:46, cf. Kg1 8:50 together with Neh 1:11. In ויּנּחם the drawing back of the tone does not take place, as in Gen 24:67. חסדו beside כּרב is not pointed by the Kerמ חסדּו, as in Psa 5:8; Psa 69:14, but as in Lam 3:32, according to Psa 106:7, Isa 63:7, חסדו: in accordance with the fulness (riches) of His manifold mercy or loving-kindness. The expression in Psa 106:46 is like Gen 43:14. Although the condition of the poet's fellow-countrymen in the dispersion may have been tolerable in itself, yet this involuntary scattering of the members of the nation is always a state of punishment. The poet prays in Psa 106:47 that God may be pleased to put an end to this.

Verse 47

He has now reached the goal, to which his whole Psalm struggles forth, by the way of self-accusation and the praise of the faithfulness of God. השׁתּבּח (found only here) is the reflexive of the Piel, to account happy, Ecc 4:2, therefore: in order that we may esteem ourselves happy to be able to praise Thee. In this reflexive (and also passive) sense השׁתבח is customary in Aramaic and post-biblical Hebrew.

Verse 48

The closing doxology of the Fourth Book. The chronicler has ואמרוּ before Psa 106:47 (which with him differs only very slightly), an indispensable rivet, so to speak, in the fitting together of Psa 106:1 (Psa 107:1) and Psa 106:47. The means this historian, who joins passages together like mosaic-work, calls to his aid are palpable enough. He has also taken over. Psa 106:48 by transforming and let all the people say Amen, Hallelujah! in accordance with his style (cf. Ch1 25:3; Ch2 5:13, and frequently, Ezr 3:11), into an historical clause: ויּאמרוּ כל־העם אמן והלּל ליהוה. Hitzig, by regarding the echoes of the Psalms in the chronicler as the originals of the corresponding Psalms in the Psalter, and consequently Ch1 16:36 as the original of the Beracha placed after our Psalm, reverses the true relation; vid., with reference to this point, Riehm in the Theolog. Literat. Blatt, 1866, No. 30, and Kצhler in the Luther. Zeitschrift, 1867, S. 297ff. The priority of Ps 106 is clear from the fact that Psa 106:1 gives a liturgical key-note that was in use even in Jeremiah's time (Psa 33:11), and that Psa 106:47 reverts to the tephilla-style of the introit, Psa 106:4. And the priority of Psa 106:48 as a concluding formula of the Fourth Book is clear from the fact that is has been fashioned, like that of the Second Book (Psa 72:18.), under the influence of the foregoing Psalm. The Hallelujah is an echo of the Hallelujah-Psalm, just as there the Jahve Elohim is an echo of the Elohim-Psalm. And "let all the people say Amen" is the same closing thought as in Psa 106:6 of Ps, which is made into the closing doxology of the whole Psalter. Ἀμὴν ἀλληλούΐα together (Rev 19:4) is a laudatory confirmation.

Verse 1

We are here taught, I. To bless God (Psa 106:1, Psa 106:2): Praise you the Lord, that is, 1. Give him thanks for his goodness, the manifestation of it to us, and the many instances of it. He is good and his mercy endures for ever; let us therefore own our obligations to him and make him a return of our best affections and services. 2. Give him the glory of his greatness, his mighty acts, proofs of his almighty power, wherein he has done great things, and such as would be opposed. Who can utter these? Who is worthy to do it? Who is able to do it? They are so many that they cannot be numbered, so mysterious that they cannot be described; when we have said the most we can of the mighty acts of the Lord, the one half is not told; still there is more to be said; it is a subject that cannot be exhausted. We must show forth his praise; we may show forth some of it, but who can show forth all? Not the angels themselves. This will not excuse us in not doing what we can, but should quicken us to do all we can. II. To bless the people of God, to call and account them happy (Psa 106:3): Those that keep judgment are blessed, for they are fit to be employed in praising God. God's people are those whose principles are sound - They keep judgment (they adhere to the rules of wisdom and religion, and their practices are agreeable); they do righteousness, are just to God and to all men, and herein they are steady and constant; they do it at all times, in all manner of conversation, at every turn, in every instance, and herein persevering to the end. III. To bless ourselves in the favour of God, to place our happiness in it, and to seek it, accordingly, with all seriousness, as the psalmist here, Psa 106:4, Psa 106:5. 1. He has an eye to the lovingkindness of God, as the fountain of all happiness: "Remember me, O Lord! to give me that mercy and grace which I stand in need of, with the favour which thou bearest to thy people." As there are a people in the world who are in a peculiar manner God's people, so there is a peculiar favour which God bears to that people, which all gracious souls desire an interest in; and we need desire no more to make us happy. 2. He has an eye to the salvation of God, the great salvation, that of the soul, as the foundation of happiness: O visit me with thy salvation. "Afford me (says Dr. Hammond) that pardon and that grace which I stand in need of, and can hope for from none but thee." Let that salvation be my portion for ever, and the pledges of it my present comfort. 3. He has an eye to the blessedness of the righteous, as that which includes all good (Psa 106:5): "That I may see the good of thy chosen and be as happy as the saints are; and happier I do not desire to be." God's people are here called his chosen, his nation, his inheritance; for he has set them apart for himself, incorporated them under his own government, is served by them and glorified in them. The chosen people of God have a good which is peculiar to them, which is the matter both of their gladness and of their glorying, which is their pleasure, and their praise. God's people have reason to be a cheerful people, and to boast in their God all the day long; and those who have that gladness, that glory, need not envy any of the children of men their pleasure or pride. The gladness of God's nation, and the glory of his inheritance, are enough to satisfy any man; for they have everlasting joy and glory at the end of them.

Verse 6

Here begins a penitential confession of sin, which was in a special manner seasonable now that the church was in distress; for thus we must justify God in all that he brings upon us, acknowledging that therefore he has done right, because we have done wickedly; and the remembrance of former sins, notwithstanding which God did not cast off his people, is an encouragement to us to hope that, though we are justly corrected for our sins, yet we shall not be utterly abandoned. I. God's afflicted people here own themselves guilty before God (Psa 106:6): "We have sinned with our fathers, that is, like our fathers, after the similitude of their transgression. We have added to the stock of hereditary guilt, and filled up the measure of our fathers' iniquity, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord," Num 32:14; Mat 23:32. And see how they lay a load upon themselves, as becomes penitents: "We have committed iniquity, that which is in its own nature sinful, and we have done wickedly; we have sinned with a high hand presumptuously." Or this is a confession, not only of their imitation of, but their interest in, their fathers' sins: We have sinned with our fathers, for we were in their loins and we bear their iniquity, Lam 5:7. II. They bewail the sins of their fathers when they were first formed into a people, which, since children often smart for, they are concerned to sorrow for, even further than to the third and fourth generation. Even we now ought to take occasion from the history of Israel's rebellions to lament the depravity and perverseness of man's nature and its unaptness to be amended by the most probable means. Observe here, 1. The strange stupidity of Israel in the midst of the favours God bestowed upon them (Psa 106:7): They understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They saw them, but they did not rightly apprehend the meaning and design of them. Blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have understood. They thought the plagues of Egypt were intended for their deliverance, whereas they were intended also for their instruction and conviction, not only to force them out of their Egyptian slavery, but to cure them of their inclination to Egyptian idolatry, by evidencing the sovereign power and dominion of the God of Israel, above all gods, and his particular concern for them. We lose the benefit of providences for want of understanding them. And, as their understandings were dull, so their memories were treacherous; though one would think such astonishing events should never have been forgotten, yet they remembered them not, at least they remembered not the multitude of God's mercies in them. Therefore God is distrusted because his favours are not remembered. 2. Their perverseness arising from this stupidity: They provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. The provocation was, despair of deliverance (because the danger was great) and wishing they had been left in Egypt still, Exo 14:11, Exo 14:12. Quarrelling with God's providence, and questioning his power, goodness, and faithfulness, are as great provocations to him as any whatsoever. The place aggravated the crime; it was at the sea, at the Red Sea, when they had newly come out of Egypt and the wonders God had wrought for them were fresh in their minds; yet they reproach him, as if all that power had no mercy in it, but he had brought them out of Egypt on purpose to kill them in the wilderness. They never lay at God's mercy so immediately as in their passage through the Red Sea, yet there they affront it, and provoke his wrath. 3. The great salvation God wrought for them notwithstanding their provocations, Psa 106:8-11. (1.) He forced a passage for them through the sea: He rebuked the Red Sea for standing in their way and retarding their march, and it was dried up immediately; as, in the creation, at God's rebuke the waters fled, Psa 104:7. Nay, he not only prepared them a way, but, by the pillar of cloud and fire, he led them into the sea, and, by the conduct of Moses, led them through it as readily as through the wilderness. He encouraged them to take those steps, and subdued their fears, when those were their most dangerous and threatening enemies. See Isa 63:12-14. (2.) He interposed between them and their pursuers, and prevented them from cutting them off, as they designed. The Israelites were all on foot, and the Egyptians had all of them chariots and horses, with which they were likely to overtake them quickly, but God saved them from the hand of him that hated them, namely, Pharaoh, who never loved them, but now hated them the more for the plagues he had suffered on their account. From the hand of his enemy, who was just ready to seize them, God redeemed them (Psa 106:10), interposing himself, as it were, in the pillar of fire, between the persecuted and the persecutors. (3.) To complete the mercy, and turn the deliverance into a victory, the Red Sea, which was a lane to them, was a grave to the Egyptians (Psa 106:11): The waters covered their enemies, so as to slay them, but not so as to conceal their shame; for, the next tide, they were thrown up dead upon the shore, Exo 14:30. There was not one of them left alive, to bring tidings of what had become of the rest. And why did God do this for them? Nay, why did he not cover them, as he did their enemies, for their unbelief and murmuring? He tells us (Psa 106:8): it was for his name's sake. Though they did not deserve this favour, he designed it; and their undeservings should not alter his designs, nor break his measures, nor make him withdraw his promise, or fail in the performance of it. He did this for his own glory, that he might make his mighty power to be known, not only in dividing the sea, but in doing it notwithstanding their provocations. Moses prays (Num 14:17, Num 14:19), Let the power of my Lord be great and pardon the iniquity of this people. The power of the God of grace in pardoning sin and sparing sinners is as much to be admired as the power of the God of nature in dividing the waters. 4. The good impression this made upon them for the present (Psa 106:12): Then believed they his words, and acknowledged that God was with them of a truth, and had, in mercy to them, brought them out of Egypt, and not with any design to slay them in the wilderness; then they feared the Lord and his servant Moses, Exo 14:31. Then they sang his praise, in that song of Moses penned on this great occasion, Exo 15:1. See in what a gracious and merciful way God sometimes silences the unbelief of his people, and turns their fears into praises; and so it is written, Those that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and those that murmured shall learn doctrine, Isa 29:24.

Verse 13

This is an abridgment of the history of Israel's provocations in the wilderness, and of the wrath of God against them for those provocations: and this abridgment is abridged by the apostle, with application to us Christians (Co1 10:5, etc.); for these things were written for our admonition, that we sin not like them, lest we suffer like them. I. The cause of their sin was disregard to the works and word of God, Psa 106:13. 1. They minded not what he had done for them: They soon forgot his works, and lost the impressions they had made upon them. Those that do not improve God's mercies to them, nor endeavour in some measure to render according to the benefit done unto them, do indeed forget them. This people soon forgot them (God took notice of this, Exo 32:8, They have turned aside quickly): They made haste, they forgot his works (so it is in the margin), which some make to be two separate instances of their sin. They made haste; their expectations anticipated God's promises; they expected to be in Canaan shortly, and because they were not they questioned whether they should ever be there and quarrelled with all the difficulties they met with in their way; whereas he that believeth does not make haste, Isa 28:16. And, withal, they forgot his works, which were the undeniable evidences of his wisdom, power, and goodness, and denied the conclusion as confidently as if they had never seen the premises proved. This is mentioned again (Psa 106:21, Psa 106:22): They forgot God their Saviour; that is, they forgot that he had been their Saviour. Those that forget the works of God forget God himself, who makes himself known by his works. They forgot what was done but a few days before, which we may suppose they could not but talk of, even then, when, because they did not make a good use of it, they are said to forget it: it was what God did for them in Egypt, in the land of Ham, and by the Red Sea, things which we at this distance cannot, or should not, be unmindful of. They are called great things (for, though the great God does nothing mean, yet he does some things that are in a special manner great), wondrous works, out of the common road of Providence, therefore observable, therefore memorable, and terrible things, awful to them, and dreadful to their enemies, and yet soon forgotten. Even miracles that were seen passed away with them as tales that are told. 2. They minded not what God had said to them nor would they depend upon it: They waited not for his counsel, did not attend his word, though they had Moses to be his mouth to them; they took up resolves about which they did not consult him and made demands without calling upon him. They would be in Canaan directly, and had not patience to tarry God's time. The delay was intolerable, and therefore the difficulties were looked upon as insuperable. This is explained (Psa 106:24): They believed not his word, his promise that he would make them masters of Canaan; and (Psa 106:25), They hearkened not to the voice of the Lord, who gave them counsel which they would not wait for, not only by Moses and Aaron, but by Caleb and Joshua, Num 14:6, Num 14:7, etc. Those that will not wait for God's counsel shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. II. Many of their sins are here mentioned, together with the tokens of God's displeasure which they fell under for those sins. 1. They would have flesh, and yet would not believe that God could give it to them (Psa 106:14): They lusted a lust (so the word is) in the wilderness; there, where they had bread enough and to spare, yet nothing would serve them but they must have flesh to eat. They were now purely at God's finding, being supported entirely by miracles, so that this was a reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. They were also, in all probability, within a step of Canaan, yet had not patience to stay for dainties till they came thither. They had flocks and herds of their own, but they will not kill them; God must give them flesh as he gave them bread, or they will never give him credit, or their good word. They did not only wish for flesh, but they lusted exceedingly after it. A desire, even of lawful things, when it is inordinate and violent, becomes sinful; and therefore this is called lusting after evil things (Co1 10:6), though the quails, as God's gift, were good things, and were so spoken of, Psa 105:40. Yet this was not all: They tempted God in the desert, where they had had such experience of his goodness and power, and questioned whether he could and would gratify them herein. See Psa 78:19, Psa 78:20. Now how did God show his displeasure against them for this. We are told how (Psa 106:15): He gave them their request, but gave it them in anger, and with a curse, for he sent leanness into their soul; he filled them with uneasiness of mind, and terror of conscience, and a self-reproach, occasioned by their bodies being sick with the surfeit, such as sometimes drunkards experience after a great debauch. Or this is put for that great plague with which the Lord smote them, while the flesh was yet between their teeth, as we read, Num 11:33. It was the consumption of the life. Note, (1.) What is asked in passion is often given in wrath. (2.) Many that fare deliciously every day, and whose bodies are healthful and fat, have, at the same time, leanness in their souls, no love to God, no thankfulness, no appetite to the bread of life, and then the soul must needs be lean. Those wretchedly forget themselves that feast their bodies and starve their souls. Then God gives the good things of this life in love, when with them he gives grace to glorify him in the use of them; for then the soul delights itself in fatness, Isa 55:2. 2. They quarrelled with the government which God had set over them both in church and state (Psa 106:16): They envied Moses his authority in the camp, as generalissimo of the armies of Israel and chief justice in all their courts; they envied Aaron his power, as saint of the Lord, consecrated to the office of high priest, and Korah would needs put in for the pontificate, while Dathan and Abiram, as princes of the tribe of Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, would claim to be chief magistrates, by the so-much-admired right of primogeniture. Note, Those are preparing ruin for themselves who envy those whom God has put honour upon and usurp the dignities they were never designed for. And justly will contempt be poured upon those who put contempt upon any of the saints of the Lord. How did God show his displeasure for this? We are told how, and it is enough to make us tremble (Psa 106:17, Psa 106:18); we have the story, Num 16:32, Num 16:35. (1.) Those that flew in the face of the civil authority were punished by the earth, which opened and swallowed them up, as not fit to go upon God's ground, because they would not submit to God's government. (2.) Those that would usurp the ecclesiastical authority in things pertaining to God suffered the vengeance of heaven, for fire came out from the Lord and consumed them, and the pretending sacrificers were themselves sacrificed to divine justice. The flame burnt up the wicked; for though they vied with Aaron, the saint of the Lord, for holiness (Num 16:3, Num 16:5), yet God adjudged them wicked, and as such cut them off, as in due time he will destroy the man of sin, that wicked one, notwithstanding his proud pretensions to holiness. 3. They made and worshipped the golden calf, and this in Horeb, where the law was given, and where God had expressly said, Thou shalt neither make any graven image nor bow down to it; they did both: They made a calf and worshipped it, Psa 106:19. (1.) Herein they bade defiance to, and put an affront upon, the two great lights which God has made to rule the moral world: - [1.] That of human reason; for they changed their glory, their God, at least the manifestation of him, which always had been in a cloud (either a dark cloud or a bright one), without any manner of visible similitude, into the similitude of Apis, one of the Egyptian idols, an ox that eateth grass, than which nothing could be more grossly and scandalously absurd, Psa 106:20. Idolaters are perfectly besotted, and put the greatest disparagement possible both upon God, in representing him by the image of a beast, and upon themselves, in worshipping it when they have so done. That which is here said to be the changing of their glory is explained by St. Paul (Rom 1:23) to be the changing of the glory of the incorruptible God. [2.] That of divine revelation, which was afforded to them, not only in the words God spoke to them, but in the works he wrought for them, wondrous works, which declared aloud that the Lord Jehovah is the only true and living God and is alone to be worshipped, Psa 106:21, Psa 106:22. (2.) For this God showed his displeasure by declaring the decree that he would cut them off from being a people, as they had, as far as lay in their power, in effect cut him off from being a God; he spoke of destroying them (Psa 106:23), and certainly he would have done it if Moses, his chosen, had not stood before him in the breach (Psa 106:23), if he had not seasonably interposed to deal with God as an advocate about the breach or ruin God was about to devote them to and wonderfully prevailed to turn away his wrath. See here the mercy of God, and how easily his anger is turned away, even from a provoking people. See the power of prayer, and the interest which God's chosen have in heaven. See a type of Christ, God's chosen, his elect, in whom his soul delights, who stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath from a provoking world, and ever lives, for this end, making intercession. 4. They gave credit to the report of the evil spies concerning the land of Canaan, in contradiction to the promise of God (Psa 106:24): They despised the pleasant land. Canaan was a pleasant land, Deu 8:7. They undervalued it when they thought it not worth venturing for, no, not under the guidance of God himself, and therefore were for making a captain and returning to Egypt again. They believed not God's word concerning it, but murmured in their tents, basely charging God with a design upon them in bringing them thither that they might become a prey to the Canaanites, Num 14:2, Num 14:3. And, when they were reminded of God's power and promise, they were so far from hearkening to that voice of the Lord that they attempted to stone those who spoke to them, Num 14:10. The heavenly Canaan is a pleasant land. A promise is left us of entering into it; but there are many that despise it, that neglect and refuse the offer of it, that prefer the wealth and pleasure of this world before it, and grudge the pains and hazards of this life to obtain that. This also was so displeasing to God that he lifted up his hand against them, in a way of threatening, to destroy them in the wilderness; nay, in a way of swearing, for he swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest (Psa 95:11; Num 14:28); nay, and he threatened that their children also should be overthrown and scattered (Psa 106:26, Psa 106:27), and the whole nation dispersed and disinherited; but Moses prevailed for mercy for their seed, that they might enter Canaan. Note, Those who despise God's favours, and particularly the pleasant land, forfeit his favours, and will be shut out for ever from the pleasant land. 5. They were guilty of a great sin in the matter of Peor; and this was the sin of the new generation, when they were within a step of Canaan (Psa 106:28): They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and so were entangled both in idolatry and in adultery, in corporeal and in spiritual whoredom, Num 25:1-3. Those that did often partake of the altar of the living God now ate the sacrifices of the dead, of the idols of Moab (that were dead images, or dead men canonized or deified), or sacrifices to the infernal deities on the behalf of their dead friends. Thus they provoked God to anger with their inventions (Psa 106:29), in contempt of him and his institutions, his commands, and his threatenings. The iniquity of Peor was so great that, long after, it is said, They were not cleansed from it, Jos 22:17. God testified his displeasure at this, (1.) By sending a plague among them, which in a little time swept away 24,000 of those impudent sinners. (2.) By stirring up Phinehas to use his power as a magistrate for the suppressing of the sin and checking the contagion of it. He stood up in his zeal for the Lord of hosts, and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi, sinners of the first rank, genteel sinners; he put the law in execution upon them, and this was a service so pleasing to God that upon it the plague was stayed, Psa 106:30. By this, and some other similar acts of public justice on that occasion (Num 25:4, Num 25:5), the guilt ceased to be national, and the general controversy was let fall. When the proper officers did their duty God left it to them, and did not any longer keep the work in his own hands by the plague. Note, National justice prevents national judgments. But, Phinehas herein signalizing himself, a special mark of honour was put upon him, for what he did was counted to him for righteousness to all generations (Psa 106:31), and, in recompence of it, the priesthood was entailed on his family. He shall make an atonement by offering up the sacrifices, who had so bravely made an atonement (so some read it, Psa 106:30) by offering up the sinners. Note, It is the honour of saints to be zealous against sin. 6. They continued their murmurings to the very last of their wanderings; for in the fortieth year they angered God at the waters of strife (Psa 106:32), which refers to that story, Num 20:3-5. And that which aggravated it now was that it went ill with Moses for their sakes; for, though he was the meekest of all the men in the earth, yet their clamours at that time were so peevish and provoking that they put him into a passion, and, having now grown very old and off his guard, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips (Psa 106:33), and not as became him on that occasion; for he said in a heat, Hear now, you rebels, must we fetch water out of this rock for you? This was Moses's infirmity, and is written for our admonition, that we may learn, when we are in the midst of provocation, to keep our mouth as with a bridle (Psa 39:1-3), and to take heed to our spirits, that they admit not resentments too much; for, when the spirit is provoked, it is much ado, even for those that have a great deal of wisdom and grace, not to speak unadvisedly. But it is charged upon the people as their sin: They provoked his spirit with that with which they angered God himself. Note, We must answer not only for our own passions, but for the provocation which by them we give to the passions of others, especially of those who, if not greatly provoked, would be meek and quiet. God shows his displeasure against this sin of theirs by shutting Moses and Aaron out of Canaan for their misconduct upon this occasion, by which, (1.) God discovered his resentment of all such intemperate heats, even in the dearest of his servants. If he deals thus severely with Moses for one unadvised word, what does their sin deserve who have spoken so many presumptuous wicked words? If this was done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (2.) God deprived them of the blessing of Moses's guidance and government at a time when they most needed it, so that his death was more a punishment to them than to himself. It is just with God to remove those relations from us that are blessings to us, when we are peevish and provoking to them and grieve their spirits.

Verse 34

Here, I. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel's conduct in Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the wilderness, and God's dealings with them, wherein, as all along, both justice and mercy appeared. 1. They were very provoking to God. The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon them than those which fetched them out of Egypt; for by the time they were just settled in Canaan they corrupted themselves, and forsook God. Observe, (1.) The steps of their apostasy. [1.] They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (Psa 106:34); when they had got the good land God had promised them they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity; but so merciful is God that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he. [2.] When they spared them they promised themselves that, notwithstanding this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with them. But the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen the next news we hear is, They were mingled among the heathen, made leagues with them and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned their works, Psa 106:35. That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that which is sound than be cured or made sound by it. [3.] When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would never join with them in their worship; but by degrees they learned that too (Psa 106:36): They served their idols in the same manner, and with the same rites, that they served them; and they became a snare to them. That sin drew on many more, and brought the judgments of God upon them, which they themselves could not but be sensible of and yet knew not how to recover themselves. [4.] When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should be guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry the sacrificing of their living children to their dead gods; but they came to that at last (Psa 106:37, Psa 106:38), in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself in blood and slaughter: They sacrificed their sons and daughters, pieces of themselves, to devils, and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to their idolatry; one cannot think of it without horror. They shed innocent blood, the most innocent, for it was infant-blood, nay, it was the blood of their sons and their daughters. See the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice. The beginning of idolatry and superstition, like that of strife, is as the letting forth of water, and there is no villany which those that venture upon it can be sure they shall stop short of, for God justly gives them up to a reprobate mind, Rom 1:28. (2.) Their sin was, in part, their own punishment; for by it, [1.] They wronged their country: The land was polluted with blood, Psa 106:38. That pleasant land, that holy land, was rendered uncomfortable to themselves, and unfit to receive those kind tokens of God's favour and presence in it which were designed to be its honour. [2.] They wronged their consciences (Psa 106:39): They went a whoring with their own inventions, and so debauched their own minds, and were defiled with their own works, and rendered odious in the eyes of the holy God, and perhaps of their own consciences. 2. God brought his judgments upon them; and what else could be expected? For his name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God. (1.) He fell out with them for it, Psa 106:40. He was angry with them: The wrath of God, that consuming fire, was kindled against his people; for from them he took it as more insulting and ungrateful than from the heathen that never knew him. Nay, he was sick of them: He abhorred his own inheritance, which once he had taken pleasure in; yet the change was not in him, but in them. This is the worst thing in sin, that it makes us loathsome to God; and the nearer any are to God in profession the more loathsome are they if they rebel against him, like a dunghill at our door. (2.) Their enemies then fell upon them, and, their defence having departed, made an easy prey of them (Psa 106:41, Psa 106:42): He gave them into the hands of the heathen. Observe here how the punishment answered to the sin: They mingled with the heathen and learned their works; from them they willingly took the infection of sin, and therefore God justly made use of them as the instruments of their correction. Sinners often see themselves ruined by those by whom they have suffered themselves to be debauched. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a tormentor. The heathen hated them. Apostates lose all the love on God's side, and get none on Satan's; and when those that hated them ruled over them, and they were brought into subjection under them, no marvel that they oppressed them and ruled them with rigour; and thus God made them know the difference between his service and the service of the kings of the countries, Ch2 12:8. (3.) When God granted them some relief, yet they went on in their sins, and their troubles also were continued, Psa 106:43. This refers to the days of the Judges, when God often raised up deliverers and wrought deliverances for them, and yet they relapsed to idolatry and provoked God with their counsel, their idolatrous inventions, to deliver them up to some other oppressor, so that at last they were brought very low for their iniquity. Those that by sin disparage themselves, and will not by repentance humble themselves, are justly debased, and humbled, and brought low, by the judgments of God. (4.) At length they cried unto God, and God returned in favour to them, Psa 106:44-46. They were chastened for their sins, but not destroyed, cast down, but not cast off. God appeared for them, [1.] As a God of mercy, who looked upon their grievances, regarded their affliction, beheld when distress was upon them (so some), who looked over their complaints, for he heard their cry with tender compassion (Exo 3:7) and overlooked their provocations; for though he had said, and had reason to say it, that he would destroy them, yet he repented, according to the multitude of his mercies, and reversed the sentence. Though he is not a man that he should repent, so as to change his mind, yet he is a gracious God, who pities us, and changes his way. [2.] As a God of truth, who remembered for them his covenant, and made good every word that he had spoken; and therefore, bad as they were, he would not break with them, because he would not break his own promise. [3.] As a God of power, who has all hearts in his hand, and turns them which way soever he pleases. He made them to be pitied even of those that carried them captives, and hated them, and ruled them with rigour. He not only restrained the remainder of their enemies' wrath, that it should not utterly consume them, but he infused compassion even into their stony hearts, and made them relent, which was more than any art of man could have done with the utmost force of rhetoric. Note, God can change lions into lambs, and, when a man's ways please the Lord, will make even his enemies to pity him and be at peace with him. When God pities men shall. Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia - A God at peace with us makes every thing at peace. II. The psalm concludes with prayer and praise. 1. Prayer for the completing of his people's deliverance. Even when the Lord brought back the captivity of his people still there was occasion to pray, Lord, turn again our captivity (Psa 126:1, Psa 126:4); so here (Psa 106:47), Save us, O Lord our God! and gather us from among the heathen. We may suppose that many who were forced into foreign countries, in the times of the Judges (as Naomi was, Rut 1:1), had not returned in the beginning of David's reign, Saul's time being discouraging, and therefore it was seasonable to pray, Lord, gather the dispersed Israelites from among the heathen, to give thanks to thy holy name, not only that they may have cause to give thanks and hearts to give thanks, that they may have opportunity to do it in the courts of the Lord's house, from which they were now banished, and so may triumph in thy praise, over those that had in scorn challenged them to sing the Lord's song in a strange land. 2. Praise for the beginning and progress of it (Psa 106:48): Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. He is a blessed God from eternity, and will be so to eternity, and so let him be praised by all his worshippers. Let the priests say this, and then let all the people say, Amen, Hallelujah, in token of their cheerful concurrence in all these prayers, praises, and confessions. According to this rubric, or directory, we find that when this psalm (or at least the closing verses of it) was sung all the people said Amen, and praised the Lord by saying, Hallelujah. By these two comprehensive words it is very proper, in religious assemblies, to testify their joining with their ministers in the prayers and praises which, as their mouth, they offer up to God, according to his will, saying Amen to the prayers and Hallelujah to the praises.

Verse 1

Ps 106 The Israelite community in exile confessed the Lord’s goodness and justice and their own historic sinfulness. From the humble state of exile, they pleaded for redemption and restoration, asking to be gathered back from all the places the Lord had scattered them in his wrath. The psalm does not end in despair but with the memory of the Lord’s former mercy and the hope that his mercy will be renewed (106:44-48). Israel failed, but the Lord is constant. • Verses 1, 47-48 (along with Pss 96; 105:1-15) are included in David’s song of praise recorded in 1 Chr 16:1-43.

106:1 Praise the Lord! This refrain (Hebrew haleluyah) characterizes four small subgroups in the psalms: 104–106, 111–113, 115–117, 146–150.

Verse 2

106:2-3 Wise people who practice justice and righteousness receive encouragement to proclaim the Lord’s great acts.

Verse 4

106:4-5 The poet prays individually for the Lord’s favor before leading the community confession that follows.

Verse 6

106:6-13 The community joins together to confess their sins and their ancestors’ many acts of unbelief.

106:6 The story of Israel’s redemption encompasses their sinful response from the days of the ancestors to the present (106:43). The themes of sin and divine wrath both open and close Book Four (90:1-9; 106:6, 23, 43).

Verse 9

106:9 Red Sea: See Exod 14:15-31.

Verse 13

106:13 They wouldn’t wait: God’s impatient people did not trust him to work according to his will (e.g., see Exod 15:24; 16:2-3; 17:1-3; Num 14:26-45; 21:4-9).

Verse 15

106:15 he sent a plague: See Exod 32:35; Num 11:33.

Verse 16

106:16-18 The people became jealous because they presumed to have the same privileges as God’s appointed priests (see Num 16:1-35). • the earth opened up: See Num 16:28-33.

Verse 19

106:19-23 they bowed before an image: The people forgot their Savior and committed the sin of idolatry (see Exod 32:1-6).

Verse 22

106:22 The land of Ham here means Egypt (106:21).

Verse 24

106:24-25 The people disobeyed God’s command when they refused to enter the pleasant land (the Promised Land; see Jer 3:19). • they wouldn’t believe his promise: See Num 13:25–14:12.

Verse 26

106:26-27 God’s judgment when Israel refused to obey was death and exile (Num 14:26-30). The occasion for these severe judgments seems to have been disobeying God’s word (Ps 106:24-25) and provoking the Lord’s wrath (106:28-46).

Verse 28

106:28-39 Israel’s idolatry outside of the land came with them into the land. Their nature did not change; they continued to provoke the Lord to anger by their actions.

106:28 the worship of Baal at Peor: See Num 25:3; Deut 4:3.

Verse 30

106:30-33 Phinehas, who executed a flagrantly apostate Israelite man (Num 25:3-8), is an even better model of a righteous man than Moses, who failed at Meribah (Num 20:11-13).

Verse 34

106:34 Israel continued to disobey the word of the Lord while living in the Promised Land. Rather than destroying the nations, Israel accepted them and their ways (see Judg 2:1-3, 11-15; 3:5-6).

Verse 37

106:37 Pagan gods were demons (see Deut 32:17).

Verse 39

106:39 Idolatry, like adultery, defiles God’s people (see Lev 18:24; Hos 5:3).

Verse 40

106:40-46 The psalmist returns to the Babylonian exile (106:26-27). The Lord judged Israel severely, but he also restrained his wrath, remembering the covenant he had made with Abraham.

106:40 God abhorred Israel’s sin, as he does all sin.

Verse 43

106:43-44 When Israel was finally destroyed, the destruction was not complete. The Lord pitied them, so he left a remnant.

Verse 45

106:45 He remembered . . . and relented: Unlike Israel, the Lord is faithful to his covenant (105:8).

Verse 46

106:46 As harsh as the Exile was, the Lord still protected his people (see 2 Kgs 25:27-29).

Verse 47

106:47 Gather us back: The community prays for restoration from exile (see 102:19-22; 107:3; see also Isa 11:12; 40:11; 43:5; 54:7; 56:8; 66:18).

Verse 48

106:48 This doxology concludes Book Four (cp. 41:13; 89:52). • from everlasting to everlasting! The reference to God’s eternal nature links to the opening of Book Four (90:1-2). • Let all the people say, “Amen!”: The Hebrew word ’amen means “It is true.” The godly accept the Lord’s will in exile and his promise to be their God.